{"id":1419,"date":"2018-10-26T10:13:27","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T23:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/melbournefootclinic.com.au\/?p=1419"},"modified":"2023-10-27T16:13:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T05:13:38","slug":"reducing-our-risk-of-falling-as-we-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/melbournefootclinic.com.au\/reducing-our-risk-of-falling-as-we-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Reducing Our Risk of Falling as we Age"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Samantha Saill<\/p>\n<p>As we get older, something that we need to start considering is our increased risk of falling and injuring ourselves. It is a frightening fact that the chance of falling becomes much higher as we age. In fact, one third of people over sixty-five and half of people over the age of eighty-five will fall every year.<\/p>\n<p>While that may be an alarming statistic, the good news is that you can significantly reduce the risk of falling through foot strengthening exercises and choosing the correct footwear.<\/p>\n<p>The muscles in our feet are critical in saving ourselves from falling. These muscles weaken over our lifetime, so they require a simple strengthening program tailored to your feet to keep them doing their job as best they can. It takes just a three percent increase in toe strength to reduce your risk of falling by twenty percent.<\/p>\n<p>At the Melbourne Foot Clinic, we use a specifically designed platform called the \u2018ToePro\u2019 (<span style=\"color: #800080;\"><a style=\"color: #800080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mytoepro.com.au\/\">find out more on the ToePro website<\/a><\/span>) to strengthen the foot muscles. This platform places the foot in a position that the muscles would be used to in walking, which strengthens the muscles 4 times faster than doing exercises with the foot flat on the ground. Our podiatrists are all trained to use the ToePro and will tailor a program specifically to your needs, which can start to show results in a matter of weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Another critical factor for older people avoiding falling is your footwear. The wrong choice of shoes can drastically increase your chances of falling. Conversely, picking the correct shoes can greatly decrease the chances of falling.<\/p>\n<p>When choosing appropriate footwear to avoid falls, we know that a range of features in a shoe are crucial. Here are some things to remember:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The heel base should be wide; narrow or very tapering heels reduce stability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The base of the shoe should have grip to it; try to avoid shoes with smooth, slippery soles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The shoes should always have either laces or a strap.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The heel counter, the part of the shoe that wraps around the back of the heel, should be firm.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Avoid wearing slippers, socks, or bare feet at home all day as this increases your chance of falling by up to 50%. If you can, keep a pair of shoes (that incorporate the features listed above) to wear around the house.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A few small changes can make a significant difference in reducing your risk of falling, and help you lead a healthy and active life as you grow older.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>If you enjoyed reading this post, consider reading our piece about <a href=\"https:\/\/melbournefootclinic.com.au\/cadence-and-achieving-running-success\/\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\">achieving running success.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Samantha Saill As we get older, something that we need to start considering is our increased risk of falling and injuring ourselves. It is a frightening fact that the chance of falling becomes much higher as we age. In fact, one third of people over sixty-five and half of people over the age of eighty-five [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1421,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[210],"tags":[614,610,613,185,608,611,616,609,612,615],"class_list":["post-1419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-elderly-care","tag-falling","tag-improve-strength-in-elderly","tag-injury","tag-old-age","tag-old-age-falling","tag-old-age-injury","tag-risk-of-falling-as-we-age","tag-strength","tag-weaken-muscles"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.8 (Yoast SEO v23.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Reducing Our Risk of Falling as we Age | Melbourne Foot Clinic | Melbourne Sports and Family Podiatry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As we age, the muscles in our legs and feet start to grow weaker, which increases our risk of having serious falls. Have a read here of one of our podiatrist&#039;s tips on how to prevent falls as best you can.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/melbournefootclinic.com.au\/reducing-our-risk-of-falling-as-we-age\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reducing Our Risk of Falling as we Age\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As we age, the muscles in our legs and feet start to grow weaker, which increases our risk of having serious falls. 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