There is a fun, simple activity anyone can do at any age, that on a regular basis is really good for your health. Dancing is an easy activity that may even lengthen your life.
It might sound too good to be true – fun and exercise don’t usually go together. But, it is true and health researchers continue to prove it all the time. Here’s what dancing several times a week can do for health, especially for older people:
Fires up brain cells
The New England Journal of Medicine reported that dancing just twice a week decreases your risk of developing dementia. It also helped stimulate the memory of people who already had Alzheimer’s dementia.
Strengthens bones
Any movement where your feet impact the floor, or ground, stimulates your bones to grow. But dancing is very gentle on joints so people with arthritis find dancing easier to do than other forms of exercise.
Brightens your mood
Many older people can be prone to mood shifts from changing hormones and loneliness. Listening and dancing to upbeat music stimulates the production of “happy hormones” in your brain. Pretty soon, you’re moving to the beat, laughing and having a great time.
Reduces stress
Stress is the #1 health hazard of older people. Chronic stress can lead to a chronic flood of hormones that create inflammation throughout your body. As you’ve probably read in my articles before, inflammation is the #1 cause of many illnesses. Studies show dancing promotes a positive outlook on life. Once you start dancing, the “feel good” factor keeps your interest from waning. You’ll want to keep going back for more.
Boosts flexibility & balance
Dancing makes your body move in space in a 3-dimensional way. It stimulates your brain to work harder to keep you balanced, upright, and prevent falling. You strengthen, and make more flexible, those muscles that keep you balanced, like those of your core, lower back, gluteus, and thigh muscles. Falls are the primary cause for fractures in older people.
Boosts oxygen intake
As you get older, your lung capacity can decrease, simply because you don’t get enough regular aerobic exercise to keep their capacity strong. Decreased oxygen intake has a great impact on every tissue of your body, most notably your brain and heart.
Less oxygen in your blood makes your metabolism slow down and all your functions to slow. Dancing comfortably increases your lung capacity and endurance. As a result you get less tired and winded doing simple activities of daily living – climbing stairs, carrying grocery bags, laundry, etc. And your heart and brain work more efficiently.
But you don’t have to confine your dancing to your home. Especially if you live alone, you might consider getting out and taking a dance class with others. Doing so can add even more longevity health benefits. It’s also of special benefit to single people.
It’s been known for a while now that older people who live alone are more prone to depression and loneliness. These 2 factors create chronic stress and dangerous inflammation. People stay healthier and live longer when they have more satisfying social lives.
Even just going to the gym everyday doesn’t really have the same social benefits that dancing in a class with others does. In the gym, there’s not much opportunity to connect with people. Most have their headphones plugged into their music and are focused on their workouts.
In a dance class, you come in close proximity to other people as you dance. You physically and mentally need to connect with them in order to perform. A study out of the Albert Einstein University College of Medicine has shown that people who dance socially have less depression, stress and loneliness. Whether its ballroom, square or line dancing, ballet, zumba, sweating to the oldies, hip hop, or jazz, dancing offers the chance to interact with people and make new friends.
So, whether you just want to dance like no one’s watching in your living room, or get out and learn a new dance in a class, or join a weekly dance club, regular dancing can boost both your physical and mental health. And that’s the key to living longer – health and happiness!
healthyliving January 31st, 2017
Posted In: Healthy Lifestyle
Tags: benefits of dance, brain power, dance, healthy aging, memory
Many people don’t realize that your brain is very sensitive to your nutrition, and works best when it gets the nutrients it needs. Many of my patients, and perhaps you, may not get enough brain food. These include good fats like those from fish, nuts, olives, etc. Studies have shown that Omega-3 fats, particularly the DHA portion of them, are particularly beneficial to your brain health and memory.
Your brain is also about 75% water and thrives on you being optimally hydrated. When you’re dehydrated, your thinking becomes fuzzy; you become confused, and can’t seem to connect your thoughts very well.
Your brain also needs glucose (sugar) to function correctly. If you’ve ever gone on a low carb diet for more than a few days, you may have noticed that your mood and your clear thinking took a nose dive. That’s because your brain needs measured amounts of glucose to power its functions. Your body processes glucose from the foods you eat. On a low carbohydrate diet, it takes your body much longer to break down proteins into glucose.
But that doesn’t mean that eating a high carbohydrate diet will be better for your brain function. If your brain is bombarded by high levels of sugar in your blood from a high carbohydrate/sugar diet, it has just the opposite effect. Your short term memory (where you put your car keys) becomes impaired, it takes you much longer to retrieve stored information (someone’s name), and it becomes harder to concentrate or learn anything.
In short, all your cognitive functions become impaired with higher blood sugar levels. Lately, researchers have been proving it over and over. For example, German researchers out of Charite-University in Berlin recently looked at mental functioning and brain structure of middle aged and elderly adults. They found that for every point increase in Hemoglobin A1c (measures blood sugar averages over 3 months), there was a corresponding decrease in the participants recall, learning ability and memory consolidation.
They also found that the participant’s brain structure changed as well. MRI brain scans revealed that the brains of those with chronically elevated glucose levels lost volume, specifically in the hippocampus areas. This is the area of the brain associated with cognitive functions like learning and memory. These researchers concluded that lifestyle changes to control blood sugar levels could likely help prevent age-related cognitive decline.
healthyliving January 3rd, 2017
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Dr. Mark Rosenberg received his doctorate from Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1988 and has been involved with drug research since 1991.