US Senior Citizens Increasingly Dying from Falls

I told about my fall in the garage and said my wife was kidding me about “ I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”
I sometimes remember things wrong anymore.
She was singing “you fought the floor and the floor won.”
To the tune of the old song “ I fought the law and the law won.”
That made it a little more funny.
 

Worst fall I've ever had was when I was wearing a nice, knit, wide leg pants. Took a step forward and the right foot caught on the pant hem of the left leg and I went flying. As much as I love those wide leg pants, I will never wear them again! They got Purged!
 
In my twenties, I tried to ride a homemade skateboard. Lost balance & fell smack down on my ankle. Leg turned black & blue. Neighbor lady said she knows a broken ankle when she sees one and that got me seeing a doctor. Boken ankle! 6 weeks plaster cast. Six weeks of leg hair growth. Not a pretty sight. 🐻
 
GoodEnuff said:
In nursing school, we were told that it is sometimes thought that a person who "falls and breaks a hip" actually falls because their hip bone breaks first. Weak bones, turning just a certain way. There is really no way to know for sure.
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I've heard that, too. The best thing we can probably do is is expect to fall and have a few things in place to make it less catastrophic.

1.) Every step should have a railing. People often fall going down their own front or back concrete steps with no railing to catch themselves.
2.) Grab bars beside toilets and in the shower should be there before you think you need them.
3.) Carpets on stairs.
4.) Throw rugs should be tossed out or firmly held down with anti-skid tapes.
4.) Don't wear flip-flops, slick socks, sloppy shoes, long robes, long nightgowns, or bell bottoms. ;)
5.) Look behind you before you sit down, your chair might have rolled away a little. This could save you or your cat.
 
I have an unbelievable story about my brother in law`s fall this weekend that resulted in a broken hip. I will start a separate thread for ir-believe me when I say it deserves it`s own thread....
 
GP44 said:
I have noticed that I start getting dizzy while sitting on the toilet and when I strain too long at times.
When I notice that I am getting dizzy I rest for a minute.
I am drinking no sugar added pineapple juice right now because I have been having a harder time the last day or so.
I’ll bet a lot of young people could never imagine all of things we have to do as we get older.
At times I would like to let them know but more than likely they won’t care until it happens to them.
I really do appreciate all I learn from this forum. I knew I needed to connect with people my age.
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I think about that all the time--about young people without a clue. Especially since that's how I was. I remember in my 50s, telling my mom and aunt and uncle that I understood them bc I was now closer to them in age, and they laughed and kept telling me I was still young....now I am astonished by my then-chutzpah.
 
The Today Show had a pretty decent t segment on this subject this morning, June 25, 2025.

Hopefully the link opens as it is informative — except for taking supplements - I will go toe-To-toe with the science community, regarding the fact that they think all supplements are a waste, unless of course your doctor tells you to take something🙄

https://www.today.com/video/doctor-shares-secrets-to-longevity-and-better-health-242231877528

In spite of what most people think they are not getting enough exercise to keep their muscles, active and supple. Something that my chiropractor, and all my physical therapist have told me to do over the years because I have so much bone deterioration in my back from trauma injuries.

for example, yesterday, I managed to haul 150 pounds of horse feed up the landing in the garage and into the spare room where I keep the feed because it’s too hot and humid at the barn. I still have a 50 pound salt block sitting in the trunk of the car, but it won’t spoil so I’ll get to it when I get to it. that means I will lift it out of the trunk of the car onto the running board of the four wheeler, park the four wheeler beside the salt block holder, then lift the salt block off the running board down into the salt block holder.

I am 78 and I’m still doing this sort of thing. I am still taking care of two horses. Of course by some people’s comments on this forum I am elderly because I am 78. Yes I am up there all right but I don’t consider myself elderly. I am still more cognitive than a lot of people 20 years my junior, and I am still doing more physically than those same people who are 20 years in my junior.


I know not everybody has the privilege (at least I think it’s a privilege) of living on a farm to where you have to do the work. Many people are in apartments to where there is no work to do and I don’t know what the answer is short of buying resistance equipment, putting it in your apartment, throwing a cover over it when you’re done using it for the day and put some sort of decoration on the top of it like a Christmas tree ornament🤠🤠
 
This may seem odd, but full body constant shaking exercises bones, etc. Mine are strong. However, I still need to do whatever it takes to exercise my lungs. :)
 
Della said:
My doc said that after such a fall a person's heart health goes steeply down hill, ( he showed me a nasty graph,)
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I didn't know that!
JustDave said:
The big question for me halfway through this thread is not about precautions we need to take, but the cause of the 70% increase over the last 10 years. If we understood what that was, we could better figure out the solutions. Maybe the data is wrong. Maybe it was under reported in the past. If so, it may be just something that happens to old people, and all we can to is remind ourselves to be careful.
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I was wondering the same.

Something that hasn't come up here is that fall recovery can be more difficult for people taking blood thinners.
 
StarSong said:
I didn't know that! [deteriorating heart after a fall]
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I think it's likely that the original fall was the result of a heart problem, rather than the other way around
StarSong said:
Something that hasn't come up here is that fall recovery can be more difficult for people taking blood thinners.
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I suffered a collapse last summer which resulted in a fall. It was diagnosed as low iron content in my blood, which has since been taken care of, and dehydration. No one ever mentioned blood thinners which I have been taking for 5 or 6 years. I'll have to research that.
 
From what I read, which was mostly just a scroll through Google hits, blood thinners don't seem to cause falls, but falls can be serious to those on blood thinners, because falls cause bleeding, sometimes internally, and are not detected immediately, which is pretty obvious even without Google.
 
JustDave said:
From what I read, which was mostly just a scroll through Google hits, blood thinners don't seem to cause falls, but falls can be serious to those on blood thinners, because falls cause bleeding, sometimes internally, and are not detected immediately, which is pretty obvious even without Google.
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Yes, that's what I've heard, too. That's why I said fall recovery could be more difficult.
 
Wonder how much medications play into this subject. Doc gave me a pain med and I was on it for less than 2 months and fell about 6 times. I felt like a zombie. Got off that med and everything went back to normal. Zip falls. Why don't you hear much about that aspect of falling ?
 
StarSong said:
I didn't know that!

I was wondering the same.

Something that hasn't come up here is that fall recovery can be more difficult for people taking blood thinners.
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One day, when I took blood thinners, I was sitting here (at computer), turned head to look at my daughter who had just entered the room and my whole torso suddenly began to jerk back and forth hard. For a short time. Daughter phoned Doc & nurse told me to NOT take another blood thinner. One cause of this might have come on because I was also little by little mgs titrating off of diazepam. A doctor found out during another appt. that I hadn't needed the blood thinner in the first place!
 
... there are funny ones, too...

Balloons Galore
 
Nearly everyone I know in the "really senior" category takes a blood thinner. Including myself. Apparently the threat of blood clotting and moving to the brain, causing stroke, is considered worse than the danger of too much bleeding from falls and minor injuries. So I guess it's a question of, as the old expression goes, choosing your poison.
 

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