Perimenopause Dizziness and Fear of Falling?
You Need Strength Training and the Know How to Reduce Stress
Can’t Stand Up for Fear of Falling Down?
You’re not imagining it. It’s a symptom: perimenopause dizziness. It can lead to a fear of falling. Yikes! Isn’t that just for old ladies?
Here we are, just a few strands of silver in our hair, all our own teeth and no free bus pass in sight! And yet we can barely step over a piece of Lego, let alone clamber down an embankment …
Sounds like we need:
- strength training
- ‘trip training’ built into home fitness
- Oh, and methods to calm anxiety and reduce stress.
Grab:
Calm for the anxiety of perimenopause and beyond
Ah-ha for stress calming and focus
Creatine and Shilajit Protein Powder for your strength
Bovine collagen to keep bones, joints and tissues tickety-boo, plus its glycine could help keep anxiety at bay.
Why do perimenopause (and beyond) balance issues lead to a fear of falling?
There’s well documented science on the development of the fear of falling. Plus, oestrogen affects the vestibular system and the brain so our balance is off.
- Hormonal swings cause dizziness. Poor sleep and anxiety heighten our fear response. Cue hypervigilance and eroding confidence in balance.
- Consciously or unconsciously, we begin to avoid certain activities. Not practicing movements that keep us strong and able to move in an adaptable way means we increase our fall risk.
It’s a viscous cycle of events spelling disaster for your longevity and movement (which you can help to maintain by taking a gander at this blog).
It’s one of the reasons Davinia is on a crusade to equip us with the information we need now in order to help our longevity and healthspan. In a few decades time, Dee wants us to recover from a trip as easily as if we’d learned a fancy dance move on Strictly. Boom, cha, cha, cha! Let’s get Davinia style practical!
3 Approaches to Balance Stability and Combat Perimenopausal Dizziness:
We’ll be singing I’m still standing in our 90s, hell, let’s go for the century, why not?!
One: Build strength for longevity by strength training at home (and away, if you fancy) and add in some ‘trip’ training for stability
We've got the methods below and how to fit them into real life without looking like a douche. Don’t forget to aim to build strength through resistance training in general at the gym and prep yourself a Creatine and Shilajit Protein Shake daily for all the health benefits of bone broth plus a no faff shilajit supplement (pure Himalayan shilajit, at that) to amp up your testosterone and monocreatine so you can go those couple of extra reps.
In the meantime, these will improve dealing with perimenopausal dizziness (or whichever part of the menopause train you’re on):
The Squat
You know how it seems that everything that falls to the floor in your home is your responsibility to pick up? Stop whinging - it’s life’s way of giving you an opportunity to practice a full squat. Ditto loading the washing machine, the dishwasher, getting the lasagne pan out of the back of the bottom cupboard.
Instead of grabbing hold of the counter top and leaning over like Ballet Barbie, go full squat on these jobs. Then get back up, without holding onto anything, if you can. If you can’t, keep practising until you can.
Why? Strengthens quads, glutes, hips—crucial for balance recovery.
Reactive Step Training
How much do you trust your partner? (Or your teen or best friend - you choose). Get them to give you a little gentle shove forwards, backwards or sideways. That way you can practise stepping to recover. If there’s no time for that, practise allowing your body weight to fall forwards a little so that your step response kicks in. Practise a swoon whenever you can.
Why? Improves stepping strategy and reduces fall risk by training fast muscle responses.
Why? Strengthens quads, glutes, hips—crucial for balance recovery.
Standing on one leg
Hello, inner flamingo! Practise standing on one leg, then the other, keep your knees soft, when you’re doing standing up stuff. Ask the boss for a sit-stand desk and you can practise all day! This one’s a good one to practise when you’re queuing.
Think you’re good at it? Maybe … try it with your eyes closed. Suddenly you realise how much your body adjusts because of what it can see.
Will you be getting up in the night for a wee when you’re old? Yes! So, close your eyes - getting up in the night when you’re older is a fall hazard. Don’t end up in a pool of your own wee, in the dark, at 3 a.m in November.
Why? Forces your nervous system to adapt and develop automatic corrections to stay upright.
Stand and reach
Choose something you do everyday - like brushing your teeth. Incorporate a stand and reach challenge. Stand on one leg. Reach for something just out of reach - your interdental brushes, maybe - they’re so out of reach that you have to catch yourself with a step forward. Swap the leading leg - who knows which side of your body could be called upon to stop a fall…
Why? Strengthens ankles, hips, and reactive core.
Step-ups with a random change of direction
Step onto something low - a step or platform - quickly change direction - pivot backwards or sideways. Play it with the kids and get them to shout instructions, left, back and so on. Or just get yourself an erratic dog to try control - it’s pretty similar! It builds real-world footwork coordination.
Great one to practice in the woods as you grow more confident - branchy pathways and the such like demand you flex with the terrain so your body is constantly practising little ‘recoveries’. Pavements are too conveniently flat for our ankle strength! Damn modern life!
Why? Improves adaptability and coordination—both essential in sudden trip situations.
Overall, you’re looking to build confidence in your body and mind’s ability to react to a trip recovery, that way, you’ll keep a better range of movements for your healthspan.
Two: Calm the Sh*t, I’m about to fall anxiety
Addressing just strength is great, but it won’t be enough. We need strategies to manage anxiety too.
Start with Calm to soothe the nerves and calm the mind. Its L-theanine is proven science, innit?
Gen up on how to mitigate against chronic stress with Does Stress Age You? Yes. Are You Fighting Stress with Stress? Biohack for Calm. It’s got all the good stuff on our supplements to reduce cortisol and answers questions like what is stress and how to reduce stress? Lovely.
Plus, Ah-Ha is a great nootropic stack that can help you focus and calm stress through the powers of ingredients such as stress mitigating lemon balm.
Don’t forget that bovine collagen (don’t muck about - ours is double award winning and comes from gorgeous Swiss cattle - Swiss-swoo) and its unique proportions of the amino acid glycine has been in the spotlight recently for its potential power to calm anxiety. Taking 5g a day has also been shown to improve bone density. Bones release osteocalcin, a hormone that helps keep your cognition sharp. You know what they say: the quicker the brain, the slower the fall. (We made that up, but mental cognition, your nervous system and your body are all involved in mitigating perimenopausal dizziness and balance stability, that much is true, so, you get our drift …).
Three: Tackle hormone changes to the ground (while you stay upright, obvs)
Get a grip on perimenopause. Learning how to work with hormone changes could help head off feelings of balance instability at the pass. Try Hack Your Hormones and while you’re waiting for it to be delivered (though it won’t be long - we’re slick!), get busy with Help, I’m in Perimenopause.
Perimenopausal dizziness?
- Build strength and confidence in your balance
- Combat stress and anxiety
- Get help balancing hormones
That fear of falling might simply melt away
You got this! And you can make it all playful - we’re not talking parkour, though don’t let us stop you, if that’s your bag, but the environment we’re surrounded by could well be the key to helping you prevent a fall when you’re older.
- Learn to walk confidently on uneven ground.
- Inject sudden bursts of speed for a few steps when you’re walking - or skip for a few steps.
- Walk barefoot around the house to help foot and ankle strength - don’t let the trainers take the strain and disempower your balance long term.
- Continue improving your strength training with Shilajit and Monocreatine Protein Powder
- Signal your body to calm down - try a physiological sigh. Anytime, any place, anywhere.
- Carry Calm for L-theanine - and remember to bloody take it! Forgetting to take it? You need Ah-Ha with its nootropics for that!
- Get the hormone knowledge with Hack Your Hormones
Recipes
120 mins
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