How Your Body Maintains its Balance

Balance is critical to our ability to move around and perform day-to-day tasks. Although balance is involved in so many aspects of our lives, it operates in the background; most of us take it for granted.

If you do develop a problem with balance, the health condition can result in:

·      disability

·      falls

·      decreased ability to concentrate

·      sleep disturbances

·      chronic fatigue syndrome.

How the body achieves balance

Our internal balancing system involves three integrated activities:

1.    the collection and transfer of sensory data to the brain, telling it where the body is in relationship to its surroundings

2.    the consideration of the data by the brain

3.    the continual adjustment of the muscles and joints, shifting into position to stay upright.

The sensory information that influences balance comes from the feet and joints (sense of touch), eyes (sense of vision), and inner ear (sense of motion). The feet and joints let us know how high the ground is and whether or not it is stationary. The eyes let us know if the objects around us are moving and (if applicable) the rate at which they are. The inner ear lets us know about our posture and whether we are walking or running.

A body with strong health is able to adjust naturally to changes in the environment and the position of the body to maintain balance. However, when any of the internal mechanisms aren’t functioning properly, it can become challenging and strenuous to override the misperception and effectively control balance. The strain of keeping oneself upright despite the cognitive dissonance often results in problems with concentration, sleep, and energy.

Difficulty balancing

In a person with healthy equilibrium mechanisms, all of their systems are working synergistically to collect, deliver, and process balance information. When someone has a balance disorder, they may have problems with any of the integrated systems. Sometimes one of the senses is delivering inconsistent information and the individual is not aware that their stability is faltering. Other times, a neurological disorder convinces the brain that the body is falling when it’s not. The likelihood of suffering from a balance condition rises as we get older, both because we are more susceptible to disease and because we may have built up damage throughout our lives.

The role of functional neurology

Are you struggling with your balance? Functional neurology can identify weak functions and reactivate your nervous system.

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