EXPLORING WHY WE FALL

I have talked with hundreds of people who have had falls and at least half of them have no idea why they fell. Falls are so sudden and unannounced that what happened can be difficult to determine. It is important though to try to find out so that we can learn from the experience and prevent ourselves from falling the same way again.
It turns out that there are several extremely important factors in what causes falls. If we pay attention to those factors we can mitigate our fall risk substantially.
Falling is often a combination of many factors. Some are present in lots of different types of falls. Shuffling your feet for example is an underlying major contributing factor to many. Another frequent contributing factor takes place when we suffer from low self confidence, as occurs after we have had a fall. If we examine falls in detail, patterns start to emerge which end up making it much easier to avoid falls.

As we shall see, most falls happen when we are moving.
Here, therefore, are the most important ideas to keep in mind,
all the time:

Always look in the direction you are moving.
Be as aware of your surroundings as possible.
Do nothing else while walking. Focus entirely on only walking.

Basic instructions on how to walk safely and easily. This includes how to prepare your body for walking, how to use the proper method walking and extremely important behavior guidelines for staying safe.
Using good walking practices is clearly the most important factor to improve to avoid so many falls. That will be addressed later in this article. Mean time, let's investigate some real world falls and why they happened.

Let's examine a number of different falls in great detail:

I encourage you to scrutinize your own fall experiences similarly.

Falls I have had myself over the past 10 years:

January 6, 2021 (I spent the day in the ER instead of watching the drama emerging from Washington.): While walking around our neighborhood in the morning with my friend, staying 6 feet apart, I turned and walked backwards, listening to him talk about that drama. I tripped, fell and broke my shoulder and my wrist. 
What caused each fall?
(The most fundamental cause is highlighted in purple.)
Walking backwards,
I kept moving forward.
I was not looking where I was going.
I was not picking my feet up.
After returning from being evacuated because of a wild fire, I tripped and fell over luggage left in the hallway. I bruised my knee which developed into burcitis.
Rushing.
Not being aware of my surroundings.
Clutter was left out on the floor.
While walking across a parking lot, a friend called to me, I looked to to answer, kept moving and tripped over a hole in the cement. I bruised my knee.
I looked up to see who was calling to me.
​I kept moving forward.
I took my eyes off of where I was going.
I slipped on some leaves on the sidewalk as I was rushing to get somewhere. I recovered but then slipped as I was stepping on my pants which were too long. I fell and bruised my chin.
Rushing.
Leaves on the ground made it very slippery.
I tripped but recovered.
In the immediacy of the recovery I slipped on my pant leg.
My pants were several inches too long.
I slipped on water on the floor of Oliver's Market, fell and bruised my knee. I was wearing Birkenstocks at the time.
Water was pooled on the cement of a super market.
I slipped and fell stepping into the water.
My shoes did not anchor my feet securely.
I was not picking my feet up.

Other falls I have observed or heard about from others:

A student fell walking into my class. 
She looked away when someone said something to her.
She kept moving.
She was no longer looking where she was going.
She lost her bearings as she turned to look.
She stumbled.
Her cane was too close to her foot and she tripped over it in the immediacy of recovering from the stumble.
A friend fell turning. He stood up, got light headed, turned, tripped over his feet, recovered only to fall as he then tripped over a chair leg.
​He moved to turn even though he felt light headed.
He stepped on his feet as he turned.
He felt unstable and didn't see the chair leg.
​He tripped over the chair leg.
A friend fell while walking.
The ground was uneven.
A car unexpectedly honked their horn.
He was distracted by the sound and didn't see the sidewalk.
He tripped on a crack in the sidewalk.
​He was not picking his feet up.
A student fell out of bed.
It was night and the room was dark.
She woke up and had to go to the bathroom.
She sat up and got light headed.
She didn't wait to stabilize but instead reached for the light. 
She became more unstable and fell out of bed.

These real world examples give us clues as to the most important lessons to learn to avoid having falls:

1) When walking, put all your focus on only that.
2) Always face the direction you are going.
3) Do not look down at the ground while walking.
4) Learn to pick your feet up. ​
5) Do not rush. Period.
6) Stop moving if you feel unstable.
7) Exercise consistently.

Good things to practice:
  • The proper way to walk: Roll through your feet and push into the ground to lift your legs.
  • Turning in the spot you are standing in. With support nearby, make quarter turns by pivoting in place, one foot at a time. Lift your feet.
  • Where to look when you walk (i.e. practice not looking down at the ground).

The short answer to the question of how to stay happy and healthy in older age is to exercise consistently. Activity level has been shown to be responsible for health outcome more than any other factor among those older. If you move on a regular basis, whether attending classes, taking walks or practicing your own routine, then your body is prepared for the sudden changes that happen around us that often cause falls.

And here is the most powerful advice of all regarding stopping having falls: If you have had a fall, improve your balance abilities instead of restricting your activities in an attempt to control your fall risk.

Published June 6, 2024.