Falls are a major public health risk and can be detrimental to one’s quality of life. As one gets older, their ability to see and interact with their environment changes. Changes to the health of the eyes can occur directly impacting the clarity of vision. Changes can also occur in brain processing which can not only affect how one uses their vision, but also balance when walking or standing.
Aging Affecting Visual Midline Causing Risk of Fall and Balance
Aging or a neurological condition caused by aging can compromise the spatial process affecting balance and posture. This can cause a shift in the center of gravity due to a shift in visual midline. Your visual midline is developed early in life and enables you to use visual spatial information to match with information from your balance systems as a child. When there is a mismatch between your visual spatial information and your balance systems later in life, your visual midline can shift. When this occurs balance is affected and you can develop Visual Midline Shift Syndrome (VMSS) and the risk of fall (RoF) will increase which can significantly impact quality of life.
Symptoms of VMSS include:
- Dizziness or nausea
- Spatial disorientation
- Consistently drifting to one side of hallway or room
- Bumping into objects when walking
- Poor balance or posture (leaning forward, backward or to one side when walking, standing or seated in a wheelchair)
- Back pain or muscle rigidity
- Difficulty tolerating busy/crowded environments
If you experience any of these symptoms, there are tests available to assess you for VMSS. At the Padula Institute of Vision, we combine observation of posture when sitting and walking with gait testing to evaluate and rehabilitate VMSS.
Symptoms of PTVS include:
- Double vision
- Headaches
- Blurred vision
- Dizziness or nausea
- Attention or concentration difficulties
- Staring behavior (infrequent blinking)
- Spatial disorientation
- Losing your place when reading
- Not being able to find the beginning of the next line when reading
- Visual memory problems
- Pulling away from objects when they are brought close to you
- Seeing objects as moving when they are actually stationary
- Difficulty tolerating busy/crowded environments
Neuro-Visual Processing Rehabilitation
Those who have had falls or are at risk for falls can benefit from a neuro-visual evaluation. This exam is very different from a routine eye exam. Its purpose is to provide an in-depth analysis of the relationship between the spatial visual process and the neuro-motor system using a variety of tests. If you would like to learn more about what to expect during an exam, please click here.
Treatment of visual processing symptoms often comes in the form of yoked-prism glasses which are usually prescribed for therapeutic use and should only be used under the direction of the prescribing doctor. These prisms may also be recommend for use during physical or occupational therapy. Another therapeutic aid that can be employed is bi-nasal occlusion. This involves placing two strips of opaque tape vertically on the part of each lens that is closest to the nose which serves to provide a vertical boundary in the visual environment and can anchor a dysfunctional vision process. We also provide Neuro-Visual Postural Therapy ™ (NVPT) when necessary and appropriate.
For many, dysfunction of the visual process can be a primary cause of the symptoms many experience. Treatment through neuro-optometric rehabilitation becomes an interdisciplinary approach that can maximize potentials in other therapies such as physical, occupation, speech, and cognitive therapies. Collaboration is often the key to successful rehabilitation.
The Padula Institute of Vision Rehabilitation
provides a patient-centered approach to evaluate each person’s individual imbalance in visual processing and will provide an individual direction for rehabilitation based on each person’s needs and abilities.
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