A Balancing Act: Scientists Seek to Reduce the Risk of Falls in the Elderly

It was the inaugural day of the study in 2005 when Brad Manor went out into the hot Louisiana sun to meet his first patient, a gentleman we'll call James. Manor, now director of the Mobility and Brain Function Lab at the Harvard-affiliated Institute for Aging Research, was, at that time, a Ph.D. student at Louisiana State University (Figure 1). James, a man in his early 70s, suffered from peripheral neuropathy, a condition that caused significant nerve damage in his legs and feet. James got out of his car, carrying his cane in his hand, and walked with Manor to the lab. It wasn't until they were standing still and talking in the exam room that James leaned on his cane with its tip on the floor to stabilize himself. Manor was surprised. "That's opposite to what we typically think," he remarks, looking back on the incident. "Intuitively, standing seems simpler than walking." But James had much more difficulty standing and was actually quite competent while in motion.