Ageing and mobility—motor control in the circle of life

Ageing starts with the first day of life. The way in which we and our musculoskeletal system age depends greatly upon how much we move. From the very beginning, movement is the essence of life—starting in the eighth week of gestation with autonomic movements, so-called general movements. These early movements are essential to development of the proprioceptive system, which is necessary to plan and control movement itself. As is every other system in the body, the visual, vestibular, and perceptive systems are subject to an ageing process. Together with degenerative processes of the musculoskeletal system, these changes lead to the common problems of elderly people: chronic pain, balance problems, falls. Manual medicine, with its low risk approach, can help to improve these problems.