The Health Benefits of Danace

CEBU, Philippines — Everybody has, at one time or another, experienced the emotional uplift that dancing brings. Even badly depressed persons would improve their mood after forcing themselves to do some kicks to upbeat music. It’s because dance is a form of exercise that energizes the body and, in effect, brightens up one’s disposition.

Writer Selene Yeager, in an article at  www.womenshealthmag.com, cites that whenever the super-stressed residents on “Grey's Anatomy” bust out in an impromptu dance party, it must be because they know how healing it is – they are doctors, after all (well, on TV, at least)! She writes that “shaking your booty is remarkably healthy, and not just in a fitness-and-weight-loss kind of way.”

Dancing is known to also boost brainpower, improve one’s outlook, grow social circles, and protect the body’s most important organ. It doesn’t even matter if one dances without a sense of rhythm. What’s important is that one moves, gets the bones and muscles working and the blood flowing.

There’s an explanation to why upon hearing a dance tune it’s automatic for one to start tapping his or her feet or move to the beat. Yeager writes that people are hardwired to sync up their own movements to music, possibly because even primitive cultures used rhythmic movements to express themselves. "It's an instinctive response," says Costas Karageorghis, Ph.D., a music and sports researcher and coauthor of “Inside Sport Psychology.” Richard Ebstein, Ph.D., a professor in the psychology department at the National University of Singapore, adds that it's a universal phenomenon – even birds and bees use dance to communicate.

Yeager explains that the instinctual rhythm response starts in the brain, where musical vibrations light up timing circuits that prompt a person to reflexively bust a move. These same circuits are intertwined with the brain's communication and memory systems, which is why songs can trigger emotional reactions – and why one may find himself singing, swaying, and choking up to a particular music.

But while it's true that everyone "feels" the beat in this way, it's also true that some people's mind-beat connection is a little stronger. There are dance-crazy people who seem like they were born to boogie. While experts believe that genetics play a role in mind-beat connection, environmental factors can also have an effect. A person who doesn't have much opportunity to dance may never know that he has a natural talent for it.

It doesn’t take a star dancer to reap any of dancing's health-enhancing benefits. "The brain rewires itself based on use," explains Joe Verghese, M.D., a professor of neurology. The more time one spends on the dance floor, the more he trains his brain to open those feel-good floodgates – and the more he'll start to amp up his overall wellbeing.

In fact, a study in “Circulation: Heart Failure” found that people with cardiac conditions who danced for just 20 minutes three times a week saw their heart health improve significantly more than those who stuck to traditional cardio workouts. Dancing can also help make one’s skeletal system strong, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, and it does wonders for one’s overall makeup. When researchers compared dancers with non-dancers, they found evidence that dancing may preserve both motor skills and perceptual abilities.

Dancing releases an ample flow of mood-improving chemicals. Just one lively dance session can alleviate depression more than vigorous exercise or listening to upbeat music, according to a study in “The Arts in Psychotherapy.” Getting jiggy with others also leads to less stress and stronger social bonds, key factors in both mental and physical health, says Dr. Verghese.

But perhaps the coolest part about dancing is that it saves the mind – literally. Dancing gives the head's memory, coordination, and focus areas an intense workout, leading to stronger synapses and beefed-up brain. The immediate benefit for dancers is a sharper mind, and better immunity to brain diseases in the long run. A study by the New England Journal of Medicine has found that dancing lowers the risk of dementia by a whopping 76 percent.

Those who find getting up to dance quite a challenge – for example, the elderly – may start small by rocking out while going about the daily home chores. The younger ones may sign up for a dance class. Whichever way is chosen or possible, experts assure that anyone can reap health benefits by dancing for 20 to 30 minutes on most days of the week.