Maggie McKay (Host): No matter what age you are, falls can happen and do. So how can we prevent them? One way is with yoga, as we'll discuss with research interventionalist, Paul Mross. Welcome to Stoughton Health Talk, a podcast from Stoughton Health. I'm your host, Maggie McKay. Thank you for being here today, Paul.

Paul Mross: Well, thank you for having me, Maggie.

Host: So how do falls affect individuals?

Paul Mross: They can affect individuals in many different ways. The number one way is that they can increase their risk of death, accidental death. So falls in Wisconsin are a pretty big issue. And we're the number one state when it's related to accidental deaths related to falls, but they can also have many effects on decreased quality of life.

So one of the things that we track with falls and the effects of falls is when people have a fear of falling. So if they've fallen once, then they may have a fear of falling again, and that may decrease their desire to go out into the community, or it may increase their concerns with doing activities that they normally might do, like walking or gardening, and so their quality of life cna be decreased.

Host: And what do you see from your vantage point and expertise as the impact of falls in general?

Paul Mross: So in general, I think there's a cost associated with falls and somebody who has had a history of falls. There's a monetary cost to that. Somebody that falls may potentially wind up in rehab center. There's a cost though also to the social aspects of having a fall. So somebody that falls may not be as inclined to go out and do things that they normally did, going out with friends, going out to coffee because they have a fear of falling, or it's potentially that the fall itself has impacted their health.

Correct? I mean, they might have issues related to, um, Having fallen, they might have issues with knees or hips or whatever might be associated with that fall. And so there's an impact with sustaining health and continuing to do the things that they'd like to do. I think there's also a family dynamic that is involved with the impact of falls.

One of the things that we'll see many times is people that have fallen won't often report it to their family because they're afraid of what that might mean to them. As far as if I report it to my family or I report it to my doctor that I have fallen or that I have a tendency to fall, they have this fear that they might be put into an assisted living or taken away from their home.

So there's a lot of different impacts that happen with falls.

Host: And how do you approach fall prevention?

Paul Mross: In my little world, I approach fall prevention through research. So I work with the University of Madison. We've done five yoga research studies focusing in on falls and also social isolation. And so what I'm really coming from is the standpoint of trying to create some different programming around fall prevention, specifically including yoga.

 I've done, as I said, five different research studies with the university, and I've been doing yoga personally for over 30 plus years. I've been a teacher for 25 of those years. And I really see that the impact of yoga can, the impact yoga can have on allowing individuals to feel comfortable in their body to begin with, and then understanding what they can do from a healthy standpoint, utilizing yoga to maybe impact falls.

Host: And what have you discovered about yoga's effect on fall prevention while doing that research with UW Madison?

Paul Mross: Yeah. So right now we're still working on trying to have that evidence based yoga has a effect on reducing fall rates. That's something that we're going after, but as I mentioned, we've done the five different studies currently and we found many different variances of that. So where we are right now is with the research is that pointing towards that yoga can have an effect on reducing those fall rates, but we haven't concluded it yet.

But what we're finding is that yoga itself has been looked at in regards to having an effect on balance. It's been looked at as far as having an effect on strength and then also gait. And those are three components to fall rates. So somebody that is prone to falling may have poor balance, they may have strength issues, they may have also the way that they walk, their gait might be affecting it.

What's interesting about the research and specifically around yoga is that, you know, I think it's kind of logical that yoga has an impact on balance because that's a lot of what we do. A lot of the yoga poses and yoga itself is involved in balance, but somebody can have good balance and still fall a lot, or vice versa.

Somebody could have poor balance, but they don't fall a lot, right? So we're trying to look at the overall impact of yoga and it's effect on those fall rates. But we're also finding that, and I had mentioned this earlier, you know, the social connection, the social impact; we're finding that people coming to a class like yoga are really enjoying that connection.

 Maybe it's with people they already know. Many times it's with people that they don't know that are in their community. And so it's kind of a side effect of what the research was looking at falls rates and it really came across that social connection also.

Host: Are there some simple yoga practices that we can do to help us prevent falls?

Paul Mross: There are actually. So one of the things that I like to talk about when it comes to yoga is many people oftentimes say, well, you know, I can get down to the floor because we're talking about falls, but I might not be able to get up from the floor. And so when we're looking at the research, what we're really trying to do is create some accessibility for people.

Is this something that they can do? And we will look at healthy habits. So are there things that they can do outside of the yoga class? And so these are things that I think anybody can really do in their daily life, assuming that it's safe. You know, we always want to be safe. One of the things that I would point to that is easy to do is to connect with the four points on the bottom of our feet.

So in yoga, we'll talk about these four points. So there's one at the base of the toe, one of the base at the little toe, and then two points in the heel. And so you can even do that right now when you're seated is having that connection even if you have shoes on, can you connect with the base of the toe, the base of the little foot, and then two points in the heel. And so when we go through the whole yoga practice and the research, we'll come back to those four points all the time as to how are you connecting to the bottom of your feet?

I find this really effective as a habit for people to do at home. Can they connect while they're standing, while they're seated, with their shoes on, with their shoes off, to the four points at the bottom of their feet? Because that's going to impact everything from their posture, to their balance, to their strength.

Host: Well, this has been so informative. In closing, is there anything else you'd like to add that we didn't talk about?

Paul Mross: I would say one of the things that I'd love to talk about is that yoga and fall prevention or any type of prevention for fall rates, reducing falls is getting out there and doing it as soon as you can. So looking at fall prevention is not something specifically for the older adult population.

So yes, you know, we want to help people when they're 80 and maybe they're more prone to falls. But really, it's about introducing activities to people when they're younger or middle aged, right? So I'm 58 years old. It's important for me as a 58 year old to be doing some of these practices now. It's about muscle memory.

It's about creating those habits now so that when I do turn 80, I can rely on them. So, I really think it's important that people not look at falls as just something that happens to older adults. It's something that happens to all of us. And so how can we think about it now, preventing it and working with exercise or whatever it might be that we do to create balance, strength, and gait.

Host: Well, this has been so much fun to talk to you and to learn more about the connection between yoga and prevention of falls. So thank you again for being here and sharing your expertise.

Paul Mross: Thank you so much.

Host: Again, that's Paul Mross. For more information on preventing falls, please visit safercommunity.net/falls-prevention. If you're interested in exploring a wider range of health related podcasts, check out the Stoughton Health Podcast Library at stoughtonhealth.com. Thank you for listening. I'm Maggie McKay. This is Stoughton Health Talk, a podcast from Stoughton Health.