(Mercola.com) -- As you get older your muscle and bone mass decrease and the senses that guide your balance -- vision, touch, proprioception -- may all start to deteriorate, and this can make you unsteady on your feet. Needless to say, bone fractures and brain injuries resulting from falls can be life threatening.

Exercise is a key to maintaining your balance as you get older, and should really be viewed as a necessity -- like eating and sleeping -- as it can quite literally save your life.

By taking the time to do balance, strength and other exercises on a regular basis you can keep your sense of balance strong, and even restore what's already been lost.

In a study published last year, eight weeks of balance training reduced slips and improved the likelihood of recovery from slips among the elderly. Separate research, which noted that "altered balance is the greatest collaborator towards falls in the elderly," found balance training is effective in improving functional and static balance, mobility and falling frequency in elderly women with osteoporosis.

The ability to balance on one leg is also an important predictor of injury-causing falls, so if you know that you'd be shaky if you tried to stand on one foot, you're at an increased risk of being hurt in a fall and should start appropriate exercises immediately.

Yes, You Can Exercise at ANY Age

Earlier this fall I posted a couple of videos showing my mother's exercise routine. She didn't start working out until she was 74 and now, at the age of 77, she has gained significant improvements in strength, range of motion, balance, bone density and mental clarity.