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I’m standing in a stork-like position in my living room balancing on one leg, the other leg kicked out behind me. My arms are extended at my sides and I’m leaning forward slightly — not unlike a 3-year-old pretending to be an airplane readying for takeoff. (Such is the life of a wellness writer!)
The exercise is ridiculously easy. Until it’s not. I close my eyes and, suddenly, my legs wobble and my ankles quiver. I sway to the left, then to the right, before finally toppling forward.
Good balance is beneficial for living a longer, healthier life — at any age. Check out our series featuring the latest research, a balance IQ test and simple at-home exercises.
The single-leg activity, meant to test my balance, is giving me critical information for my future. Much to my chagrin, I failed — and if the data is any indication, living to a ripe old age isn’t as much of a given as I expected.
When it comes to fitness and longevity, cardio, strength training and stretching have long gotten the spotlight as the go-to approaches for optimizing our health span and lifespan. But balance is having a moment, quickly becoming the fourth tent pole of wellness and healthy aging. And it’s now even seen as a predictor of longevity. According to a 2022 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, participants 51 to 75 years old who couldn’t perform a similar test to the one I did (standing on one leg for at least 10 seconds with eyes open), had an 84% higher risk of death within the next decade.
The single leg balance test is even considered a leading indicator of neuromuscular aging, says a 2024 Mayo Clinic study. “The duration an individual, whether male or female, can maintain balance on one leg,” it concluded, “emerges as the most reliable determinant of aging, surpassing strength, gait, and other balance parameters.”
Mike Teater is the director of balance education for Fyzical, a national network of clinics specializing in balance and dizziness. He says that balance is “100% a predictor of longevity” partly because it initiates a domino effect.
“Falls lead to injury. Which leads to decreased mobility, confidence and decreased activity,” he says. “That leads to a higher risk of chronic disease, like heart disease, diabetes, obesity. And social isolation — which can lead to depression and is a contributing factor to declining mental health and cognition, including dementia.”
Injurious falls in older adults are so common, it’s become a national public health crisis. One in four adults in the U.S. age 65 or older falls annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — in 2020, that was about 14 million people. Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death in older adults, with the “fall death rate” rising about 4.1% annually from 1999 to 2020. In 2024, more than 43,000 adults over 65 died from a fall. The related cost on the U.S. healthcare system is estimated to be about $80 billion annually, according to the CDC, which in 2012 released a fall prevention initiative called STEADI (Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths & Injuries).
But we have more control over our balance than we may realize, urges Duke University balance researcher, Kristal M. Riska, who’s president of the American Balance Society.
Good balance is a marker for longevity. Discover your “balance IQ” with three simple DIY balance tests you can do at home to assess fall risk, mobility and vestibular health.
“Often, as we get older, we attribute balance problems to ‘oh, that’s just aging’ — and certainly there are age-related changes — but that doesn’t mean we can’t intervene,” Riska says. “Over the last several decades there’s been a push among doctors and researchers to improve detection of balance impairment and falls prevention, with many multifaceted programs available to help improve balance, strength, flexibility and coordination.”
“We’re all looking to live longer and have more quality of life,” adds Teater. “And one of the ways to do that is to continue to engage with the world and stay active. Having good balance is critical for that.”
