Ability to balance on one leg may be linked to a longer life: study

Participants in the study were asked to balance for 10 seconds on one leg with their lifted foot touching the back of the standing leg, arms at their sides and eyes fixed forward.

In life, balance really may be the key.

This could be especially true for older adults. According to a new study, it may be possible to predict how long they’ll live based on how well they can balance on one foot.

The inability to stand on one leg for 10 seconds is linked to nearly double the risk of death from any cause within the next decade, the study found.

According to a report published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, balance quickly diminishes after the mid-50s, which often increases the risk for falls and other health hazards.

The study’s lead author, Dr. Claudio Gil Soares de Araújo, a sports and exercise physician and director of research and education at the Exercise Medicine Clinic-CLINIMEX in Rio de Janeiro, wrote that poor balance and musculoskeletal wellness can be linked with frailty in older adults.

“Aged people falling are in very high risk of major fractures and other related complications,” Araújo wrote. “This may play a role in the higher risk of mortality.”

The study was conducted on 1,702 Brazilian residents ages 51 to 75.

At their first study checkup, data on every participant’s weight, waist size and measures of body fat was collected by the research team. Only individuals who could walk without ample difficulty were included in the study.