How we stay balanced

Balance is vital to normal every day life activities such as getting out of a chair, walking, bending over to put on your shoes, washing your hair, driving a car, or going grocery shopping. Just about everything you do in daily life requires balance control – most of the time you don’t have to think about it. However, when balance problems develop, they can cause profound disruptions in your daily life. In addition to increasing your risk for falls, balance disorders can also shorten your attention span, disrupt normal sleep patterns, and cause fatigue. People with balance and dizziness problems can have difficulty with even the simplest of tasks.

The ability to maintain balance is a complex process. It depends on three major components: 1) your sensory systems for accurate information about your body’s position 2) your brain’s ability to process this information and 3) your muscles and joints for coordinating the movements required to maintain balance.

The sensory systems include your sense of touch (feet, ankles, and joints), your inner ear, and your vision. For example, we rely on our feet and joints to tell us if the surface we are standing on is uneven or moving. We rely on our inner ear to tell us if we are upright or leaning, standing still or moving. We rely on our eyes to tell us if the environment around us is moving.