Improving seniors’ balance, feet first

Considering that one out of three seniors fall each year, enhancing balance control is good preventive health care. Balance exercises help, but a small preliminary study has shown that there may be a short-cut -- vibrating insoles.

The gel-based insoles create a low-level electrical stimulation so subtle that it can’t be felt. Two vibrating elements are embedded in the insole under the forefoot, and one is placed under the heel. The sub-sensory vibrations are believed to help the nerves in the soles of the feet become more sensitive, improving balance, says lead researcher James Collins, professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University.

Twelve elderly people with no evidence of neurological diseases or conditions that might affect the sensation in their feet and 13 young adults tested the insoles. The researchers measured the degree of sway in the volunteers’ posture both as they stood still for 30 seconds and as they walked. The elderly men and women did the tests 10 times in the same day: five with the soles vibrating and five without. The younger group did 20 tests.

Each group’s balance improved roughly 5% to 20%, and the older group improved more than the younger, reports Collins. “We found that with the vibrating insoles we could improve the balance control of a 75-year-old individual to the level of [someone] in their early 20s,” Collins says.

Studies now are underway in frail elderly people with a history of falls, diabetic patients with peripheral neuropathy and stroke patients.

The study was published in the Oct. 4 issue of the Lancet.