Aug. 27 reported that as we grow older, we lose brain and physical strength, and diseases such as Alzheimer's can make that worse. A new study published in the Swiss journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience shows that older people who engage in regular physical activity can reverse signs of aging in the brain, with dancing having the most dramatic effect.
"Exercise can be effective in slowing down or even counteracting the decline in brain and physical strength associated with aging," said study lead author Dr. Kathrin Reifeld of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, according to a report on Medical Xpress.com on Aug. 25, "In the study, we found that two different types of exercise (dancing and endurance training) both enhanced areas of the brain that decline with age. In contrast, only dancing resulted in significant behavioral changes in terms of improved balance."
The study recruited older volunteers with an average age of 68 and put them through 18 months of weekly dance or endurance and flexibility training. The results showed that the hippocampus region of the brain was enhanced in both groups of subjects. This is important because this area is susceptible to the decline that comes with getting older and can be affected by diseases such as Alzheimer's. It also plays an important role in memory and learning, as well as maintaining physical balance.
Previous studies have also shown that physical activity can counteract the brain decline that comes with old age, but have not been able to determine whether one form of exercise is better than others. To assess this, researchers had subjects engage in different forms of exercise. While traditional workouts focused on repetitive drills, such as biking or trail walking, the group of subjects in the dance-training group had to try something new every week.
Rayfield explains, "We try to get the older adults in the dance group to try different dance moves or types (jazz, square, Latin, and line dancing). Steps, arm movements, formations, speeds and rhythms are adjusted every other week so that they are always in a learning mode. The most challenging part was asking them to recall dance steps in a limited amount of time without prompting from the instructor."
It was these additional challenges that the researchers believe brought about the significant differences in balance among the subjects in the dance group. Lehfeld and colleagues are building on these studies to test new exercise programs that have the potential to produce the best results against brain decline.