We hear it all the time, “Grandma was doing great until she took that spill and within two weeks her health wasn’t the same.” Why is that? Do you become more fragile the older you become? In a way, yes, but you can do some things to help strengthen your bones so you’re not as brittle as you get older.

Why do we see a number of older people decline in health after a fall?

This isn’t true for all. There are some older people who fall all the time and are just a little bruised. It’s been found that when an individual takes care of themselves, in particular, their spine, on a regular basis, they will have a better quality of life.

A healthy 70-year-old vs. an unhealthy 70-year-old.

Usually, when you hear about people who are “wiping out and dying” from bone infections, for example, they are not healthy, to begin with. If you look at two, 70-year-old seniors. One has exercised their whole life, eats as well as they possibly can, has plenty of social interaction, and gets adjustments on a regular basis (at least once a week). That person is going to have a faster recovery and be less prone to infection because their immune system is stronger by the nature of their choices. Also, because their spine is used to being adjusted and is stronger they will be more resilient to injuries if they fall.

So that 70-year-old will heal faster and have less chance of infection than a 70-year-old who doesn’t exercise, doesn’t eat right, sits around, doesn’t have any social interactions, doesn’t get adjusted, and doesn’t take care of themselves. That is when you see people who are unhealthy, to begin with, they have a major trauma and they just get a bone infection because their immune system is lower, to begin with. A lot of times its just food choices. Many seniors make poor food choices, for example, they may just eat toast and tea and that’s it. They don’t eat vegetables or fruits, they don’t eat any good repair sources of protein. Their immune system is trying to fight off all kinds of things and they aren’t giving their bodies the resources to help the immune system function correctly. So then when that 70-year-old falls it really complicates things and sends the immune system into overdrive and it cannot cope.

The power of CBP

Dr. B has a patient in her office who is 82 years old. This winter she was outside by her mailboxes and she had a fall on the ice. She fell on her left hip. Naturally, everyone thought she broke her hip. She went to the doctor to get checked out but nothing was broken, she only had a few scrapes, no strains or sprains. Everyone was so surprised that she was not more badly hurt because she is older. But if you look at her as an individual, she raised 7 children so she was always active throughout her life, she has a very active social life, she eats healthy, and she gets a CBP adjustment once a week. She is an example of someone who could have easily fractured her hip because it was a bad fall, but she takes care of herself and eats well and came out relatively unscathed.

Can a fall wreak havoc on your body at any age?

Yes, you see it with children too.  There are some children who have an odd fall and then develop a problem. For example, a child could be playing in gym class, lose their balance and fall which results in a fractured arm. That might just be a fracture but there have been incidents when an auto-immune disease developed from that fall. Sometimes traumas do create disease processes because of how impactful it is to your body.

However, the healthier you are and the more resilient your spine it the less impact a fall will have on your immune system. So it’s important to set up a check-up with your CBP chiropractor so that your immune system is functioning at it’s highest levels. If you don’t have a CBP chiropractor stop into Active Family Chiropractic and make an appointment to see Dr. B and start the road to optimal health at any age.

For more information ask Dr. B @ [email protected]