Want to Keep Your Brain Young as You Get Old? Learn to Dance, Study Finds

It’s no surprise that being physically active keeps you healthier for longer. More studies of late have found exercise helps to keep your brain younger longer, too.

But since we live in world that celebrates the optimized productivity of everything, it’s not simply enough to exercise just because. We want to know which exercise to do. If keeping your cognitive muscles in shape as you age is a priority, a new study offers answers. It’s an activity that isn’t at all strenuous, keeps older adults moving and even has a social component, as New York Times health columnist Gretchen Reynolds wrote.

Mall walking? Nope. Water aerobics? Nuh uh. It’s dancing. Specially country dancing, such as the Contra and English Country dancing. Researchers actually studied how learning to dance affected the brains of older adult. What they found was promising.

Dancing compared to other exercise

Researchers at University of Illinois studied the cognitive effects of several types of exercise on a group of adults in their 60s and 70s. Most of the participants had a relatively sedentary lifestyle before participating in the study. Researchers divided the 174 participants into four groups, and they followed one of the following exercise regimens:

• Dancing: This group learned choreographed dance combinations that became progressively more challenging over the course of the 6-months program.
• Walking: Researchers supervised brisk walking sessions.
• Walking + Nutrition: Participants followed the same regimen as the walking group, plus took a daily supplement.
• Strength, Stretching and Stability Classes: This group participated in a program designed for older adults that included non-aerobic stretches, simple strength exercises and basic balancing activities.

Researchers then reviewed before and after images of participants brains’ to see how they had changed over the course of six months. Those with more white matter than before were deemed to have younger, more cognitively fit brains. The dancers took the cake. Most of them had denser amounts of white matter.

Why dancing proved to be best for aging brains

It appears the dance classes offered multiple benefits, both physical and mental. On a most basic level, dancing got people moving so they were physically active than before. Each week, the group learned slightly more complex dance moves, so it also kept them constantly learning. Lastly, the dance classes and dances themselves were social in nature. Socializing is key to fighting Alzheimer’s and Dementia, AARP reports.

“Our findings suggest that combining physical, cognitive, and social engagement (dance) may help maintain or improve white matter health and more physically active lifestyle is associated with slower white matter decline,” the researchers wrote in Frontiers, where their findings were published. “This study emphasizes the importance of a physically active and socially engaging lifestyle among aging adults.”