Can standing on one leg save your life?

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**Amber Minogue** (1:04)
Can standing on one leg save your life?
Thanks for asking. Surprising as it may seem, balance is more important than you think. In September of 2022, the British Journal of Sports Medicine published the results of a 10-year study which involved more than 1,700 middle-aged participants. They concluded that not being able to balance was associated with an almost two-fold increase in risk of death. How did they test participants for balance? Volunteers were asked to stand on one leg and their arms by their sides and keep their eyes looking straight ahead. They discovered that an inability to hold the position for 10 seconds was associated with an 84% heightened risk of death from any cause. Participants were allowed to try three times. What is balance? Balance is quite difficult to explain. It involves several different systems in your body, muscles, nerves, eyesight, the inner ear, and even the sensory system that lets you recognize where your body is in space. It's not innate, we're not born with it, but neither do we learn it. It's rather an ability that we learn and can lose.
Why does losing your balance matter? According to the World Health Organization, there are an estimated 684,000 fatal falls each year, making falling the second leading cause of unintentional injury death after road traffic accidents. A further 37 million falls are severe enough to require medical attention and can result in life changing injuries. Although some falls may be caused by other conditions, many are due to loss of balance. What causes loss of balance? There are a variety of factors, many of them age related, such as impaired vision and slower reflexes. But part of the problem is that once balance begins to fail, people can become fearful of taking risks, like walking on uneven ground. But this causes someone's sense of balance to decrease further and makes falling more likely.
The loss of balance starts at 45, says George Locker, author of Falling Is Not An Option. He continues, it's difficult to reverse later. So you have to start prevention in midlife. It's the time to choose what I call the bent knee and ankle sports, skiing, ice skating, inline skating and stand up paddleboard.
But if these sports seem too challenging, then even a more gentle activity like Tai Chi can also do a lot to improve balance. What else can you do to improve your balance? If you don't have time to take up a sport, incorporating some type of balance exercise into your daily routine can really help. One suggestion is to simply stand on one leg while cleaning your teeth. Rest your hands on a surface if you need extra support. Try holding this as long as you can.
You can make it harder by standing on tiptoe or by doing knee bends. There you have it.
Now you know if standing on one leg saves your life. In under three minutes, we answer your questions and help you understand the true meaning behind the trends, concepts and acronyms that are making headlines. Listen along and you really will know for sure.