Balance & Memory
Advances in medicine and public health are helping people live longer than ever. With an increased lifespan the challenges of old age need to be met proactively. Two major concerns that people face as they age are Balance and Memory.
As stated by the Centers for Disease Control and prevention: “In 2019, the emergency department recorded 3 million visits for older adult falls. Falls among adults 65 and older caused over 34,000 direct deaths in 2019 making it the leading cause of injury death for that group.” That doesn’t’ include the deaths during long convalescences from broken bones and head injury.
As a person ages, areas of the brain can change and shrink, causing a decline in memory. Untreated memory concerns can lead to emotional stress, lost productivity and financial burdens of increased healthcare coasts and prescription medications.
How does Neurofeedback therapy help?
There are many preventative strategies that can improve both balance and memory. Your memory thrives when it is learning, retaining, and retrieving information through touch, sight or sound. The more you mindfully approach these tasks, the healthier your memory becomes.
The Neuro Sensorimotor Integrator (NSI) is an interactive program that objectively measures balance and memory functions. From that baseline, we provide training sessions for the functions that need help. There is a balance board and various ‘games’ on a touch screen monitor that together train aspects of memory at the same time as we train balance. The sessions are 25 minutes or less to avoid fatigue. It is challenging and fun to beat your scores each session!
Success stories
Jon felt he was a healthy 75-year-old; however, despite having loved gardening for years, he noticed that he was reluctant to work in his steep garden. His partner was also concerned that she had to repeat telling him things. He didn’t seem to remember and could become upset when confronted with that problem.
Using the Neuro-Sensorimotor Integrator (NSI), we evaluated his memory and balance. Jon was initially dismayed that he scored so poorly. With the encouragement of his spouse and the staff at ATC, he decided to see what 10 sessions of training on the NSI could do for him. Session by session, he could see his improvement during the training. By the fifth session, he was back to scrambling up and down in his garden to gather the fresh herbs and fruits that he had cultivated for years. After 10 sessions, he felt solid on his feet and more certain of his memory. His spouse was most grateful.