by Dr Deborah Lee, Dr Fox Online Pharmacy
https://pixabay.com/photos/emotional-couple-tango-dance-50309/
We are all living longer – it’s a fact. However sadly, many of us live those extra years with chronic disease and disability.
Could joining a dance class, be a solution?
Read on and find out.
Increase in life expectancy
Did you know life expectancy has almost doubled in the past 120 years? At the turn of the 19th century, men lived to age 40.2 years and women to age 42.3 years. However, in 2017–2019, an average male is expected to live to age 79.8, and a female to age 82.3 years (The King’s Fund 2021).
Let’s face it, however, a longer life is not necessarily a good thing, if the extra years of life are plagued by disease and disability. Unfortunately, statistics the average man or woman spends the last two decades of their life not in good health, coping with some form of disability and a reduced quality of life.
How to grow old without disease and disability
Physical exercise has been shown in numerous research studies, to result in a huge number of health benefits. Regular PA improves cardiovascular health and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease – heart disease and stroke. It also lowers the risk of diabetes, dementia, and cancer, and is beneficial for mental and emotional health.
Inactivity and ageing increase the risk of many chronic diseases. To grow old healthily, older people need to avoid a sedentary lifestyle. As we age, and if we remain inactive, this contributes to loss of muscle. Older people also tend to develop relatively higher levels of fat, alongside relatively lower amounts of muscle.
Taking regular PA leads to an increase in lean body mass, improved muscle mass and better overall physical performance. It also improves balance, coordination and has been shown to reduce the risk of falls.
Older people need to challenge their cardiovascular system sufficiently to improve their VO2max (how well their body uses oxygen) and their muscular strength.
Exercise for the older person
All UK adults – young and old – should be undertaking a minimum of 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity exercise (MIT).
MIT is any exercise sufficient to make you feel slightly sweaty and out of breath, for example, brisk walking, jogging, running, cycling or swimming. You may however not realise, that dancing is a form of MIT and is very suitable for older people.
Daily chores such as shopping, cooking, cleaning and doing the washing are not a type of MIT. They are important and they stop you from being sedentary, but your 150 minutes MIT per week should be in addition to these daily activities.
The benefits of cardiovascular training for older people
Cardiovascular benefits – Participation in regular cardiovascular training is beneficial for older people because it lowers the resting heart rate, lowers blood pressure and increases stroke volume (the amount of blood the left ventricle of the heart pumps out with each contraction).
Executive control – Cardiovascular training is also important for executive control. This is the term used for those everyday mental processes we need to be able to concentrate and pay attention. These are called executive functions (EFs) and are vital for every aspect of life. The three core EFs are inhibition, working memory and cognitive flexibility. Stemming from these core brain functions are reasoning, problem-solving, and planning – all important skills for everyday life. Poor executive control has been linked to low levels of physical activity.
The benefits of dancing for older people
Dancing is truly a fantastic form of physical exercise. It has both physical and mental health benefits. You might be surprised when you read the list below –
Physical benefits
- Dancing –
- Involves stretching and loading your bones, muscles, joints and ligaments. This results in improved muscle strength, power, balance and function.
- Exercises both your cardiovascular system and your mental agility.
- Is sociable and involves holding your partner, and moving in synchrony, hence it is a sociable activity involving human touch.
- In a 2009 review in the Journal of Ageing and Physical Activity, the authors reviewed 15 training and 3 cross-sectional studies and concluded there was substantial medical evidence that dancing can significantly improve aerobic power, lower body muscle endurance, strength and flexibility, balance, agility and gait. There is also some evidence that dancing can improve bone mineral density, and muscle power, as well as reducing falls, and risks from cardiovascular disease.
- Dancing can be undertaken by most older people and their carers. You can still dance even with medical conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease, dementia, arthritis and heart disease. Disabled people in wheelchairs can also participate in dancing.
- Dance means listening to music and moving with the rhythm. Different dances require controlled shifting of weight and positioning of the feet, body, arms, and head. When on the dance floor, dancers have to negotiate their way around so as not to bump into other couples. This means thinking ahead, planning and reflex actions. When you dance, this is testing your balance and increasing your flexibility. Being in a dance class is a fun, social experience, with positive repercussions for our mental health. Learning and remembering a sequence of dance steps is beneficial for cognition and memory.
- In 2005 McKinley and colleagues reported on a group of frail, elderly with Parkinson’s Disease who had been randomly allocated to either a group learning Argentine Tango or to a group who were walking, as a form of exercise. Although both groups showed improvement in a timed ‘sit to stand’ test, the Argentine Tango group showed greater improvements in balance and walking speed.
- Further work in patients with Parkinson’s Disease showed that a twice a week, 10-week Tango Couse, resulted in greater improvements in balance than those in a traditional exercise group. Moreover, the Tango Group were enthusiastic and wanted to continue dancing, and many of the traditional exercise group wanted to join the dance class!
- In another study, participants were allocated to either a Foxtrot, Waltz, Tango, Tai Chi or no intervention class. All forms of exercise resulted in improvements in balance, but the greatest improvements were in the dance classes. Of note, backwards walking and backward stride length improved in all of the interventions, however, the biggest improvements seen overall were in the Tango class.
One of the interesting things about learning the Tango is that the student focuses on walking. Consciously concentrating on walking in the dance class, may well help walking subconsciously, outside of the dance class. Dancing relies on auditory, visual and somatic cues, that bypass the midbrain ganglia, meaning the brain produces motor signals to the dance muscles via an alternative pathway.
- Dancing also involves multitasking- performing the dance steps, in time to the music, while navigating the dance floor. People with Parkinson’s Disease often have difficulty doing more than one thing at once. Dance may therefore have specific benefits for this type of brain function.
Final thoughts
What’s not to like?! Dancing has so much to offer. Don’t waste another minute – it’s Strictly time to get dancing! …
You can find your feet at a dance class near you, by clicking here
For more information
- Age UK – Reasons for older people to join a dance class
- NHS – Dance for fitness
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