Dancing may reverse the signs of ageing in the brains of older people who routinely partake in physical exercise, a study has claimed.
“Exercise has the beneficial effect of slowing down or even counteracting age-related decline in mental and physical capacity,” said Kathrin Rehfeld from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Germany.
“We show that two different types of physical exercise dancing and endurance training both increase the area of the brain that declines with age. In comparison, it was only dancing that lead to noticeable behavioural changes in terms of improved balance,” said Rehfeld.
Elderly volunteers, with an average age of 68, were recruited to the study and assigned either an eighteen-month weekly course of learning dance routines, or endurance and flexibility training.
