Balance and Preventing Falls for Senior Citizens

Mike and Joyce speak with Bharti Sharma, a physical therapist in North Carolina. 

One Source Rehab in Forest City, NC, is an outpatient rehabilitation provider for Rutherford Regional Health System, a small community hospital in Rutherford County, a primarily rural county in western North Carolina with a population of just over 66 thousand people. Rutherford Regional has an excellent nurse navigator program and is accredited by the Commission on Cancer; it is one of the smallest hospitals in the country with these programs.

Earlier this month Bharti gave an excellent presentation on things that impair our ability to stay balanced and increase our risk of falls, as well as some simple exercises designed to address the most common problems. Earlier this year Dr. Gwen Bergen spoke with us on the Powerful Patient about The Cost of Falling Among Older Adults focusing on the cost and burden to the healthcare system.

Our interview with Bharti will focus on prevention, and allow our listeners to learn about simple exercises that can be done by almost everyone using a chair or countertop to aid in stabilizing the body during the exercises. The exercises that Bharti will present can be found online.  Go to www.my-exercise-code.com and enter code AAMN53D in the box on that page.

Our thanks to One Source Rehab and Rutherford Hospital for sharing Bharti's time and expertise with us all.