Balance Training Seems to Prevent Falls by Elderly

Researchers base findings on review of 17 studies

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Oct. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Exercise programs meant to prevent falls in seniors may also help prevent injuries caused by falls, according to a new review.

Fall-related injuries are common among seniors and a major cause of long-term pain and disability. They also increase the risk of having to go to a nursing home and have a high economic cost.

The new findings, published online Oct. 29 in the journal bmj.com, suggest that "reducing the risk of falling and improving protective responses during a fall may be an important and feasible means of preventing fractures and other serious injuries in the elderly," the study authors wrote in a journal news release.

Well-designed exercise programs can prevent falls in seniors living at home, but there is a lack of evidence on whether such programs can help prevent fall-related injuries, said French researchers Fabienne El-Khoury and colleagues.

In this review, they analyzed 17 studies that looked at whether fall-prevention exercises lowered seniors' risk of fractures and other injuries caused by falls. More than 4,000 participants were involved in all.

Tai Chi was the exercise in two of the studies, but most of them used gait, balance, strength and functional training, which involves workouts that help people do normal daily activities.

Most of the programs reduced fall-related injuries and appeared to significantly curb falls that lead to fractures, serious injuries and medical care.

Balance training was emphasized in all of the exercises that were effective in preventing falls, the researchers noted.

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Eating Peanut Butter Could Prevent Future Breast Disease

Girls who grow up eating PB&Js could be doing their breast health a favor.

Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School found an association between regularly eating peanut butter and having a lower risk of developing benign breast disease in early adulthood. Benign breast disease is noncancerous, and occurs when there are changes to the breast or an injury or infection leads to lumps in the breast tissue. The research team did not investigate a link between peanut butter and malignant breast lumps or cancer.

Other sources of vegetable fats and proteins -- such as soybeans, beans and lentils -- could also have the same effect, but researchers noted that the data on these particular foods in the study was not as abundant as data on peanut butter.

It's important to note that the study only showed an association between peanut butter consumption and breast disease, and doesn't show that peanut butter can definitively prevent breast disease.

The study, published in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, included health data on 9,039 U.S. girls ages 9 to 15 who were recruited to the Growing Up Today Study in 1996. They filled out food-frequency questionnaires once a year from their recruitment year until 2001, and then biennially until 2010.

In 2005, researchers also started keeping track of benign breast disease diagnoses among the study participants, who had entered adulthood and were now between ages 18 and 30. Researchers found that 112 of them had developed the condition.

Researchers found that eating peanut butter twice a week during childhood/adolescences was linked with a 39 percent lower risk of developing benign breast disease, and this effect seemed especially strong among girls who had a family history of breast cancer.

Of course, nuts have a wide range of other health benefits, too. To find out more, click here.

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