Breaking news from the New England Journal of
Medicine -- and another reason to put on those
dancin' shoes!
Cincinnati Dance Happening August 2009 |
FREQUENT DANCING OFFERS PROTECTION AGAINST
DEMENTIA
Reading: 35% reduced risk of dementia
Doing crossword puzzles at least four days a week:
47% reduced risk of dementia
Dancing frequently: 76% reduced risk of dementia!!!
Here is more information on this exciting finding that
was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The following excerpt is from the most recent
OhioDance Newsletter:
Dance Is the Best Means of Avoiding Dementia
Scientists have proven that regular dancing decreases
the risk of dementia by 76%.
What should you do to keep a clear head in old age?
The Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York
has taken 21 years in order to solve this puzzle. That’s
how many years they have been studying how different
kinds of activities influence sharpness of mind in the
over 75’s.
No one was surprised to find that regular crossword
solving lessens the risk of dementia by 47% and
reading by 35%. But the truly unexpected result was
that the activity that best preserves the brain from
aging is dance. If you dance often, the risk of dementia
decreases by 76%.
How can this be explained? Over the course of life,
neurons continually die, but the young brain finds
replacements for them more easily and chooses other
paths for the performance of one or another function.
With age, this process becomes more difficult. After 75,
people do more on automatic pilot, out of habit.
dance cannot be automated. Completely different
situations arise, in which you have to react and make
micro-decisions in a matter of seconds. The brain has
to conduct impulses by various paths. It practices and
maintains flexibility. Dr. Skinner of Queen’s University
of Belfast got similar results in his goal-oriented study
on the influence of dance on people over 70. According
to his research, dancers preserve their health longer—
in social, mental and physical ways.
Incidentally, according to project heroes of The Age of
Happiness, as well, dance is the most preferential type
of physical activity, especially after 80 years of age.
You can read the scholarly report at:
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0222
52
MOVING IS LEARNING! |
Please visit Connie at:
www.movingislearning
and
Flash Mob Dance at Denison University April 2011 |
http://redleafpressblog.org
Keep on dancin',
Connie
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