Our vestibular balance disorder specialists offer careful evaluations and personalized treatment plans to reduce your symptoms and help you regain confidence in movement.
What Is Disequilibrium of Aging?
Disequilibrium is a condition that causes dizziness and difficulty balancing. It often develops as people get older.
Bodily functions that help you stabilize and orient yourself in space don’t work as well over time. These functions include your:
- Vestibular (balance) organs: Fluid-filled structures in your inner ear, called the vestibular system, help you balance. They sense your movement and the position of your head in relation to the world around you.
- Proprioception (joint position sense): Your awareness of your body in space is called proprioception. This awareness of each body part helps you maintain your balance.
- Vision: Information about what you see tells your brain about your head and body movements. This visual information also keeps you balanced.
When age or disease damages one or more of these functions, people experience disequilibrium. This condition is also called multifactorial imbalance because it usually has more than one cause.
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Disequilibrium of Aging Symptoms
Disequilibrium of aging can interfere with your daily life and independence. It may make you less likely to do the activities you enjoy, causing symptoms such as:
- Dizziness
- Feeling like you’re about to fall
- Lack of coordination
- Lightheadedness
- Loss of balance
- Unsteadiness when standing and walking
- Vertigo (feeling like you or your environment is spinning)
Losing balance with age may also cause fear and anxiety about falling. As a result, your gait (the way you walk) might change. For example, you may walk more slowly or have a shorter or wider stride.
Causes of Disequilibrium of Aging
Over time, your body gradually experiences wear and tear. This damage is part of the normal aging process.
You may develop disequilibrium of aging when damage affects your inner ear structures, eyes, and joints. Damage can happen over time from health problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol. This natural breaking down of balance, proprioception, and vision systems poorly affects your overall stability.
Risk Factors for Disequilibrium of Aging
Risk factors are things that increase your chances of developing multifactorial imbalance and losing balance with age. Age-related changes to your eyes or ears can increase your risk of balance problems, including:
- Cataracts
- Glaucoma
- Macular degeneration
- Vision loss
- Hearing loss
- Inner ear damage
Inactivity and conditions that harm your muscles, joints, brain, or spinal cord also put you at risk for dizziness as you age. These conditions may include:
- Cerebrovascular disease, such as stroke
- Degenerative spine disease, such as spinocerebellar ataxia
- Diabetes
- Head injury
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Multiple sclerosis
- Muscle or tendon weakness
- Osteoarthritis
- Peripheral neuropathy (loss of sensation in the limbs), often from diabetes
In addition, certain medications may increase your risk of disequilibrium. Dizziness can happen from side effects of or interactions among over-the-counter drugs. It can also happen when taking prescribed medications, especially for:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- High blood pressure
Your environment can also worsen feelings of imbalance. For example, you may experience more symptoms when:
- Being in a dark room
- Navigating obstacles on the floor
- Walking on uneven surfaces, such as dirt or sand
- Walking up or down stairs
Diagnosing Disequilibrium of Aging
Losing your balance as you age can have many causes. Our specialists offer skilled evaluations of your symptoms to figure out whether you have disequilibrium.
We get a complete understanding of your symptoms, current medications, medical history, and overall health. With the full picture, we can give you an accurate diagnosis and rule out other health conditions that affect balance.
During your evaluation, your doctor may check:
- Balance, stability, and eye movements using vestibular diagnostics
- Brain health and thinking abilities
- Eye health and vision
- Gait (how you walk) and posture
- Hearing and inner ear function
- Health of your peripheral nerves (nerves outside the brain and spinal cord)
- Heart health
Your health care provider may get imaging tests of your brain for more information. For example, you may have a computed tomography (CT) scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Our specialists work as a team to diagnose disequilibrium of aging and pinpoint the cause or causes. You may see multiple types of specialists, including a:
- Neurologist (brain and spine doctor)
- Otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat specialist)
- Physical therapist
- Audiologist (hearing specialist)
- Ophthalmologist (eye doctor)
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Disequilibrium of Aging
Disequilibrium of aging, also called multifactorial imbalance, causes dizziness with age. It often has multiple causes and can get better with treatment.
Multifactorial imbalance
losing balance with age
dizziness with age
age-related dizziness