What if staying balanced for ten seconds on one leg became a key moment in our future health checks? Géraldine Zamansky, journalist for the Magazine de la santé on France 5 and every weekend on franceinfo, takes stock of this idea, resulting from a Brazilian scientific study published this week.
franceinfo: Would this exercise allow us to properly test our state of health?
Géraldine Zamansky : In fact, according to this study, it even gives an idea of our life expectancy. Indeed, a medical team followed 1,702 people aged 51 to 75 between 2008 and 2020. At the start, all the participants were able to try three times to hold ten seconds on one leg, keeping their arms along their bodies. One in five did not last. And among them, there were 17.5% of deaths during the study…Three times more than among those who had succeeded. From this overall rate, the researchers made other finer statistical analyzes according to the characteristics of the participants and they think that this test could well be used as a kind of alert tool.
A bad balance somehow predicts serious problems?
That’s the idea. I asked the question to a general practitioner, Dr Mathieu Calafiore. And he found the idea rather interesting. Because this exercise assesses balance, as you said, but also muscle strength. It therefore gives a good idea of the “general shape” of the patients. A particularly important insight for the elderly. At home, this doctor reminded me that a fall could trigger a fatal spiral. Moreover, you have surely guessed it, less than half of the participants over 70 years old at the start of the study passed the test. Failure was also more frequent in the event of significant overweight. And precisely what interests Dr. Calafiore is to use this alert to change things.
A well-informed patient could train, pass the test… and increase his life expectancy?
Exactly. Dr. Mathieu Calafiore explained to me that passing this test does not require extreme measures. Walking 30 minutes every two days, for example, is already very complete for the muscles, the balance and the heart. Otherwise gardening for those who have a garden, and even simply moving more at home, standing a little more and walking when talking on the phone. Why not do small balance exercises on your own, with support at the beginning of course. We also find these tracks in the free Tempoforme program created by the University Hospital of Lille. And, guess what, in the first evaluation of physical abilities, you have to start a stopwatch and try to stand on one leg… for a minute! A longer French version of the test proposed by the Brazilian team…
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