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My mom has complained of "balance problems" for the last few years. She attributes it to the lamictal she has to take to prevent seizures, but I'm wondering if this could be related to the dementia? There are days she has a hard time walking and will say "my balance is really bad today".... would a med side effect vary day to day?


Her old neurologist tried her on other seizure meds, nothing improved as far as the balance problem. She did a lot better mood-wise on the lamictal so she ended up back on lamictal.


Just really hoping these balance problems don't progress, so I want to understand what is causing it. If it is the med, then it shouldn't progress, right?

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Thanks all. She doesn't use a walker. Refuses. Her eyes and ears are fine, both have been checked.

It's either coming from the lamictal, or is stroke/dementia related. Three more weeks until her first neurology appointment in our area. I have so many questions written down. This is one of them.
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I could see balance being affected by dementia! Also consider her hydration, while you’re waiting anyway. I notice a marked difference when my mother hasn’t had enough water (a constant battle.) :( It literally shows in her posture, it may be specific to her diabetes 2 but worth a try.
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My dad’s balance problems have increased as his dementia’s worsened. I think it’s just one of the horrible morphological changes that come with the disease. He walks kind of hunched over, with his hips and knees bent and this gets worse as the day goes on. He also moves more slowly both as the day goes on as well as when he’s inundated with stimuli to process, like making a trip to the grocery store with my mom. His coordination is off and it’s a struggle to pour a bowl of cereal and carry it over to the kitchen table just a few feet away, he has trouble with fine motor skills such as cleaning and putting on/taking off his hearing aids as well as having decreased strength and trouble keeping muscle mass.
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It's related to age. There are three basic ways to maintain balance. Visual, vestibular and proprioception. Visual is just well vision. Vestibular is your inner ear. It's kind of like a built in gyroscope. Proprioception is body sense. It's when you know whether your leg is straight out or at an angle for example. All 3 fade with age. You can generally get by with only 2. That's why the cops have you close your eyes during a sobriety test. It takes away one of them. The alcohol takes away another. So you won't do very well.

Vestibular system tends to be the one that fades noticeably. Unfortunately, the way people compensate is by looking down to see where they are going. This takes away visual as well since you really want to have your head up and looking at the horizon for that to work right. Then you lose your balance and fall.

There are exercises to retrain the brain to deal with a compromised vestibular system. One way is to rig someone up on a special treadmill and trip them. They learn rather quickly how not to fall. A gentler way is to teach them to look up when they walk to get visual cues. But that takes longer.
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Jimbosticks Mar 2019
Learned a lot from your post. Thanks.
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Like rocket said, have her ears checked. Inner ear problems are not rare. And a good eye exam with an Opthamologist who is an MD. Not an Optometrist who isn't.
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Has her vision been checked lately? Mom started to have balance problems, got really shakey on her walker and didn’t want to try anymore, and unbeknown to us she had had an optic nerve stroke in one eye, which shot her balance off completely. Also you could have her ears checked as I’ve heard that some balance issues could be due to fluid levels in the inner ear.
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Along with this, Just Old age. Make sure she is Okay.
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have the doctor check her blood pressure - laying down, sitting and standing. it is called postural hypotension or orthostatic hypotension. Gravity causes blood to pool in your legs when you stand. Ordinarily, your body compensates by increasing your heart rate and constricting blood vessels, thereby ensuring that enough blood returns to your brain.
But in people with orthostatic hypotension, this compensating mechanism fails and blood pressure falls, leading to dizziness, lightheadedness, blurred vision and even fainting.
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My late mother, a person without dementia, listed to one side. The issue was corrected by obtaining a shoe lift to fit inside one shoe from her podiatrist.
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I've had balance problems for the past three years. Started when I was 61 1/2. It's accompanied by a few other issues including numbness in my face, dry mouth, chest pains and what a neurologist would later call a strange gait. Initially it was thought I had an abscess in my jaw from some very sloppy dental work. Then an infection in my sinuses. The doctors then decided I must have had a stroke. All these were ruled out by a succession of very expensive scans and fiber optic probing. After a year and a half of living with the symptoms and not having a diagnosis, a neurologist told me I had a brain tumor. Another brain scan ruled that out, so he settled on a diagnosis of Parkinson's. Meanwhile the cardiologist was preparing some risky invasive tests on my heart. Shortly before I was to start my treatment, I changed my primary care physician. The new doctor consented to the $50 Lyme Disease test I had been begging for since my symptoms begain. The test was positive. I have made some progress with the treatment, but some of the neurological damage is apparently permanent.

My point is, there are a lot of things that can cause balance problems. I wouldn't leap to the conclusion that it is dementia.
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BlackHole Mar 2019
My goodness, jimbo. How disheartening that your 1st doctor was so slipshod. He did real damage. I hope you are on a good path now. Sometimes Lyme has a long recovery. (((hugs)))
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