Hand in hand with your fear of falling is likely a twin concern about maintaining or improving your balance. Having good balance is essential to living an active and independent life in your later years. If you can’t count on staying upright and off the ground, you’re likely going to limit your activities and social engagements, and thus reduce the quality of your life (not to mention putting yourself at risk for serious injury from a fall). But how do you know if you have good balance? And what can cause that balance to waiver or diminish? And if that happens, what does that mean and what can be done to shore it up and get you back on steady feet?

We’ve addressed balance in agebuzz over the years, but it’s useful to review what can cause your balance to go off-kilter. Experts suggest that balance can begin to falter around age 60 (though of course, underlying conditions can cause loss of balance at any age). The causes of diminished balance can be everything from the medications you take to inner ear problems, to diminished sensory inputs, like vision or hearing, to such medical conditions as diabetes, heart disease, or stroke, along with diminished strength in your legs. Moreover, lack of balance not only puts you at risk of injury from a fall, but it also appears to be an important indicator of how well you are aging and whether underlying health risks await you down the road.

In that regard, it’s valuable to take a look at new research just published in PLOS ONE. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic examined a small group of healthy older adults, 20 men and 20 women, half of whom averaged age 56 and the other half of whom averaged age 74. The grip strength, gait, and balance abilities of each group were examined to determine how these indicators were associated with age-related declines. What they found was that the length of time a person can stand on one leg (especially their non-dominant leg) was the most important indicator associated with age-related decline, thus suggesting that balance (or the loss of balance) is an important marker of healthy aging. In essence, if you can’t stand on one leg, without holding on for more than a few seconds, chances are that your health and well-being are at risk the older you get. As one expert stated, “Standing on one leg is a good measure of your overall health system because balance reflects how the body’s systems are working together.” To read more about this study, prepare to stand on one leg and look here.

So how long do experts think you should be able to balance on one leg? That same expert (one of the study’s authors) suggested that “A good rule of thumb is to be able to hold the (one-legged) stance for about 30 seconds or longer for those 69 and younger, about 20 seconds for those 70 to 79, and 10 seconds for those older than 80.” You can easily use this test at home to get a sense of where you stand regarding your balance but do so close to a sturdy chair or wall in case you begin to waver or fall. The good news is that you can improve your timing and endurance of this one-legged test with simple and effective balance exercises, including heel-to-toe walking, marching in place, using a balance board, or taking exercise classes such as Tai Chi. New research was just published in Frontiers in Public Health confirming the value of Tai Chi as a way to enhance the balance of healthy older adults.

What else can you do to strengthen your balance and get you standing on one leg for a longer period of time? Very Well Health recently published a post describing an exercise of weighted knee-highs (a type of marching in place) to both strengthen your legs and improve your balance. And Yes2Next has a terrific video on using Tai Chi stretches to improve your balance as well as its own assessment to help you determine how strong your balance is. Similar to the test studied at the Mayo Clinic, the Yes2Next test measures how long you can hold positions to determine the stability of your current balance abilities. So get that steady chair in place and take a look here.