Monday, January 19, 2026
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Feeling Dizzy? How Physical Therapy Can Help You Find Your Balance

By
Guest Columnist
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Have you ever stood up too quickly and felt the room spin? Or rolled over in bed and suddenly felt like you were on a merry go round you didn’t ask to ride? Maybe you’ve started to notice you feel a little unsteady when walking or need to hold onto furniture “just in case.” If that sounds familiar, you are not alone. And more importantly, you are not without options.

Dizziness and balance problems are surprisingly common. These issues can develop after a cold, a minor head injury, or simply as part of the aging process. But despite how common they are, they are often overlooked. Many people chalk them up to aging or learn to “just live with it,” avoiding stairs, skipping favorite outings, or giving up activities they enjoy because they don’t feel steady.

That is where physical therapy can make a real difference. And no, it is not just about stretching or lifting weights. Physical therapists who focus on balance and vestibular care can help identify the source of your symptoms and offer practical, personalized solutions.

Let’s start with one of the most common causes of vertigo: Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, or BPPV. It sounds complicated, but the fix is often simple. In BPPV, tiny crystals in your inner ear float into the wrong place and start sending confusing signals to your brain. The result? Sudden, brief spinning sensations with head movement or changes in position. A trained physical therapist can perform a series of head and body movements called repositioning maneuvers to guide the crystals back where they belong. Relief is often immediate.

But not all dizziness is BPPV. Sometimes it stems from vestibular system weakness, where the inner ear is not working properly. This can be caused by a virus, changes that come with age or for reasons unknown. Other times, balance problems are linked to neurological conditions like Parkinson’s disease or stroke, or to weakness and reduced movement after illness. Even changes in vision or sensation in your feet can throw off your balance.

That is why careful evaluation is so important. A physical therapist will assess how your eyes, ears, brain and muscles work together to keep you steady. Then they will create a personalized plan to help you feel more confident and stable. This may include exercises to improve gaze control, strengthen your muscles, practice safe walking and retrain your sense of balance.

Most importantly, therapy helps you rebuild your confidence. When you are afraid of falling or feeling dizzy, it is easy to stop moving. But that can make things worse. Physical therapy offers a safe way to stay active and regain control.

You do not have to live in fear of the next dizzy spell or miss out on the things you enjoy. If you are feeling off balance, ask your doctor if a referral to a vestibular trained physical therapist is right for you. The path to steady footing might be closer than you think.

Matt Leedom, PT, DPT, NCS, is a board-certified clinical specialist in neurologic physical therapy and an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of South Dakota. He earned his B.S. in psychology from USD and his Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Creighton University. Leedom’s clinical expertise includes the treatment of individual neurological conditions, including

vestibular disorders. His research focuses on improving mobility and quality of life for individuals with Parkinson’s disease, with current projects exploring cognitive flexibility training and non-invasive brain stimulation to address gait and postural impairments. Follow The Prairie Doc® at www.prairiedoc.orgFacebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Threads. Prairie Doc Programming includes On Call with the Prairie Doc®, a medical Q&A show (most Thursdays at 7pm streaming on the Prairie Doc Facebook page), 2 podcasts, and a Radio program (on SDPB), providing health information based on science, built on trust.

 

Learn more about USW’s work to promote U.S. wheat in Indonesia and around the world at uswheat.org.

Pollination

By
Guest Columnist
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There is a lot of confusion concerning pollination in many vegetable crops. It is important to know how different crops are pollinated. Sweet corn is wind pollinated — by pollen falling from the tassel (male) to the silk (female) part of the plant. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beans, and peas are nearly completely self-pollinated. The flowers of these plants are arranged so that the flowers are pollinated by the natural growth process of the flower shedding pollen from the male to female parts. It is the vine crops — including squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, muskmelons, watermelons and gourds — that are bee pollinated. These plants all produce separate male and female flowers and bees are necessary to transfer pollen from one to the other. Bees only work on bright sunny days and are easily injured by insecticide sprays applied during the time the bees work (from sun-up to mid-afternoon). If bees fail to pollenize these flowers, the fruit will start to develop but shrivel and fall off. If bees pollenize the flowers only sparingly, the fruit may develop but be misshapen or poorly filled.

