shuffling feet when you walk
This the brain's way of compensating for the balance problems that will occur with the disease. Steps may also be shorter in stride (length of the step) in a shuffling gait. Shuffling gait – Shuffling gait appears as if the person is dragging their feet as they walk. However, your walking pattern is no longer smooth if you have an unsteady gait. Foot shuffling is a huge problem and an important contributing factor in many falls. Shuffling is a common cause of falls because sliding feet can more easily trip on rugs, door thresholds, or even slightly uneven surfaces. Shuffling the feet is a contributing factor in so many falls. In other words, the fall might be caused by a crack in the sidewalk but if you had been picking your feet up you might not have tripped. WebMD Symptom Checker helps you find the most common medical conditions indicated by the symptoms muscle wasting, shuffling gait (feet) and weakness including Peripheral neuropathy, Muscle strain, and Parkinson disease. There are a few symptoms of Parkinson’s disease that lay in the feet such as a shuffling walk due to flat-feet from the stiffness in ankles. Some people call it “Festinating gait“.But, shuffling gait and Festinating gait are different. And, for good reason. The slow, shuffling walk of old age may be caused by invisible problems with tiny blood vessels in the brain. Shuffling gait is defined as a walking pattern in which the foot is still moving when it hits the ground.. One such gait pattern that leads to falling includes shuffling ones feet. One of these such symptoms would be shuffling or dragging your feet when you walk. If we learn to do just this one thing, fall incidents would be drastically reduced. For example, people who have Parkinson's disease may have a shuffling gait characterized by hesitant steps and dragging feet. 3 A shuffling walk increases senior fall risk If your mom is shuffling, dragging, or generally not lifting her feet off the ground when walking, she’s at greater risk of falling. If we pick our feet up as we walk we reduce the danger of the environmental hazards in our midst.$0$0$0$0An additional cause of foot shuffling is lower back pain, making it actually painful to lift heavy legs. Your loved one’s tendency to drag his or her feet could be linked to one of the following issues that needs to be addressed right away. Shuffling is a leading cause of tripping--over throw rugs and other floor hazards--and falling. While family caregivers may view this development as normal, any changes in your aging loved one’s gait shouldn’t be ignored. Here, we will focus on the underlying mechanism that explains why you may have a shuffling gait and what therapies are available to make life a litter easier. Shuffling gait means a walking pattern, in which a person drags his/her feet while walking. In the early stages of Alzheimer's, the ability to walk often appears to be fairly well-preserved. The shuffling gait is also seen with the reduced arm movement during walking. As seniors reach the golden years, they sometimes develop a shuffling gait. There are 13 conditions associated with muscle wasting, shuffling gait (feet) and weakness. But there are lots of things that cause us to walk … Aside from memory loss, shuffling (dragging, sliding, not lifting feet off the ground when walking), is a frequent cause of concern for caregivers. Unless you’re walking on an uneven surface, your walking pattern should feel steady and even.