What Does It Mean When Someone Keeps Falling Down Backwards An Keeps Getting Dizzy

We shouldn't accept falls as a normal part of getting older. It's true that as nosotros age our chances of having a fall increase, but falls are caused by a number of risk factors that can affect a person of whatever age.

What is a risk factor?

A risk factor is something that increases your chances of developing a problem, disease or injury. Take a chance factors relating to your health and wellbeing, activities and surroundings tin contribute to a fall.

Although hazards within the home often contribute to a fall, more often than not falls are acquired past personal risk factors.

Gamble factors for falls

Falls are usually caused by an interaction of a number of adventure factors. The more chance factors you have, the greater your risk of falling. Falls prevention is about recognising, and where possible, taking activeness to reduce the take chances.

If you experience whatsoever, or a combination, of the post-obit you could exist at an increased run a risk:

weak muscles, particularly in the legs
poor balance, causing unsteadiness on your anxiety
dizziness or lightheadedness
black outs, fainting or loss of consciousness
foot bug – including pain and deformities
retention loss, confusion or difficulties with thinking or problem solving
vision and hearing problems
taking medication that makes you featherbrained or drowsy
drinking too much booze, especially with medication
some float or bowel weather

Weak muscles

Our muscles gradually get weaker as we get older, affecting our strength and balance and making it more than difficult to undertake daily activities.

As well as normal changes caused by ageing, in that location are a number of reasons why our muscles get weaker, including:

lack of physical action and exercise
atmospheric condition similar arthritis and polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR)

Poor balance

A number of things can cause poor balance, including:

weak muscles
wellness weather condition – such as stroke and Parkinson'south disease
the side effects of some medications

Dizziness can also affect balance.

Discover out how to improve your balance and muscle strength

Dizziness or lightheadedness

There are a number of reasons why someone might be light-headed or airheaded. It's non unremarkably a sign of anything serious, simply should exist checked out by a doctor.

Agreement why you go dizzy is important to countering the risk. Some of the most common causes include:

postural hypotension (orthostatic hypotension) – a drop in blood pressure when getting upward from lying or sitting. This can be caused by dehydration, ageing apportionment, medical weather such as Parkinson's disease and heart conditions and some medications used to treat loftier blood pressure
inner ear issues – such equally labyrinthitis or beneficial paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV)
problems with your eye rate or rhythm
dehydration

Blackness outs, fainting or loss of consciousness

If you're prone to black outs, fainting or losing consciousness, you're at a loftier risk of having a fall. Loss of consciousness can be caused by a number of things, including problems with your heart rate and rhythm caused by conditions like:

bradycardia (slow heart charge per unit)
tachycardia (rapid eye charge per unit)
atrial fibrillation (irregular heart rate)

Always speak to your GP if y'all've experienced a black out, loss of consciousness or accept institute yourself on the floor and don't know why or how. Many of these weather condition tin can be treated successfully.

Foot problems

Problems with our feet – such as corns, calluses, bunions, ingrown or thick nails and ulcerations – and footwear that is poorly fitted and inappropriate for the occasion, can as well increase a person'due south risk of falling.

Foot problems can also make information technology more hard to exercise and keep active, which is especially of import if you're already unsteady on your anxiety because of weak muscles or poor balance.

Numbness in the feet, sometimes linked to diabetes, can leave you unable to fully sense where your human foot is on the floor, leading to an increased gamble of a fall.

Memory loss, defoliation or difficulties with thinking or trouble solving

Every bit we get older, problems with memory loss, confusion, difficulties with thinking and problem solving, can become more common. This can affect your ability to judge risky situations, have precautions when moving around your abode and recognise hazards, leading to an increased risk of falls.

Vision and hearing problems

Problems with your vision and hearing tin can get in more than hard to movement around safely. Eye problems can make it difficult to anticipate and spot sideslip or trip hazards in your home.

As nosotros get older, changes to our depth perception and ability to adjust to changes in lighting tin can also contribute to the risk of falls. If you wearable bifocal or varifocal lenses in your spectacles, y'all might sometimes find information technology hard going downwards steps, stairs and kerbs.

Cataracts, glaucoma and vision-related problems linked to stroke or dementia can too increase your take a chance of falling.

Read more about looking afterward your vision and hearing

Medication

The side effects of some medicines – such as dizziness, lightheadedness, unsteadiness, drowsiness, blurred or double vision and difficulty thinking clearly, and taking more than than 4 medicines at the same fourth dimension, tin increase your chance of falling.

Medications that nigh commonly cause these symptoms include:

psychotropics (tablets to treat depression mood)
blood force per unit area lowering medications
sleeping tablets and sedatives
anticonvulsants (medication for epilepsy)

Side effects can vary from person to person depending on their age, weight, gender, ethnicity and full general health, so it'south important that y'all know and understand how your medication affects you lot to preclude falls occurring.

Learn more about managing your medication

Alcohol

Drinking likewise much booze, specially with some medications, can make y'all unsteady on your feet and wearisome your reactions. Equally nosotros get older, our bodies find it more than difficult to process alcohol and we can become more than sensitive to its effects, causing an increased hazard of falls.

How much booze should you be drinking?

Float and bowel conditions

If you accept a bladder or bowel status that causes you to rush to the toilet, or visit more often during the twenty-four hour period or night, you could be at an increased risk of falling. This is especially the case if you're already unsteady on your anxiety or feel light-headed when getting up from sitting or lying down.

Continence problems, and the symptoms of bladder irritability, can ofttimes exist improved with the correct treatment.

A autumn as a warning sign

A fall might exist the first sign of a new or worsening health condition. New, and often temporary, health conditions that can cause falls include:

constipation
infection — including a bladder, urinary tract or chest infection
dehydration
sudden defoliation (sometimes called delirium)

For this reason, you should always speak to your GP practise, or other health professional person – such as a physiotherapist or occupational therapist – if you've had a fall.

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