The Single Leg Balance – Exercise and Brain Test!

Standing on one leg and balancing sounds like a pretty simple test, but many people cannot manage to do it for just 20 seconds without holding onto something or touching the lifted foot to the ground to maintain balance!

So who cares right?   Well, a new study published in the journal Stroke suggests that inability to stand on one foot may be the sign of some serious brain issues.   Researchers at the Center for Genomic Medicine at Kyoto University in Japan tested over a 1,000 people (average age 67) to stand with one leg raised and their eyes open for up to 60 seconds. Then – they used an MRI to scan each person’s brain. 

What they found was that those who struggled to balance for 20 seconds had cerebral small-vessel disease (SVD), even though they weren't exhibiting any classic symptoms. SVD is related to stroke, dementia and even Parkinson's. For those who could not complete the 20 seconds, 15% had one micro-bleed brain lesion (30% had two) and 16% had one arterial brain blockage (35% had two.) In addition, those with the shortest balance times tended to have the lowest mental performance scores.

So why the correlation between balance and brain health?  Balance is maintained by three separate systems which work together:  Vision, proprioception (sense of your body position in space) and the vestibular system (inner ear – that senses gravity).  The brain controls all three of these systems.   So any loss of motor coordination, such as the inability to balance for any length of time, could suggest brain damage.

Now that you know maybe you will spend a little more time working on your balance!  We do not know for sure, but it makes sense that working on your physical balance may help to preserve mental function and brain health.