FREQUENT DANCING OFFERS PROTECTION AGAINST DEMENTIA -- So put on those dancin' shoes!

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

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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