Portuguese 
English 
Spanish 
5 min of reading 
0 comments 
A Simple Gesture, Often Ignored, Can Reveal Relevant Information About Balance, Muscle Strength, and Brain Functioning Throughout Aging, According to Recent Research That Associates This Test With Fall Risks, Functional Loss, and General Health Indicators.
Maintaining the body supported on just one leg for a few seconds is a simple gesture, but used by doctors and researchers as a functional indicator of the aging process.
The ability to perform this movement brings together information about muscle strength, coordination, reaction time, and integration between sensory systems, factors associated with fall risk and the preservation of autonomy throughout life, according to specialists in the field.
In general, balance on one leg is acquired in childhood and tends to remain stable until adulthood.
-
Motorola launched the Signature with a gold seal from DxOMark, tying with the iPhone 17 Pro in camera performance, Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 that surpassed 3 million in benchmarks, and a zoom that impresses even at night.
-
Satellites reveal beneath the Sahara a giant river buried for thousands of kilometers: study shows that the largest hot desert on the planet was once traversed by a river system comparable to the largest on Earth.
-
Scientists have captured something never seen in space: newly born stars are creating gigantic rings of light a thousand times larger than the distance between the Earth and the Sun, and this changes everything we knew about stellar birth.
-
Geologists find traces of a continent that disappeared 155 million years ago after separating from Australia and reveal that it did not sink, but broke into fragments scattered across Southeast Asia.
However, starting in middle age, this performance begins to vary more significantly among individuals.
After age 50, difficulties in maintaining the position for a few seconds become more common and can reflect physiological changes related to aging.
Body Balance and Muscle Mass Loss With Age
One of the main reasons for using the one-leg stance as a clinical test is its relation to sarcopenia, a condition characterized by gradual loss of muscle mass and function with advancing age.
Research indicates that from age 30 onward, muscle mass tends to decrease progressively, with rates that can reach up to 8% per decade, depending on factors such as sex, level of physical activity, and health status.
Estimates cited in observational studies indicate that sarcopenia becomes more frequent in older age groups and can affect a significant portion of the population over 80 years old.
As this loss affects different muscle groups, its effects tend to manifest in tasks that require stability, such as bearing body weight on a single support.
In addition to strength, the test also involves postural control and muscle endurance.
When leg and hip muscles present lower functional capacity, the body tends to oscillate more, making it difficult to maintain the position and indicating greater vulnerability to imbalances in daily life.
The Role of the Brain in Balance Control
Specialists emphasize that standing on one leg does not depend solely on the muscles.
The task requires the brain to process, simultaneously, visual information, signals from the vestibular system — located in the inner ear — and stimuli from the somatosensory system, responsible for informing body position and contact with the ground.
According to Kenton Kaufman, director of a motor analysis laboratory at the Mayo Clinic, “all these systems degrade with age, at different rates,” which helps explain why balance tends to gradually deteriorate over the decades.
This process does not occur uniformly and can vary significantly among people of the same age.
For this reason, difficulty in maintaining unilateral support is interpreted as a possible reflection of the functioning of brain areas linked to sensory integration and motor response speed.
When these functions are compromised, daily tasks that require quick body adjustments may become more difficult.
Falls in Older Adults and Loss of Stability
Concern about balance becomes relevant given the frequency of falls among the elderly.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that unintentional falls are among the leading causes of injury in people aged 65 and older.
These incidents are often associated with loss of stability and reduced reaction time.
According to Kaufman, many falls do not occur due to lack of strength, but because of the inability to react quickly enough to an unexpected obstacle, such as an irregularity on the floor.
In these cases, agility to reposition the leg and regain balance is crucial to avoid falling.
The 10-Second Test in Scientific Studies
The relationship between balance and overall health has also appeared in longitudinal research.
A study published in 2022 tracked middle-aged and older adults and observed that participants unable to remain for 10 seconds on one leg presented higher risk of death from various causes over the analyzed period.
This association remained even after adjustments for known clinical factors.
The study was led by exercise physician Cláudio Gil Araújo, from the Clinimex clinic in Rio de Janeiro.
According to the researcher, the test should not be interpreted in isolation, but can serve as a simple marker of functional aging when associated with other assessments.
Similar results emerged in analyses that compared performance in different physical tests, such as grip strength and the ability to sit and rise.
In these surveys, standing on one leg was identified as one of the most sensitive indicators for identifying increased risk of illness over the years.
Balance, Cognition, and Neurodegenerative Diseases
Studies involving people with dementia have also investigated balance as a functional parameter.
In research with patients diagnosed with Alzheimer, worse performance in the unilateral support test was associated with a faster cognitive decline compared to those who maintained the ability to balance for longer.
Researchers emphasize that this association does not indicate direct causality.
The data suggests that motor and cognitive functions may deteriorate parallelly, reflecting broader changes in the central nervous system.
How to Train Balance in Daily Life
Recent research indicates that balance can be trained at different ages.
Exercises that challenge standing on one leg tend to recruit muscles of the legs, hips, and trunk, in addition to stimulating coordination and sensory integration.
According to physician Tracy Espiritu McKay, a rehabilitation medicine specialist, “if you think it’s not easy, it’s time to start training your balance.”
Araújo recommends that people over 50 test their ability to stand for 10 seconds on each leg.
He suggests incorporating the exercise into daily activities, such as brushing teeth.
The researcher also notes that practicing with and without shoes can yield different stimuli, as the level of stability varies with foot support.
Programs combining strength exercises, aerobic activities, and balance training are associated, in clinical studies, with reduced risk factors for falls.
Modalities such as tai chi chuan, which involve slow weight transfer and postural control, are also mentioned in research for their relationship with lower incidence of falls in older adults.
Experts recommend starting these exercises safely, with support nearby.
In cases of a history of falls or significant limitations, the guidance is to seek professional evaluation.
-
Uma pessoa reagiu a isso.