Elizabeth's Balance Story
How do you know what’s affecting your balance? How do you prioritize all the many things you could do to see the real benefit for you?
Elizabeth was a scientist before she retired, she knew the value of exercise and had always been interested in measuring what she was doing and the effect it had.
At the time she joined our balance study, she was 88 years old and generally in good health. She walked every day and joined her local chair exercise class.
Her first Zibrio Balance Score (ZiBS) was low – in the high-risk range for falling – and she realized that she needed to do specific exercises for balance. For the next few months, she started going to balance and tai chi classes and within a short time, her score rose into the moderate zone, even reaching the top 10th percentile for her age.
Many factors affect balance, and so it’s normal for most people to experience fluctuations in their balance score. Elizabeth was pleased to see she stayed mostly in the moderate zone now, which kept her going to the classes.
“I could see it was making a difference, and that made me want to go more.”
An underlying health problem started to worry her, however, and she discovered she needed gall bladder surgery. Click the image below to see the video.
Everything changed after the surgery: the medications she was prescribed made her feel dizzy, and she found it hard to sleep at night.
She worked with her doctors to find a better combination of medication – being able to refer to her ZiB score helped her know what worked best for her and what reduced her dizziness.
But sleep continued to be a big problem. After each bad night’s sleep, her ZiB score was down in the high-risk zone for falling.
“Not knowing was the worst,” said Elizabeth
Until one day she took an afternoon nap and discovered that even this short rest during the day really helped protect her balance score – her score crept back into the moderate zone.
“Recovering from the surgery has been hard, but measuring my ZiB Score has helped me so much.”
Life sometimes gets complicated and it’s important to keep monitoring a few key health metrics. The beauty of a balance metric is that for the first time, you can keep an eye on your fall risk and understand what makes it change. With that knowledge, you have the power to take action to protect yourself.
To find out more about the science behind our research and how the scale works, click here
To find what’s affecting your balance, treat yourself to your own personal balance scale. It takes just 60 seconds to get your score, then you can test yourself as often as you want. The scale also measures your weight, but you can choose which measurement you care about most.