{"id":36,"date":"2010-05-04T13:11:35","date_gmt":"2010-05-04T13:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=36"},"modified":"2012-09-06T16:44:08","modified_gmt":"2012-09-06T16:44:08","slug":"dance-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/dance-for-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Dance for Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cJust how many calories can I burn when dancing?\u201d said Juancho S.P., 65 \u2013 rhetorically, actually, since he was told to pick up \u201can activity, any activity that may not be as strenuous but will still keep him fit\u201d by his doctor, who was quickly scoffed at. \u201cIf it isn\u2019t THAT strenuous, it\u2019s not really an exercise.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Juancho S.P. had been seeing his doctor more frequently the last few months \u2013 no thanks to \u201cthis recurring pain at my chest \u2013 if you ask me, it\u2019s nothing, really, just the stress from everything I need to have finished before my retirement,\u201d he says, though \u201cgetting checked seemed like a logical idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, he adds: \u201cEspecially if your wife bugs you day and night about it. Making you eat only this and that. Making sure, as she says it, \u2018You\u2019d be around for long still.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was during these check-ups that he was told to exercise \u2013 \u201cAs if my daily responsibilities aren\u2019t enough,\u201d he said \u2013 to stay fit. \u201cLower your risks of coronary heart disease \u2013 which the doctor said I could end up having \u2013 by decreasing my blood pressure,\u201d Juancho S.P. said.<\/p>\n

Like many, though, dancing never struck Juancho S.P. as a healthy activity. \u201cYeah, right. I didn\u2019t lose weight playing basketball in college some 50 years ago \u2013 and he thinks I can lose weight, be fit by dancing?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This, unfortunately, is a notion shared by many.<\/p>\n

According to The Health Benefits of Dancing<\/em> (SixWise.com), what not many people know is that \u201cif you secretly sashay across your living room when you’re home alone or long to cha-cha with your significant other, you’re in luck. Not only is dancing an exceptional way to let loose and have fun, but it also provides some terrific benefits for your health.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 21-year study published in the New England Journal of Medicine<\/em>, in fact, found that dancing can even reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia in the elderly \u2013 with participants over the age of 75 who engaged in reading, dancing and playing musical instruments, and board games once a week had a 7% lower risk of dementia compared to those who did not. Those who engaged in these activities at least 11 days a month had a 63% lower risk. Interestingly, dancing was the only physical activity out of 11 in the study that was associated with a lower risk of dementia.<\/p>\n

“This is perhaps because dance music engages the dancer’s mind,\u201d says Joe Verghese, a neurologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a lead researcher of the study, adding that \u201cdancing may be a triple benefit for the brain. Not only does the physical aspect of dancing increase blood flow to the brain, but also the social aspect of the activity leads to less stress, depression, and loneliness. Further, dancing requires memorizing steps and working with a partner, both of which provide mental challenges that are crucial for brain health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among others, Mayo Clinic researchers reported that social dancing helps reduce stress, increase energy, improve strength, increase muscle tone and coordination \u2013 benefits that, adds the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) are further boost by dancing\u2019s benefits of lowering risk of coronary heart disease, decreasing blood pressure, helping manage weight, and strengthening the bones of legs and hips.<\/p>\n

Obviously, stresses exercise physiologist Catherine Cram, MS, of Comprehensive Fitness Consulting in Middleton, Wisconsin in the US, as quoted by SixWise.com, \u201cthe amount of benefit you get from dancing depends on, like most exercises, the type of dancing you’re doing, how strenuous it is, the duration, and your skill level.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are, in fact, specific benefits to be derived from specific dances.\u00a0Ballroom dancing is said to condition the body by building and increasing stamina, helping keep the heart in shape, developing the circulatory system, strengthening and tones legs and body, and increasing flexibility and balance. Belly dancing helps improve posture and muscle toning, maintains flexibility, tones and firms arms and shoulders, and helps prepare women for childbirth. As for salsa dancing, it helps build endurance and stamina (therefore weight loss), relieves stress, and can lead to a reduced heart rate over time.<\/p>\n

Months after he was advised to start dancing, Juancho S.P. has yet to fully appreciate the value of dancing \u2013 \u201cI don\u2019t notice much difference,\u201d he now says, even if admitting \u201cI have been losing a lot of weight \u2013 and not feel any weaker or anything for being so, since I\u2019ve been dancing with my wife for hours way after my usual work hours for weeks now,\u201d he adds, smiling.<\/p>\n

But acknowledgment, in this case, seems unnecessary, for as long as the benefits of dancing is noted, even if indirectly. Because then, dancing would have served its purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to The Health Benefits of Dancing, what not many people know is that \u201cif you secretly sashay across your living room when you’re home alone or long to cha-cha with your significant other, you’re in luck. Not only is dancing an exceptional way to let loose and have fun, but it also provides some terrific benefits for your health.\u201d Time to start dancing then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3,35],"tags":[24,23],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fitness","category-spotlight","category-wellness-2","tag-benefits-of-dancing","tag-dance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}