A new Japanese study suggests that not being able to balance on one leg for at least 20 seconds could actually be a sign that you're at a greater risk of stroke.
"Individuals showing instability while standing on one leg, as well as problems walking, should receive increased attention, as this physical frailty may signal potential brain abnormalities and mental decline," said Yasuhara Tabara, the study's lead author and an associate professor at the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, in an official statement.
According to the study, published in Stroke on December 18, people unable to balance themselves on one leg for long may have that difficulty because of tiny bleeds or small strokes, which in turn heightens the risk for greater strokes.
Tabara and his team evaluated about 1,400 men and women with an average age of 67, asked them to stand on one leg for more than 20 seconds and then took MRI scans to detect who, if any of them, may have suffered "microbleeds" in their brain. Those scans indicated that many of the participants who couldn't balance also exhibited evidence of those smaller, "silent strokes" — approximately one-third of subjects who had two or more microbleeds could not balance on one leg, nor could 16 percent of individuals who had suffered one small stroke. Balance difficulties were also linked to impaired thinking and memory support.
HealthDay News reports that the subjects "with brain vessel damage were older, had high blood pressure and thicker neck (carotid) arteries" compared to those who hadn't experienced microbleed strokes.
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