Cool (with a significant: "Like DUUHHH!!!" component) technology for older women.
Weighted Back Support and Exercises Improve Balance, Decrease Risk of Falls in Older Women
Research out of the Mayo Clinic shows that wearing a simple weighted back support together with an exercise program protects older women from falls, improves the sense of balance and lessens back pain:
By wearing a unique weighted back support device and participating in a special exercise program, women over 60 with osteoporosis-caused curvature of the spine improved their balance and experienced diminished back pain, giving researchers at Mayo Clinic a promising therapy to reduce falls among this population...
Within four weeks in the study, the researchers noted significant changes in balance and gait. They also recorded back extensor strength improvements and significant decrease in back pain. Mayo Clinic researchers present their findings in the July 2005 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings...
Very cool -- this would add years to someones mobility. My Mom has serious mobility problems these days but she has never trusted Doctors that much (with good reason -- some have given her horrible advice). Something like this, simple with proven benefits, would have been wonderful for her if introduced ten years ago. Now if I can get her to get her Cataracts fixed.