 

Many questions also arise regarding cross-pollination of plants in the garden. This usually comes in the form of “I planted my X next to my Y and now all of my X’s taste just like Y’s !” Horticulturist get more questions regarding crossing in the vine crop (cucumber, muskmelon, watermelon, pumpkin, and squash) family than any others. For all practical purposes, this does NOT happen. Each of these crops has different chromosome numbers which means they will not cross with one another even if you tried. Cucumbers cross only with other cucumbers, etc. In addition, you would not see the result of any cross until you planted the seed from a fruit produced this year and grew out the resultant fruit in the next generation next year. Remember self-pollenize crops do not cross with anything else. The vine crops are insect pollenized so that crossing might happen ONLY for crosses within the crop and ONLY if you save your seed for next year’s crop.

 

Another common question is “why do flowers drop off after blooming?” In plants that are self pollenized, this is not a problem with bees. Many plants set more flowers than the plant can develop fruit. Tomatoes, for example, may produce 15 to 20 flowers in a cluster of blooms but only 5 to 6 of those can develop into a fruit. The rest abort or fall off and it’s a good thing they do; otherwise, the tomatoes would be small and there would be breakage of the plant as a result. Extensive vine growth is usually associated with poor blossom set.

 

Anything that creates lush vine conditions usually discourages bloom set. The most common ‘culprit’ is excessive fertilization — especially with nitrogen (N) fertilization. In areas that have had generous manure applications or areas where extensive N fertilizers have been applied, there is usually a corresponding decline in the failure of plants to bloom properly and some flower abortion. This is often corrected as the season progresses and some of that excessive fertilization is used up or leached from the plant root zone.

 

Of course, many crops develop their edible portions without any relation to flowering. These include potatoes, sweet potatoes, leafy green crops, cabbage and rhubarb. A few crops are grown for their large, edible flowers including broccoli and cauliflower but pollination is not involved. So, there is your lesson about the ‘birds and the bees’ in horticulture — without much about birds!

 

Recommendations: Sweet corn: Ears may have missing kernels if the plants go through a hot, dry period. Keeping the corn well watered will help maximize pollination but heat alone can interfere with pollination. Tomatoes: Tomatoes won’t set fruit unless night temperatures stay at 55 degrees or above at least part of the night. They also won’t set if temperatures stay above 75° at night. The heat causes the blossoms to drop. There is little that can be done other than waiting for temperatures to moderate. Vine crops: Check to make sure that you have bees working the flowers. Insecticides should only be used late in the day to avoid injuring the bees.

Pancake Sammies

By
Debbie Dance Uhrig
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This week my nephew arrived for a weeks stay at our humble abode. We enjoy his visit every summer. This morning he was pleased with my version on a hearty breakfast sandwich. Some of you may already create make ahead breakfast sandwiches, This is just a little different approach. So let’s jump in to the ingredients first:

 

Small pancakes about 2-3 tablespoon scoop in size

Canadian Bacon

1 egg per sandwich

½ slice cheddar cheese

Softened Butter

Oil for frying the eggs.

Choose a scratch recipe for your pancakes or a packaged mix. Do not thin the batter down so the cakes become paper thin. My favorite pre-made mix is Krusteaz’s Sweet Cream Batter. On the flip side of that I like to make whole wheat/oatmeal cakes from scratch, because they stay with me longer. The cakes can even be made ahead of time and frozen.

I will admit it’s a bit overwhelming to roll out more then a half dozen very fast when everything is made at one time. This morning my troops would tell you one pancake sammie was adequate. After I served everyone breakfast I went back and finished cooking all the pancakes. I’m taking a few to a friend who had surgery, so I’m assembling the ingredients in Ziploc bags for travel.

Eggs: I fried ours and basically cut them into 4 pieces. You could also scramble several at once and then cut them into sections too.

Cheese: I found that a half a slice is quite adequate. Using this amount, a great deal of cheese wasn’t running from the sandwich.

Butter: Some of us put softened butter on one of the pancakes to provide a little moisture to the sandwich. A little homemade maple butter would be oh so yummy too.

Other ideas to dress the sammies up a bit: Put one cake down with the warm Canadian bacon and slice of cheese. On top place a poached egg. Leave the 2nd pancake like dessert and eat it traditionally.

OR: Serve the entire sandwich on a plate with warm pancake syrup over the top, adding a sprinkling of cheddar cheese on the top.

