Heaven...

I'm in heaven,
And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak.
And I seem to find the happiness I seek,
When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek.
-- Irving Berlin
Way back in 1935, songwriter Irving Berlin advised young lovers to go dancing che
ek to cheek as a prescription for happiness. Today, medical researchers and a gro
wing number of cardiologists are advising heart patients to enjoy the benefits o
f dancing for health.
Try Dancing for Heart Health
A study conducted by medical researchers in Italy found that people with heart f
ailure who took up waltzing improved their heart health, their breathing and the
ir quality of life significantly more than those who exercised by bicycling or w
alking on a treadmill.
The dancers also reported other benefits of dancing for health: slightly better
results for sleep, mood, and their ability to have sex, pursue hobbies and do ho
usework than the group that followed more traditional exercise programs.
Exercise Can Increase Longevity If You Do It
Numerous studies have shown that people with heart failure who get regular exerc
ise live longer and have a better quality of life than those who remain sedentar
y, according to Dr. Romualdo Belardinelli, professor of cardiology at Universit P
olitecnica delle Marche School of Medicine and director of cardiac rehabilitatio
n and prevention at Lancisi Heart Institute in Ancona, Italy.
But getting heart failure patients to stick to an exercise program isn t easy. As
many as 70 percent of heart patients eventually drop out of traditional programs
.
"We have to find new ways to reach them," Belardinelli said.
Why Choose Dancing for Health?
Belardinelli said researchers chose the waltz because it has universal appeal
is a very aerobic exercise, but he said other slow dances should work, too.

and

This may be a more effective way of getting people to exercise, and may be more f
un than running on a treadmill, Dr. Robert Bonow, chief of cardiology at Northwes
tern Memorial School of Medicine told the Associated Press. Maybe we should try t
hat here. I m not sure we can get Americans to waltz, but they can certainly dance
.
Bonow, who is also former president of the American Heart Association, said that
some of the heart health and other dancing and health benefits may be related t
o the fact that they are interacting socially instead walking on a treadmill by
themselves.
How the Heart Health Study was Conducted
The Italian study included 110 people 89 men and 21 women with mild-to-moderate hear
t failure. Heart failure occurs when the heart weakens and can no longer pump bl
ood effectively, causing fluid to build up in a person s lungs and other body tiss
ues. People with this type of heart failure can walk around, but they become win
ded much sooner and can't exercise as long as healthy people.
For the heart health study:
44 men and women exercised by cycling and walking on a treadmill three times a w
eek for eight weeks

44 people danced, alternating between slow five-minute waltzes and fast three-mi
nute waltzes for 21 minutes, three times a week for eight weeks.
The other 22 people who took part in the study did not exercise.
Both exercise and waltzing improved heart health and breathing among study parti
cipants. Those who did not exercise at all saw no improvement.
The Benefits of Dancing for Health
In many ways, dancing for health makes sense. Dancing allows you to work at your
fitness level, increasing speed and footwork as your strength and stamina impro
ve. Other benefits of dancing for health include:
Using more of your muscle groups for overall toning
Improving balance, which can help you avoid falling injuries
Reducing stress
Improving your social life and making new friends
Having fun and feeling young
Why Doctors Like Dancing for Health
"A well-trained athlete utilizes oxygen very efficiently, so his muscles don't d
emand as much oxygen-containing blood per minute. This is what allows him or her
to exercise harder and further than the average person," according to Elliott M
. Antman, MD, a heart specialist at Harvard Medical School, in an interview with
WebMD.
"Similarly, dancing and exercise both helped heart failure patients to utilize t
heir oxygen more efficiently, thereby allowing them to exercise more without run
ning out of breath," said Antman, who is also an AHA spokesman.
"Dancing appears to be an attractive and fun way for heart failure patients to g
et their exercise," Antman said. "I highly recommend it."
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