The Basics of Balance

Recently, the NY Times ran a 2-part series in the Health/Science section on Preserving Balance and Dealing with Dizziness. These articles have spurred an outpouring of questions to H&D - one of the only physical therapy practices in the NY Metropolitan area that has a specially trained physical therapist whose specialty is balance training and helping clients suffering from dizziness.

We've asked H&D's James Gurley, DPT to share some of his knowledge with everyone in this forum. Jamie kicks this series off with an overview of the three main systems that influence your ability to balance.

An Overview

The three main systems your body uses to maintain proper balance are:

1) Sensory system

2) Visual system

3) Vestibular system

1) Sensory System:

Your sensory system detects motion of your arms, legs, and trunk and provides you with a sense of where your limbs are in space. This helps you maintain your balance by sensing the position of your body or when your body has moved. Example: If you lean forward or begin to fall forward, you would feel more pressure on the balls of your feet than on your heels.

2) Visual System:

Your visual system assists you in maintaining your balance by allowing you to see where you are in relation to stationary objects in the environment. Using the same example from above, if you lean forward or fall forward, you would see everything in front of you coming towards you and everything to the side going by you.

Both the sensory system and the visual system rely upon external information.

3) Vestibular System:

Your vestibular system in its most basic function, detects movement of your head. It is the only internal system your body can use for balance. Again using the above example of falling forward, your vestibular system would detect the movement of your head falling forward. You use this system for your balance the most when:

    1) There is conflict between the other 2 systems.

    2) There is diminished or inaccurate use of our vision and/or sensation from your lower body sensation.

As a specially-trained Vestibular Therapist, my focus is helping people retrain this aspect of their balance system. I'll explain more about this - and talk about minimizing the risk of falling the future posts. Feel free to email me with any questions you have in the meantime: jgurley@hdphysicaltherapy.com.