The comments I received at breakfast were how well the sandwich stayed together using the Canadian bacon rather than a sausage patty or bacon. They also stated they appreciated quality pancakes, not a super thin pre-made store version.

Those who enjoy a good waffle, could do the same sandwich with waffles instead.

I could have eaten a thin slice of Missouri tomato on mine.

Believe me, people realize you went out of the way to make something ‘fun’ for a meal.

On my days off I try to prepare a breakfast, realizing on work days it is ‘fend for yourself!’

Next on my list is about 3 lbs of homemade meatballs, served with a brown sauce and egg noodles. There’s still a few ears of corn as a side, so the meal is complete. As usual; some of the meatballs are rolling down the road to other tables. This week there’s a great deal of ‘play’ involved in our schedule, boating, golfing, all kinds of things. We wrap up the week attending ‘David’, here at the Sight and Sound theatre.

Simply Yours,

The Covered Dish.

We have a State What?

By
Steve Gilliland
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I try hard to color within the lines, not to run with scissors and overall just to keep my mouth shut. But sometimes I find myself posing the questions that everyone else wonders but is afraid to ask. Questions like “How do they get Teflon to stick to the skillets when they make them?” Or “Were there really flies and mosquitoes on the Ark, and if so, why?” and “Why do states feel the need to have state symbols like state bird, state tree, etc?”

Any Kansan worth their Wheaties knows that the Kansas state flower is the Sunflower, and the Kansas state bird is the Western Meadow Lark. Most Kansans know that the Kansas state tree is the Cottonwood and many probably know that the state animal is the American Buffalo (Bison.) But how many of you knew that we also have a state insect, a state reptile, and yes, even a state amphibian, plus two state fossils?

Sometime in the mid-1970’s, Jeff Woods, a 7th grader attending Edgewood Elementary in Coffeyville, evidentially decided we as a state were incomplete without a state insect, and suggested we give the honeybee that distinction. Called “white man’s flies” by the Indians, honeybees are thought to have been brought from Europe by the pilgrims and soon inhabited the entire United States. I have to admit that if we felt the need to have a state insect, we could NOT have done better than the honeybee, because life as we know it might not exist without them. The state legislature has the final say in such important matters, and in 1976 the honeybee became the Kansas state insect.

In the mid-1980’s to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Kansas’s statehood, Larry Miller’s 6th grade class in Caldwell decided we also needed a state reptile and nominated the Ornate Box turtle for the job. The Ornate Box turtle is a dry land turtle which probably makes it the most visibly abundant turtle in Kansas. It’s found from the prairies in the west to the forests in the east. I have absolutely no idea what a state reptile has to do with celebrating our 125th anniversary as a state, but on April 14, 1986, Governor Carlin signed a bill designating the Ornate Box turtle as the Kansas state reptile.

In the spring of 1993, Alice Potts 2nd grade class at Wichita’s OK Elementary School was studying animals with backbones, which somehow triggered them as a class to begin a campaign to make the Barred Tiger Salamander our state amphibian. When Alice’s class contacted their legislators they were told it was too late to get a bill into the current legislative session and the project would have to wait a year. In the meantime, their zeal proved infectious and by the following school year the entire school plus parents was involved. A trip to the statehouse by Alice and a handful of students got Senate Bill 494 written and passed in the Senate. However, the bill ran into a little trouble in the House; it seems some Representatives felt there were more important legislative matters (go figure!) Never fear though as Senator Mike Harris came

to the rescue and attached the salamander bill to another to insure its passage (now what’s that called…oh yea; Pork!) On April 13, 1994 Governor Joan Finney signed the bill designating the Barred Tiger Salamander the Kansas state amphibian.

In 2014, Gov. Brownback signed a bill designating Tylosaurus, a giant marine predator, and Pteranodon, a giant, flying, cliff dweller as co-state fossils. Amazingly, Kansas geological deposits have provided the most complete skeletal remains of both of these critters ever to be found.

In honor of the process that salvaged the salamander bill, maybe the Kansas Wildlife and Parks should capture one and name him or her Porky. Or maybe the process of attaching legislative bills to other bills should now be known as “salamandering.” Anyway, please excuse my cynicism and my disregard for pomp and ceremony. I guess if even one person is made to feel better about our state by having these symbols, then so-be-it. And maybe this will get more people Exploring Kansas Outdoors looking for Barred Tiger Salamanders and Pteranodon fossils!

