Issues with balance. Could this be related to dementia?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Along with this, Just Old age. Make sure she is Okay.

Dementia does affect the balance as it progresses. But do take her to a PT with orders from her physician for a mobility assessment. Will she at least use a pretty cane??

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.

With my dad who has Alzheimer’s dementia, he was off-balance and started to shuffle instead of walking normally.
A spinal tap led to a diagnosis of Normal Pressure Hydrodephalus.
A shunt was installed but didn’t make much of a difference.
But...my friend’s dad who didn’t have Alzheimer’s had the same diagnosis and procedure and the results were terrific!

Time to talk to the Doctor.

I recently discovered that if I become dehydrated, I stumble and my balance is off. It's really easy to become dehydrated.

I'm 67 and I have trouble drinking my 8x8oz cups of water daily = 1/2 gallon. Since I am average and typical, dehydration is a big problem today.