Gait and Balance Disorder

How you walk (your gait) and your ability to balance can impact musculoskeletal health and increase your fall risk. Holsman Physical Therapy has 17 locations throughout New Jersey and New York City, where their team offers in-depth gait assessments, fall prevention programs, and balance training to help you regain mobility, reduce pain, and avoid falls. Call Holsman Physical Therapy today to learn how you could benefit from a gait and balance disorder evaluation, or use the online booking form to schedule a consultation.

What is a gait and balance disorder?

Gait and balance disorders affect your ability to walk and stand naturally and safely. They increase your risk of falls, which can cause severe injuries and disability. They can also accelerate musculoskeletal wear-and-tear, leading to chronic pain. 

Gait and balance disorder symptoms include:

• Difficulty walking
• Unsteadiness
• Lightheadedness
• Motion sickness
• Double vision
• Dizziness
• Visual disturbances
• Fatigue
• Nausea
• Difficulty thinking clearly

Balance disorders often relate to a problem with your inner ear, which is essential to balance. The most common form of balance disorder is vertigo, which causes the feeling that everything around you is moving or spinning, even at rest.

Vertigo may be central (originating in your spinal cord or brain) or peripheral, relating to inner ear problems. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) is the most common type. Other conditions that cause vertigo include Meniere’s disease, vestibular neuronitis, and labyrinthitis.

What other gait and balance disorders might affect me?

Conditions that might cause gait and balance problems include:

• Parkinson’s disease
• Head injuries
• Stroke
• Multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Medications like antidepressants and blood pressure pills
• Joint pain or arthritis
• Brain tumors
• Chiari malformation
• Spinal cord compression
• Guillain-Barré syndrome
• Peripheral neuropathy
• Cerebral palsy (CP)
• Muscular dystrophy
• Excessive body weight
• Chronic alcohol misuse
• Vitamin B-12 deficiency

If you’ve been having gait and/or balance issues, your provider can examine you and order tests or procedures to diagnose the cause.

Examples include a comprehensive gait analysis, hearing and sight tests, blood work, the Dix-Hallpike or roll test to detect abnormal eye movement, a CT or MRI scan, electromyography (EMG), or electronystagmography (ENG) to check cranial nerve function.

What treatments help with balance disorders?

Holsman Physical Therapy offers several treatments for conditions causing gait and balance issues, including:

Falls prevention and balance training

HolStep™ uses a harness system (Solo-Step® or LiteGait®) in a safe, well-controlled clinic environment. The harness allows you to challenge your stability limits up to the point of falling without risking harm.

This system significantly increases patients’ abilities and confidence. The program also includes an occupational therapy home assessment and personalized physical therapy.

Vestibular rehabilitation

Vestibular rehab aims to help patients with balance issues improve their quality of life. The most effective approaches for peripheral vertigo include the canalith repositioning procedure and the Epley maneuver.

Call Holsman Physical Therapy to learn more about gait and balance disorder treatments, or schedule a consultation online today. The practice has locations in Lyndhurst, Fair Lawn, Cedar Grove, Caldwell, Bloomfield, Maplewood, Newark, South Orange, Clifton, Paterson, Kearney, Jersey City, and Rahway, New Jersey, and the Crotona and Van Nest neighborhoods in the Bronx and the Cypress Hills neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City.