How to restore balance followingstroke?

ByRajul vasa B. Sc. P T

Applied movement scientist

What is balance?

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Balance is an ability of an individual to control,restore and regulate the COM [centre of mass] of thebody automatically without thinking.

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Following stroke, when one side of the body musclesare weak, paralyzed and may be they are spastic aswell, it is unable to control, restore and regulate the

COM against the force of gravity. This leads to….

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Automatic switch of control of balance to the nonparetic good side by selforganizingbrain for; safetyof COM is a priority for all living organism.

Sensory Proprioception

With balance control switched to good non paretic side by self-organized brain following stroke, the story does not end rather it

begins……..

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Self-organized brain also wants to secure the safety of COM byunloading the paretic lower limb of the responsibility of thelarge inertial mass of the head arm trunk to be born on theparetic hip, it endorses the mechanical unloading of paretic hipfrom unopposed pull of normal trunk muscles by neuralendorsement of ongoing peripheral input from normalperipheral nervous system[PNS]

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Unloading of lower limb results in consequential effect on theproprioceptors in the muscle and joint receptors. I believe thatinstead of poor proprioception there is hyper proprioception /hyperesthesia from unloading to make reloading of pareticlower limb an impossible task thereby maintain COM safetywith good side.