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Years ago I remember reading that many people who were said to have "fallen and broken their hip" actually had a hip fracture, and THEN fallen. It stands to reason if you look at how fragile the hip joint can be, it looks like a rather thin socket, in which the thick legbone (sorry I don't know the correct name of the bone) pivots. Picture a thick piece of pipe inside an eggshell..all it would take is a quick jolt and the eggshell would shatter, right? On the other hand, the hip area of the body is covered with a thick layer of muscle and fat, so if you did fall on your hip, it would likely be protected from the impact by that muscle and fat. When the hip joint gets replaced, the first thing the doctor reccommends is constant excersize to keep the joint moving, however a typical older parkinson's victim may have great difficulty doing this, so I would not be surprised if the hip replacement was not as succesful as in a person without Parkinson's. On the subject of killing animals for medical testing and experimentation, I detest killing of animals for any reason, HOWEVER, we kill millions of animals, fish and fowl to eat, we spend probably trillions of dollars to exterminate insects and rodents, just because we don't want them around, and countless animals are killed to give recreation to hunters, with the explanation that they would die anyway from starvation, if the "herds were not thinned out" . We kill probably thousands of animals with our vehicles, due to careless driving, or people not keeping their pets off the roads......ALL that and if someone wants to save human lives and prevent needless suffering, someone will say "don't kill the animals" I forgot one last thing, what about the animals killed to make fur coats, or interiors for cars, or to test cosmetics? [OO] LOOKING FOR RADIOS! Ken Becker [log in to unmask] On Thu, 19 Oct 1995, Mark Hirsch wrote: > Falling is a major problems for persons with Parkinson's. Parkinson's > has been called the "falling sickness", and one theory is that > unexplained falls represent one of the earliest clinical symptoms of > PD. (this is uncommon and may indicate the parkinsonian-plus syndrome > PSP). Dopamine therapy is generally not helpful for persons who fall. > It is not understood why this is so! Physical therapy may be > beneficial in the reduction of falls in PD. > > A great deal has been written about the causes of falls both for > "healthy" older adults and for those with PD. Falling is a > multifactorial phenomenon. There are many causes of falls in persons > with PD. Among them are: > > 1. Postural instability > 2. Orthostatic hypotension > 3. Motor fluctuations > 4. Freezing and festination > 5. Dementia & other neurologic deficits > 6. Environmental factors > > About 80-90% of hip fractures in older adults are due to falls. Fewer > that 10% occur before the fall, maybe as a result of osteoporosis. Hip > fractures are also an increasing problem in the PD population. Some studies > report a nine-fold increase in hip fracture risk among persons with > parkinsonism. There is also a very high rate of mortality and > complications after hip replacement operations. > > > A great deal has been written about the positive effect of Physical > Therapy for persons with PD, however little has been reported about the > efficacy of group training in the amelioration of falls in persons > with PD. Persons respond well to balance training. These improvements > bring about decreases in the total number of falls and changes in the > strategies which persons use to keep their bodies from falling. > Strength training is also beneficial in the reduction of falls in > persons with PD. Persons with PD may have a high potential to improve > balance, gait and strength through group training. > > (To be continued) > > Mark Hirsch > -- >