The ability to keep your balance when old is linked to changes to white matter (leukoaraiosis), or the part of the brain consisting of connecting nerve fibers, new study shows.

According to three-year study called LADIS (Leukoaraiosis and Disability), coordinated by the Department of Neurological and Psychiatric Sciences of the University of Florence, people with severe white matter changes are twice as likely to score poorly on walking and balance tests as people with mild white matter changes.

Dr. Hansjoerg Baezner from University of Heidelberg in Mannheim, Germany, and colleagues analyzed the impact of age-related white matter changes on functional decline in 639 men and women between the ages of 65 and 84 who underwent brain scans as well as walking and balance tests. Of the group, 284 had mild age-related white matter changes, 197 moderate changes, and 158 severe changes.

 “Walking difficulties and falls are major symptoms of people with white matter changes and a significant cause of illness and death in the elderly. Exercise may have the potential to reduce the risk of these problems since exercise is associated with improved walking and balance. We'll be testing whether exercise has such a protective effect in our long-term study of this group,” Baezner said in a written statement, according to Reuters.

The researchers noted that monitoring white matter changes might assists early identification of walking problems, which had been linked to other health issues.

“Recently, gait abnormalities have been shown to predict non-Alzheimer's disease dementia, so recognition, early diagnosis and treatment of this disabling condition may be possible through early detection of walking and balance problems," Baezner said.

The findings of the three-year study were published in the March 18 issue of the journal Neurology.