Dancing Could Help Reduce Risk of Dementia
We all know someone or know of someone who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, many of us have had a family member stricken with this horrible affliction. According to alz.org there are over 6.5 million Americans over the age of 65 who are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Almost three quarters of them are over the age of 75. Their website also reports that almost two thirds of them are women, and “Older Black Americans are about twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s or other dementias as older Whites.” Over the years researchers have been looking for a treatment that could possibly eliminate or slow down the process.
Now, a study conducted by Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, written by AECM’s Helena Blumen, Associate Professor of Medicine and Neurology, appearing in The Conversation and reported in Human Kinetics Journals shows that there is a way to slow down the progression of cognitive decline, and it could be as simple as finding the nearest dance floor and letting loose. They concluded that ballroom dancing could be an activity that help those who suffer from the disease.
The researchers did a study where they examined 25 adults over 65 years of age and had them on a treadmill and gave them ballroom dancing lessons.
The scientists made it clear that the participants hadn’t been formally diagnosed, they all did not score well on a dementia screening test before they began their six months of activities, twice a week as assigned by those conducting the study.
Afterward, they concluded that both kinds of physical activity “improved their executive functioning, an umbrella term for planning, reasoning and processing tasks that require attention.”
They also said that dancing “generated significantly greater improvements than treadmill walking…Compared with walking, dancing was also associated with reduced brain atrophy in the hippocampus…a brain region that is key to memory functioning and is particularly affected by Alzheimer’s disease.”
The scientists said the “key finding” of their study published in the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity was that “social ballroom dancing can improve cognitive functions and reduce brain atrophy in older adults who are at increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.”
If you’re like me and even though we exercise regularly, we should consider adding some dance steps into our workout routine.
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