Dancing Reduced Cardiovascular Mortality

[Dean Pomerleau]

All,

 

Sthira, in a recent post to the exercise thread ,which I wantonly edited (my bad, sorry Sthira...) in order to create this new thread on animal cruelty, mentioned how beneficial dance is for health & longevity, complementing my daughter, who is a dancer. 

 

In vindication Sthira's assessment, this new study [1] (press release, popular press article) found that engaging in social dancing, particularly rigorous social dancing (enough to make one "out of breath and sweaty"), reduced cardiovascular mortality risk by 50% relative to people who didn't dance. Dancing was about twice as beneficial for CVD mortality as walking, even after controlling for a pretty extensive set of potential confounders, including age, sex, socioeconomic status, smoking, alcohol, BMI, chronic illness, psychosocial distress, and total physical activity amount.

 

Discussing the study, one of the authors said:

 

"We should not underestimate the playful social interaction aspects of dancing which, when coupled with some more intense movement, can be a very powerful stress relief and heart health promoting pastime...

 

The Bee Gees said it best - you should be dancing," 

 

Maybe we should have a dance party one evening at the CR Conference.☺

 

--Dean

 

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[1] American Journal of Preventive Medicine

Available online 1 March 2016, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2016.01.004

 

Dancing Participation and Cardiovascular Disease Mortality: A Pooled Analysis of 11 Population-Based British Cohorts

 

Dafna Merom, PhD, Ding Ding, PhD, Emmanuel Stamatakis, PhD

 

Free full text: http://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(16)00030-1/pdf

 

Abstract

 

Introduction

Little is known about whether cardiovascular benefits vary by activity type. Dance is a multidimensional physical activity of psychosocial nature. The study aimed to examine the association between dancing and cardiovascular disease mortality.

 

Methods

A cohort study pooled 11 independent population surveys in the United Kingdom from 1995 to 2007, analyzed in 2014. Participants were 48,390 adults aged ≥40 years who were free of cardiovascular disease at baseline and consented to be linked to the National Death Registry. Respondents reported participation in light- or moderate-intensity dancing and walking in the past 4 weeks. Physical activity amount was calculated based on frequency, duration, and intensity of participation in various types of exercise. The main outcome was cardiovascular disease mortality based on ICD-9 codes 390−459 or ICD-10 codes I01−I99.

 

Results

During 444,045 person-years, 1,714 deaths caused by cardiovascular disease were documented. Moderate-intensity, but not light-intensity, dancing and walking were both inversely associated with cardiovascular disease mortality. In Cox regression models, the hazard ratios for cardiovascular disease mortality, adjusted for age, sex, SES, smoking, alcohol, BMI, chronic illness, psychosocial distress, and total physical activity amount, were 0.54 (95% CI=0.34, 0.87) for moderate-intensity dancing and 0.75 (95% CI=0.62, 0.90) for moderate-intensity walking.

 

Conclusions

Moderate-intensity dancing was associated with a reduced risk for cardiovascular disease mortality to a greater extent than walking. The association between dance and cardiovascular disease mortality may be explained by high-intensity bouts during dancing, lifelong adherence, or psychosocial benefits.

[Sthira]

HV kicks ass:

 

[Saul]

My guess:

 

Any vigorous cardiovascular exercise, that's vigorous enough to make you sweat, will have similar effects as other such activity

-- e.g., my daily one hour vigorous workout on the latest model Precor elliptical cross-trainer at the maximum resistance, covering

a little over five miles. And vigorous social dancing should have, IMO, the same cardiovascular benefits as

using the elliptical, or running on a treadmill.

 

And all of these, IMO, should have much better cardiovascular consequences than walking, which is a much

milder exercise.

 

-- Saul

[gracezw]

HV kicks ass:

 

This is beautiful!

[gracezw]

Currently I am learning this Kungfu Fan routine performed with music by a young woman Taoist master.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xayTlIPtzwk

 

I teach a Tai Chi Kung Fu elective at my son’s 4^th/5^th combo class. I plan to demonstration part of this routine to four energetic boys on Tuesday.

[Sthira]

Currently I am learning this Kungfu Fan routine performed with music by a young woman Taoist master.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xayTlIPtzwk

 

I teach a Tai Chi Kung Fu elective at my son’s 4^th/5^th combo class. I plan to demonstration part of this routine to four energetic boys on Tuesday.

Lovely. She's so crisp and sharp. I've not yet explored Kungfu Fan -- looks far gentler on the body than the crazy-up nonsense I'm loving. This also looks more calorie restriction friendly -- less energy out. Thanks for sharing.

[gracezw]

 

Currently I am learning this Kungfu Fan routine performed with music by a young woman Taoist master.

 

 

I teach a Tai Chi Kung Fu elective at my son’s 4^th/5^th combo class. I plan to demonstration part of this routine to four energetic boys on Tuesday.

Lovely. She's so crisp and sharp. I've not yet explored Kungfu Fan -- looks far gentler on the body than the crazy-up nonsense I'm loving. This also looks more calorie restriction friendly -- less energy out. Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for your nice comments. The first step is to memorize the moves, then it is about connections and coordinations -- connecting the body with all directions, coordinating all body parts, and coordinating the movements with music. The last step is to feel and experience the Chi and the flow. The whole thing is nice and meditative.

To be as good as, or almost as good as, HV in her video, how long would it take time-wise? Does one have to be trained when young for building the necessary foundation for the skills(especially flexibility)? How easy is it for a mistake to cause an injury?

I like her workout because it is body weight based, does not need a lot of space, and is a great combination of strength, flexibility and cardio.

[mikeccolella]

Dancing is so cool. With music that resonates it is downright joyful. I do it daily at least for a few minutes along with my regular routine and These posts are motivating me to consider making it a more substantial part of my exercise.

[Guest Maddie]

My guess:

 

Any vigorous cardiovascular exercise, that's vigorous enough to make you sweat, will have similar effects as other such activity

-- e.g., my daily one hour vigorous workout on the latest model Precor elliptical cross-trainer at the maximum resistance, covering

a little over five miles. And vigorous social dancing should have, IMO, the same cardiovascular benefits as

using the elliptical, or running on a treadmill.

 

And all of these, IMO, should have much better cardiovascular consequences than walking, which is a much

milder exercise.

 

-- Saul

I do both running and dance.

 

Dancing has greater overall benefit because it requires a greater range of motion and balance.  It is less intense than the workout you describe, but the duration would be longer.

 

PARTNER dancing, specifically, has the best track record of any form of moderate exercise or activity when it comes to dementia, specifically, because it's intellectually taxing, too.  It requires planning, fast decision-making, reaction, etc.

 

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa022252#t=articleResults

 

Partner dancing sessions are usually 2-4 hours long, which is likely to afford unique benefits compared to exercising done for a shorter duration, as well.  We now know that exercise-related neurogenesis is tied to endurance cardio and NOT weight-bearing exercise.

[Sthira]

 

Beautiful, but unfortunately for me once you tear the knee's meniscus those elegant leaps no longer have the height necessary to pay bills. Message: don't tear the meniscus -- orthopedic science has promised for decades that the cure is five years away, five years away, away, awa...

[Kenton]

Dancing is so cool. With music that resonates it is downright joyful. I do it daily at least for a few minutes along with my regular routine and These posts are motivating me to consider making it a more substantial part of my exercise.

Indeed, I salsa dance some each day.

[Saul]

When I'm at Kripalu,  I always do the Kripalu Yoga dance -- and I'm always one of the most vigorous male dancers.  Almost all of the dancers are female, so I end up dancing with a lot of attractive females, most much younger than I.

 

 

   --  Saul