Intentional Stress Challenge: Balance On One Foot

Progressive challenge series to improve unilateral balance and resilience.

As an audiologist, one of my specialty areas is the balance system. In our inner ears, we not only have the sensory organ for hearing, we also have the vestibular system comprised of semicircular canals and sensory organs responsible for maintaining balance, spatial orientation, and our ability to preserve equilibrium in response to head movement. The inner ear continuously sends an enormous amount of information along the vestibulocochlear nerve (8th cranial nerve) to allow for processing of both hearing and balance  in the brain. Even more impressive, each ear does this individually so that differences between the two provide information on location or movement. 

Vertigo is a symptom that refers to a spinning sensation, either of yourself or the world around you, and is almost always associated with vestibular dysfunction. The balance or asynchrony of messaging between ears provides the brain with information regarding movement. When you turn your head to the right, the right vestibular system sends more information to the brain than the left. For this reason, audiologists can use water of different temperatures to activate (warm water) or suppress (cold water) an individual ear in evaluation of potential disorders. A fun science project for the brave is to play with this phenomenon at home. Have someone lay flat with the head turned to the side and eyes closed. Fill up the ear canal with cold water and let it sit. After about a minute, bring the head back to center with rag over the ear to catch the water while having the person continue to keep eyes closed. If done correctly, the cold water should have suppressed vestibular function on that side and the person should begin to feel like they’re spinning. Only lasts for 20-30 seconds while the inner ear returns to baseline but it’s a wild experience to feel like you’re spinning when laying flat on your back. Open the eyes at any point to inhibit the response. It’ll still happen but focusing on an object will help to decrease the sensation of vertigo.

Our balance system is actually is composed of three different sensory systems: vestibular, visual, and proprioception (sense of touch). Information sent from these systems are simultaneously processed by our brains for balance maintenance. We have ongoing reflexes such as the vestibular ocular reflex or the cervical ocular reflex that sustain coordination and visual focus in response to any kind of movement. These reflexes that sustain performance during dynamic movements are possible only because of the interaction and complimentary information coming from these systems. Incredibly complex and impressive network.

Balance is an imperative function for basic to elite performance for all humans. Compromised balance decreases efficiency and effectiveness in all matters while increasing the risk of accidents, falls, and injuries.

Balance and the systems that support it, like anything else, can be trained. Training balance is a way to simultaneously take advantage of the resilience benefits that can be derived from any form of intentional stress while simultaneously enhancing a crucial skill for all aspects of life.