Spinal nerve damage and surgeries are just some of the factors that may cause proprioception issues.
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[00:00:00] So there’s a number of things that can cause appropriate assumption problems. Um, you know, we do see that, uh, as people get older, they tend to have appropriate assumption problem. Um, but I wouldn’t say age causes it per se. Uh, there is what we call appropriate, um, idiopathic peripheral neuropathy, which is a big, fancy word for, we don’t know what’s causing it.
Um, and so there’s a lot of idiopathic of a lot of different, uh, diagnoses and it’s basically, we don’t know, uh, There may, there may not be any history to the person to explain why they have this problem. There’s nothing that adds up and they just have it. Um, and so the key there is to just recognize that’s there and then to, uh, empower them to get back to living their life, uh, as independently and, um, productively as possible and to get around as well as possible.
Um, Other things that can cause it very commonly. Uh, back problems, uh, back surgeries. Um, so if you’re having, you know, back issues, especially with radiating pain down the leg, uh, back surgeries, those sorts of things. Um, neck surgeries, [00:01:00] same thing. And the reason for that is because there can be damage, uh, at the spinal cord or that the nerve that comes out the spinal cord.
And so if you think of, let’s say like a bulging disc, so people have, uh, problems with, um, with a bulging disc and it presses on the nerve. That disc keeps pressing on that nerve over time, and it can wear away on that nerve. And so they, it depends on where the damage is on the nerve and pe but people can live months and years in this way.
Um, and so down the road they can experience, um, all sorts of sensory type problems. You know, numbness, pain, uh, tingling. But it’s not all, it’s not always those things. Be something more subtle, like proprioception problem, and that’s often unrecognized. So then they find themselves years later, uh, falling, uh, randomly and they don’t know why.
And what’s actually happening in that sort of a case is they might have a, a vestibular system or inner ear balance system that’s gotten older. And not [00:02:00] as strong as it used to be. Uh, they may not be as quick as they used to be, and then on top of appropriate suction problem, they, they start falling. Uh, so it’s accumulation of all these things.
Other things that can cause it just, you know, orthopedic injuries, you know, uh, repeated sprained ankles, um, can cause it, uh, toxicities, you know, uh, cancer treatment and things like this. So sometimes there’s, uh, we can look at the person’s medical history to say this could be a contributing factor to this.
Um, but sometimes we just don’t know. Hmm. And so it’s, we just, yep. Idiopathic peripheral neuropathy. Uh, the main thing to know is that, to recognize that it’s there, how severe is it, and then what to do about it.
