For how we live.
A PAHO systematic analysis of WHO estimates finds injury rates falling in most of the region but violence and drowning still splitting countries apart, with men carrying nearly three-quarters of the burden.
A brief swim of light-headedness on standing is usually orthostatic hypotension: a fall in blood pressure as gravity pulls blood to the legs. It is common, rises with age, and often traces to dehydration or medication.
Balance starts slipping after the mid-50s. In 1,702 adults, those who could not hold a 10-second one-legged stance had 84% higher death risk. Specific exercise, done three times a week, measurably restores it.
Automatic fall alerts are mostly tested on staged laboratory falls, with real-world validation in older people rare. A 2026 meta-analysis of fall prediction found high specificity but only moderate sensitivity.
In 2,292 hip fractures across six cities in Nagano, snowfall raised the odds of admission — until the models adjusted for how cold it was, at which point the association disappeared.
A Cochrane review finds fixing home hazards reduces falls by 38% in people at high risk of falling — and not at all in those who are not. On vitamin D, the US task force is blunt: no benefit.
Falls are the leading injury killer of older adults. The intervention with the strongest evidence is unglamorous — exercise that trains balance, gait and strength — and the trial data behind it is unusually solid.
Global Burden of Disease data show prevalent traumatic brain injury cases in people aged 15-49 rose from 12.53 million in 1990 to 14.99 million in 2021, even as age-standardised rates fell.