Parkinson’s and falling, unfortunately, go hand in hand.

Most patients with Parkinson’s disease have some imbalance. In uncomplicated Parkinson’s disease, falls are less common.

But:

• If you have recurrent falls or
• If you are falling backwards, Parkinson’s disease may not be the right diagnosis.

If you do have Parkinson’s disease, adequate treatment helps you move properly. This prevents falls.

In addition, a few general measures may also help to prevent falls and avoid serious injuries.

Let us learn more.

How do we maintain our balance?

When the joints in your legs move, the nerves in your legs send signals to the spinal cord, from where they go to the Brain.

If this system is working, then the Brain knows *exactly* where your legs are, even when your eyes are closed!

This ability is called “Joint Position Sense”.

A second device is important as well:

Our inner ears contain tiny circular canals filled with fluid.

When your head moves, the liquid inside these canals moves, and the ears immediately send signals to the brain, informing it of this movement.

Finally, your eyes.

This one is obvious.

When you tend to fall, you can see that you are falling.

The eyes almost instantaneously send this information to the Brain, so that corrective action can be taken.

The Brain is supposed to act immediately when it gets signals from any of these organs (joints/ears/eyes) that you are going to fall down.

These reflex movements are called “Postural reflexes”.

With this understanding, let us see now why we fall.

Why do patients with Parkinson’s disease fall?

In simple terms, patients with Parkinson’s disease fall down because of 3 reasons: Poor input, Poor postural reflexes, Freezing.

1. Poor input:

This problem is often overlooked.

When thinking about Parkinson’s and falling, we need to remember that Parkinson’s patients can also have other diseases.

Let us say you have a problem with your eyes. Everything is blurred.

Now, you start to walk.

But…. your brain is not getting any input. It does not know where your limbs are! So, you become unsteady!

So:

• Problems in your joints, muscles or leg nerves – e.g. Diabetes, Vitamin D deficiency
• Problems in your spinal cord – e.g. compression, vitamin B12 deficiency
• Problems in your ears – e.g. infections
• Problems in your eyes – e.g. improper glasses, cataracts

Increase the risk of falling tremendously. This is true even if you do not have Parkinson’s disease!

But let us look at 2 reasons specific to Parkinson’s disease:

2. Poor postural reflexes:

Let us say your brain is getting all the inputs it needs.

It now knows where your limbs are.

But in Parkinson’s disease, the brain becomes slow. For unclear reasons, it does not respond to these inputs immediately.

This problem is called “Poor Postural Reflexes”.

Let’s imagine you catch your foot in the carpet.

When you start to fall, your brain is too slow to take corrective measures. It does nothing. So you fall.

This is one of the reasons for Parkinson’s and falling.

3. Freezing:

When walking, you may sometimes feel like you are stuck to the ground.

This is called “Freezing”.

If this happens suddenly, your upper body may continue moving and you may fall forwards.

So, how can you prevent falls?

The first step is to identify why you are falling.

The relative contribution of these factors to falling is different in different patients.

Thoughtful collaboration with your neurologist should help to identify your most critical problems. We will look at each of these things in detail, one by one.

If you have Parkinson’s and falling backwards, a very important possibility arises. Your doctor should carefully examine you for signs of PSP.

PSP is described in another article [Click here].

Prevent a drop in Blood Pressure on standing

When you get up suddenly from a chair or bed, your blood rushes into your legs.

This causes blood pressure to drop. You may become light-headed & fall.

This is called Orthostatic Hypotension. It is very common in Parkinson’s disease.

You can read more in another article, but here is a quick summary:

Adequate sensory input

A neurological examination can test the input organs (nerves, spinal cord, ear, eyes).

For example, your may ask you to close your eyes and move your big toe up and down. If you are unable to tell whether it is up or down, it indicates there is something wrong with your “joint position sense”.

Your neurologist may ask you do some tests:

Adequate treatment of Freezing

You can fall down if you have sudden “freezing” while walking. You can also fall if your body’s corrective movements occur too late or too slowly to prevent a fall.

Therefore, adequate treatment of your movements so that slowness (bradykinesia) and freezing while walking are treated is absolutely essential in preventing falls.

Medications used to treat movement problems are described in a different set of articles. It is important to select these judiciously. In most cases, the best medication happens to be levodopa.

Once it enters the Brain, Levodopa is converted into Dopamine.

Training your Brain

YES! This can be done.

Think about the time when you learnt to ride a bike. As you kept practising, it became automatic.

In the same way, balance training can prevent falls.

Multiple studies have proven this. You can take my word for it. You could also read these 2 studies, to extinguish any residual excuses!

• Smania 2010 – in “Neurorehabilitation & Neural Repair”
• Halvarsson 2012 – in “Clinical Rehabilitation”

Any exercise is better than no exercise.

However, exercise methods that focus on balance, e.g. Yoga or Tai Chi can be more helpful to improve your balance (Hackney 2008 and Roland 2013).

I believe these traditional methods help in instability.

Their low-impact nature and emphasis on balance is especially interesting.

What changes should I make to my home?

Remove all loose-fitting rugs or unstable pieces of furniture that you can trip over.

Excessive clutter or furniture can cause Freezing. So, make sure your home is as tidy and clutter-free as possible.

Patients frequently fall in the bathroom. Take the measures below to avoid falls.

How can I prevent injuries after falling?

Make sure your furniture is not sharp. You can buy foam padding for corners online.

Even more importantly make sure that your bones are adequately dense so that they do not break if you fall. This can be done by measuring the bone density using a test called a DEXA scan.

The medical term for less dense bones is “Osteoporosis”. Bones can be made denser and stronger by giving you medications.