Dancing Makes You Smarter

When we think of health and fitness, longevity and quality of life we usually think of training our bodies.  We weight train to boost the metabolism and we choose a class or find an activity that may boost our cardiovascular fitness.  Even when we hear the term "Mind-Body" class we are still thinking of our physical being; we want to be stronger and more flexible.  Seldom would the concept of attending the gym to work our mind even occur to us!

Last year the New England Journal of Medicine published a study conducted by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.  This was a 21-year study of senior citizens 75 years and older and measured the effects of recreational activities on mental acuity in aging.  The study wanted to see if "any physical or cognitive recreational activities influenced mental acuity" ("Use it or Lose It: Dancing Makes You Smarter" - Richard Powers).  They studied activities such as reading, doing crossword puzzles, playing cards, playing musical instruments, playing tennis or golf, swimming, cycling, dancing, walking for exercise and housework.  One of the surprises of the study was that almost none of the physical activities appeared to offer any protection against dementia.  There were physical fitness benefits of course, but the only physical activity to offer protection against dementia was frequent dancing.  In fact, dancing showed the greatest risk reduction of any activity studied, cognitive or physical!  Activities such as reading offered a 35% reduced risk of dementia and crossword puzzles offered a 47% reduced risk.  Dancing frequently offered a 76% risk reduction.

According to Dr. Joseph Coyle, a Harvard Medical psychiatrist who wrote an accompanying commentary to the study, "The cerebral cortex and hippocampus, which are critical to these activities, are remarkably plastic, and they rewire themselves based upon their use."  In other words it is a matter of 'use it or lose it!'

The reason dancing was so effective for exercising our cognitive process is that it is an activity that challenges our split-second decision making abilities.  It requires us to interpret moves and respond.  Dancing is a kinaesthetic, rational, musical and emotional learning experience.  It encourages us to move in a way that is unfamiliar to us and is constantly presenting us with new sequences so that new neurological pathways are formed.  According to Richard Powers in his article "Use It or Lose It: Dancing Makes You Smarter," "difficult and even frustrating classes are better for you, as they will create a greater need for new neural pathways."

As someone who has danced for almost as many years as I have walked I have never understood why dance programs seem to fade out and become almost a 'specialty' thing at gyms.  They are challenging and involve thinking and work, but for some reason the desire to feel successful straight away plays on our egos and our self-consciousness takes over.  It is a shame that we lose the brave front we all have when we are young; everything is unfamiliar so we persevere and are eager students.  We try lots of sports, attend lots of classes but over time we decide to stay comfortable and we gradually create for ourselves a niche that is filled with a few things we feel define us and these often become fewer and fewer over time.  We often avoid opportunities that may take us into unfamiliar territories or may upset our natural way of doing  or thinking.  For a lot of us dancing is not on our list of desired activities to do  with our day.  We may appear silly, we may leave frustrated by a pattern of movements that initially seem irrational or illogical.  Hay, isn't that part of the fun?!  And you never know!  With perseverance and practice you may become open to the experience.  We exercise our heart to be fitter, our muscles to be stronger, why not exercise our mind?