Steve can be contacted by email at [email protected].

Pesky fly drive

By
Milo Yield
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0
Thayne Cozart
Milo Yield

A couple days ago I was shutting the garage windows because rain was forecast (it didn’t happen) when I noticed several pesky flies became trapped between the window and the screen. It wuz doomsday for them.

But, those pesky flies brought back a memory of a successful practical joke I played on some roommates way back in the 1960s when I wuz in college at Bea Wilder U.

Since last week’s column wuz dedicated to humorous practical joke stories, please consider this practical joke story as a continuation of last week’s column theme. Here’s how it happened:

I had moved out of the dormitory and wuz living in one of two rental apartments in the upstairs of a private home close to campus. I had three roommates in my apartment and four other close friends lived in the other apartment. We basically lived as eight roommates one big apartment, separated only by a hallway.

An outdoors stairway led up to our apartments. The stairs led to a single door that opened into a hallway separating the two apartments. All this background information is crucial to this pesky fly drive joke.

It was in the fall when the houseflies were abundant and persistent in seeking indoor living space. Well, on the day of the joke, one of my three roommates decided to “air out” our apartment when he went to class and he left open both the door to our apartment and the outside door to the hallway. He wuz the last one to leave for afternoon classes.

Well, when we returned to our apartment late in the afternoon, we found that a regular “bee hive” of pesky flies had invaded our apartment. It wuzn’t just a few, it wuz literally hundreds, maybe a thousand. They were uncountable.

Of course, all of us came down hard on our careless roommate who had “aired out” our apartment, but that didn’t change the fact that we needed to get the pesky invaders out.

One roommate got a swatter and began killing flies with it. His method was clearly going to slow and messy. That’s when I wuz struck by a brilliant idea spawned by something my sainted mother used to do when she had too many flies in her kitchen. She drove them out of the kitchen by shooing them out the door with a tea towel.

So, here’s what we did. All the guys in the other apartment were gone. So, first we four roommates closed the outside door to the hallway. Then we pulled the shades down and turned out all the lights in our apartment and turned on the light in the hallway — knowing that flies always go toward the light.

Then we all got tea towels or shirts and began “driving” all our flies into the well-lighted hallway. It took us quite a few minutes to drive fly horde into the hallway.

Then, we opened up the door to our pals’ apartment and quickly drove/shooed all the flies from the hallway into their apartment. And we retreated to our apartment and began swatting the few flies that escaped “the drive.”

We’d scarcely had gotten the joke pulled off when our pals began returning to their now-fly-ridden apartment. Soon, one of them stuck his head into our apartment and innocently asked, “Do you guys have a lot of flies? Our apartment is buzzing with them.”

Pausing in my fly swatting, I replied, “Yep, we’ve got a bunch, too. We’re killing them with a swatter.”

“When you get done, can we borrow your swatter?” he asked.

“Sure. I’ll bring it over when I get through with it,” I replied.

And that, folks, is what I did. But, I never told him how come his apartment had so many flies, or how he and his roommates could “drive” them out.

It took them hours to swat all the flies in their apartment, and my roommates and me were smirking all the time at the practical joke we’d pulled off.

***

Earlier this week, I read an article in the online Wall Street Journal about the rapid advancement of “autonomous farming” in America. The article described how self-driving tractors and combines, drones, robot fruit and berry pickers, and myriad ways artificial intelligence in being applied to farming and ranching.

It included such “incredible things as being able to apply water, fertilizer and pesticides only where they’re needed down to the square foot. It even described machines that can selectively identify weeds and kill them as the machines move through the field. Another can “soil test” for fertility, organic matter, and compaction from the air.

All of this new tech is pretty amazing and stupefying to an old geezer like me who can still remember his dad farming with horses.

I know it’s impossible to put a damper in new technology. Nor would I advocate for doing so. However, it does raise one big question is my mind. When will the terms “farmer” and “rancher” become obsolete and they both become known as “food and fiber production operators?”

***

Most days at the Old Geezers’ Gaggle and Gabfest, someone expresses a “zinger” that’s worthy of passing along.

This week’s zinger is this: “I’m moving so slow these days I got run over by my shadow.”

To which another geezer replied, “Heck, my recliner trapped me the other day!”

***

Words of wisdom for this week: “You save 100% when you don’t buy anything.”

Have a good ‘un.

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