To Your Health
How long you should be able to stand on one leg, according to your age
The researchers found that after the age of 65, there was a sharp drop off as older participants struggled to hold their stance for over two seconds. In the study, the authors wrote: ‘These findings suggest that the duration of unipedal stance [standing on one leg] can serve as a reliable and gender-independent measure of neuromuscular aging for both elderly male and female subjects.’
So standing on one leg is a good way to measure how much balance you have. The researchers wrote that it is an ‘a valid measure of frailty, independence, and fall status and proves to be a useful tool in identifying patients with peripheral neuropathy.’ And luckily for us, the NHS has a guideline on how long you should be able to stand on one leg for – depending on your age of course.
Just last year, the NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Board asked: ‘How long can you stand on one leg like a flamingo?’ They added: ‘It might sound like an odd question, but your answer to the above question could tell you a lot about your general health and fitness’.
The rules are:
• Keep your eyes open and your hands on your hips
• Stand on one leg without any other support
• Time starts when your foot leaves the ground and stops when you put your foot back down (or when you take your hands off your hips.)
If you are aged
between 18-39, you should be able to stand on one leg, like a flamingo, for 43 seconds.
‘We know that people who struggle to balance for the expected amount of time are at a higher risk of developing ill-health as they age. By taking part in the “flamingo challenge,” people can quickly and easily assess for themselves whether they are at risk. If they are, there are many different activities they can engage in that can help improve their overall fitness.’
Ages 40-49: 40 seconds
If you are aged between 40 and 49, you should be able to stand on one leg for 40 seconds. Doesn’t sound like a long time, but as you get older, the length of time you can stand on one-leg decreases.
Ages 50-59: 37 seconds
Those aged between 50 to 59, you should be able to stand on one leg for 37 seconds. According to the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the inability to stand on one leg for 10 seconds in mid to later life is linked to a near doubling in the risk of death from any cause within the next 10 years.
Ages 60-69: 30 seconds
If you are aged between 60 to 69, you should be able to stand on one leg for 30 seconds. Debbie Dyer, Clinical Lead for Ageing Well and Anticipatory Care at the North East Essex Alliance, said: ‘Moving our bodies more day-to-day brings immediate benefit, too. Exercise is brilliant for mental health and is a great way of meeting new people in your community. The fitter and healthier you are, the better your mental wellbeing, and the longer you will retain your agility, strength, and balance into later life.’
Ages 70-79: 18 seconds.
80+: 5 seconds
Those aged between 70 to 79 should be able to stand on one leg for around 18-19 seconds. If you’re over 80, you should be able to stand on your leg for a little over 5 seconds. The NHS recommends not trying to maintain the pose for longer than a minute though.
Healthy Blood Pressure Changes with Age — Here's What's Normal for Each Age Group
We all hear a lot about blood pressure, but depending on how often you take a trip to your doctor’s, you might now know what yours is.
The term refers to “the strength with which your blood pushes on the sides of your arteries as it’s pumped around your body,” the NHS says (how bad is it that I didn’t know that?).
Low blood pressure isn’t usually a concern, though it can make some of us feel dizzy and sometimes causes fainting.
But high blood pressure “can increase your risk of developing serious problems, such as heart attacks and strokes, if it’s not treated.”
Once you get those numbers you might be wondering what’s normal for your age ― and according to the Heart Research Institute, “normal blood pressure varies from person to person” and by age and gender.
These are:
1) Newborns up to 1 month
- Systolic (top number): 60–90 mm Hg
- Diastolic (bottom number): 20–60 mm Hg
2) Infants
- Systolic (top number): 87–105 mm Hg
- Diastolic (bottom number): 53–66 mm Hg
3) Toddlers
- Systolic (top number): 95–105 mm Hg
- Diastolic (bottom number): 53–66 mm Hg
4) Preschoolers
- Systolic (top number): 95–110 mm Hg
- Diastolic (bottom number): 56–70 mm Hg
5) School-aged children
- Systolic (top number): 97–112 mm Hg
- Diastolic (bottom number): 57–71 mm Hg
6) Adolescents
- Systolic (top number): 112–128 mm Hg
- Diastolic (bottom number): 66–80 mm Hg
7) 18–39 years
- Women: 110/68 mm Hg
- Men: 119/70 mm Hg
8) 40–59 years
- Women: 122/74 mm Hg
- Men: 124/77 mm Hg
9) 60+ years
- Women: 139/68 mm Hg
- Men: 133/69 mm Hg
Why does age and gender affect normal blood pressure levels?
According to the National Institute of Aging, “normal” blood pressure levels differ among different age groups because “Your body’s network of blood vessels, known as the vascular system, changes with age.”
“Arteries get stiffer, causing blood pressure to go up,” they add. That’s true even for very health and heart-conscious people.
And “Although the mechanisms responsible for the gender differences in blood pressure control are not clear, there is significant evidence that androgens, such as testosterone, play an important role in gender-associated differences in blood pressure regulation,” a research paper published by the American Heart Association (AHA) says.
The AHA wrote on a separate page that pre-menopausal women tend to have lower blood pressure than men do, but added that “after menopause, however, blood pressure increases in women to levels even higher than in men.”