Good balance? Might indicate a decreased stroke risk

I'm trying to catch up with all the interesting stories found in my Google alerts about stroke news after some time off.

As someone who is not particularly good at balance, I was intrigued by an article indicating that if you can balance on one leg? You may have lower stroke risk:

Difficulty standing on one leg may indicate that small strokes or tiny bleeds have already occurred, which means the risk for more serious strokes is high, the investigators reported online Dec. 18 in the journal Stroke.

"Individuals showing instability while standing on one leg, as well as problems walking, should receive increased attention, as this physical frailty may signal potential brain abnormalities and mental decline," said lead author Yasuharu Tabara, an associate professor in the Center for Genomic Medicine at the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine.

Stroke, a leading cause of disability and death, occurs when blood flow to a part of the brain is interrupted because of a clot or bleeding.

Not to try to scare anyone, but I think the advice is good - if you are having some stability problem, get yourself to a doctor. You might head off some serious problems.