How learning to dance helps keep dementia at bay

PENsiONErs who learn to line dance are better protected from memory loss and dementia than those who walk or cycle, a study shows.

Dancing can help fight off the loss of brainpower as we age and appears to work better over a period of 18 months than cycling or Nordic walking using ski poles.

German researchers tested the different forms of exercise on 62 people with an average age of 68, measuring the size of the memory centre, called the hippocampus, in their brains. The dance group had more steps and choreography to learn.

in the study, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, the dance group were found to have a larger hippocampus, suggesting they were better protected from memory loss and dementia.

it is thought the effort required to learn their steps helped those in the dance group to lose less brain volume. This loss is thought to cause memory problems and lead to Alzheimer’s disease.

study author, Dr Kathrin rehfeld of the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases, said: ‘Dancing is a powerful tool to set new challenges for body and mind, especially in older age.’