Dance & HealthBelow are two articles on the benefits of dancing

Use It or Lose It:  Dancing Makes You

Smarter, Faster, Stronger

Dancing does more than build muscles and help prevent heart disease.

New science shows that it also boosts brainpower- and helps prevent against Alzheimer’s disease.

Below is a summary of the growing body of research demonstrating how useful dancing is to our health.  The article on cardiovascular health comes from Ital where  Italian researchers have come up with a novel way for cardiac rehabilitation patients to exercise their damaged hearts - Waltzing.  The second article comes from a study done in New York and published in the New England Journal of Medicine

Cardiology Chief at Northwestern School of Medicine, Dr. Robert Bonow and Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation at Lancisi Heart Institute in Anacona, ItalyDr. Romualdo Belardinelli agree that dance is just as effective, and probably more useful than bicycling or treadmill training as an exercise regimen to rehabilitate cardiac patients.  It is more effective, because dancing is more fun.

Italian researchers noted that oxygen uptake increased 18% among dancers vs. only 16% among exercisers.  Furthermore, the anaerobic threshold (the point where muscles fatigue, -- rose 20 percent among exercisers, and 21% among dancers.

A 21-year study led by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine Volume 348: 2508-2516  demonstrates the effectiveness of dancing as an effective method of preventing Alzheimer’s disease.  One of the surprises of the study was that almost none of the physical activities appeared to offer any protection against dementia except for frequent dancing. Seniors who danced the most had a 76% risk reduction of dementia.  A probable explanation comes from brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) which the brain produces in response to regular exercise.  BDNF signals the brain’s nerve cells to branch out.

Walking a bit more each day can help people control their Type 2 diabetes but obese people trying to keep weight off may need to exercise harder than they had thought, according to a studies published in the journal Diabetes Care.

Simply walking 45 minutes more each day helped people with diabetes use blood sugar better, says Michael Trenell of Britain's Newcastle University.

We've found is that nearly everyone with diabetes is able to become more active through walking," "What is exciting about this study is that it provides an immediate, natural way to help control diabetes without any additional drugs," Trenell said.

Magnetic resonance imaging scans showed that people who walked 45 minutes more each day burned about 20 percent more fat -- increasing the ability of the muscles to store sugar and help control diabetes, the researchers said.

Obesity and diabetes both are growing problems as more developing nations adopt a Western lifestyle, something the International Diabetes Federation estimates will propel the number of people with diabetes to 380 million by 2025.

But current exercise guidelines calling for people to get 150 minutes -- 2.5 hours -- each week may not be enough to help the obese keep weight off, John Jakicic of the University of Pittsburgh and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"There is a growing consensus that more exercise may be necessary to enhance long-term weight loss," Jakicic and colleagues wrote.  Jakicic recommended that people who want to lose weight and keep it off get at least 4-1/2 hours of exercise a week.

Walking can become tedious and boring.  A better way to keep people exercising is to have them dance.  It’s better for the mind, body and soul.