In the last three months, three Yoga East students have fallen at home. Although their injuries were not enough to require hospitalization, they were severe enough to require treatment and caused them to pause their yoga practice. Recently Hilary Clinton fainted due to an infection, and fell and sustained a concussion with some serious complications. In October 2010, my eighty year-old mother who routinely walked every day and was in pretty decent shape, fell and broke her hip. Her Alzheimer's, which was causing my sister and I some concern, dramatically worsened within days of her fall and hip replacement surgery. Before the fall she was living independently with some supervision, but after the fall she went to a nursing home barely aware of her surroundings.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 10 million Americans sixty-five and older fall each year. After age seventy-file, falling is the number one cause of death. Even if you don't die, many people sustain severe injury and disability which lowers your quality of life and hastens death.
The reasons for falling are complicated. The National Safety Council lists several hazards which I will repeat here:
Spills on surfaces, such as bathroom and kitchen floors;
Clutter in hallways and on stairs;
Standing on unstable surfaces, such as tables or chairs instead of using ladders.
The rest can be reviewed their website, and I urge you to do so:
Falls - www.nsc.org
I turned sixty this year, and in spite of all my years of yoga practice, I see that my ability to balance has declined. Things that I easily did when I was twenty are a little more precarious now. I can do a much better Maricyasana D now than I could then, and now at age sixty I can stand up out of a backbend, but Utthita Hasta Padangushtasana has gotten a little shaky. Just be aware that yoga doesn't protect you from everything. Be alert, cautious and realistic about your physical abilities.
All in all, I think I am much better off for my yoga practice than I would be without it. Only time will tell if yoga will help me to avoid Alzheimer's disease which prematurely ended the life of my great-grandfather and grandmother, who were healthy in all other respects; and severely limited my mother's quality of life.
Keep practicing yoga, but be careful. It's a jungle out there in your kitchens, bathrooms, hallways and stairs.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 10 million Americans sixty-five and older fall each year. After age seventy-file, falling is the number one cause of death. Even if you don't die, many people sustain severe injury and disability which lowers your quality of life and hastens death.
The reasons for falling are complicated. The National Safety Council lists several hazards which I will repeat here:
Spills on surfaces, such as bathroom and kitchen floors;
Clutter in hallways and on stairs;
Standing on unstable surfaces, such as tables or chairs instead of using ladders.
The rest can be reviewed their website, and I urge you to do so:
Falls - www.nsc.org
I turned sixty this year, and in spite of all my years of yoga practice, I see that my ability to balance has declined. Things that I easily did when I was twenty are a little more precarious now. I can do a much better Maricyasana D now than I could then, and now at age sixty I can stand up out of a backbend, but Utthita Hasta Padangushtasana has gotten a little shaky. Just be aware that yoga doesn't protect you from everything. Be alert, cautious and realistic about your physical abilities.
All in all, I think I am much better off for my yoga practice than I would be without it. Only time will tell if yoga will help me to avoid Alzheimer's disease which prematurely ended the life of my great-grandfather and grandmother, who were healthy in all other respects; and severely limited my mother's quality of life.
Keep practicing yoga, but be careful. It's a jungle out there in your kitchens, bathrooms, hallways and stairs.
