As a caregiver, you’re looking for ways to enrich the lives of those you are entrusted with taking care of. If they’re physically able, dancing is a wonderful activity for physical, mental, and emotional health.
Centers Choice Home Care looks at the ways that dancing can be beneficial to everyone’s health.
Physical Benefits of Dancing
This is straight-forward. Any sort of physical activity is going to be beneficial as we get older. Dancing is easy on the joints and maintains leg strength and balance. One study also showed that vigorous dancing can be more effective at burning calories than swimming!
Emotional Benefits of Dancing
Dancing promotes a closeness with the dancing partner and an increase in overall happiness. You rarely see a person not smiling while dancing!
Mental Benefits of Dancing
Here is where you may find results you didn’t expect. A group from Rutgers University studied a group of people over the age of 60. One group was sedentary and the other took a two-hour-long aerobic dance class once a week for 20 weeks. Then each group underwent a series of brain tests.
The results found that the group that participated in dancing regularly had brain activity that researchers described as more youthful brain activity than those who were sedentary. More specifically, the results show that participating in activities like dancing can keep the memory sharper as you age.
Scientists say the results are encouraging, and more research is needed to study the ways certain types of exercise can help the brain remain more youthful and active.
To learn more about Centers Choice Home Care and all the services they offer, visit CentersChoice.com.
