I’ve fallen and I can’t get up

I’ve fallen and I can’t get up


-M-G and L-O-L are universally known shorthand for texts.

But I-F-A-I-C-G-U (Eye-Eff- AY -Eye-See-Gee-You) never caught on, even though they stand for:

I’ve Fallen … And I Can’t Get Up!

O-K, maybe it’s a few too many letters to text or Tweet. But no matter why the initials fall flat, scientists are learning more about falling down.

A tiny lag occurs between our head and our body when our brains register that we’re about to fall and before our muscles react.

You may have noticed it … that feeling of knowing you’re about to fall and the delay before being able to catch yourself.

Shortening this gap could prevent serious mishaps in older Americans, where falls are the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say each year one in every three adults age 65 and older falls.

To understand why people lose their balance and fall, University of Michigan researchers examined 26 healthy, young subjects walking heel-to-toe on a treadmill or a treadmill-mounted balance beam.

The walkers were hooked to equipment that measures brain responses and produces a graphic called an electroencephalogram … that’s an E-E-G for texters.

The researchers were surprised at how early the brain recognizes a loss of balance and by the number of brain regions are activated during a fall.

The next step will be to compare elderly and younger volunteers to determine if differences in age play a role in the lag time.

If older people do not sense falls quickly enough, drug treatments might improve their response times. If the response rates are about the same, the key to preventing injuries could lie in physical training.

Whatever the answer, we will let you know … A-S-A-P.

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