Latin dancing may prove healthy for elderly

NEW YORK: A little cha cha cha or salsa can help older adults walk faster, improve their physical fitness and as a result may decrease the risk for heart disease than a health education programme, reveals a study.



The results showed that the dancers walked faster and were more physically active during their leisure time than before they joined the dancing programme.

Also, the dancers completed a 400-metres walk in just less than 392 seconds compared with almost 430 seconds at the start of the study.

Further, the level of leisure physical activity rose from 650 minutes to nearly a total of 818 minutes per week.

"Scaling up such a culturally attuned, and what appears to be a fun intervention could have significant public health effects," said lead author Priscilla Vaisquez from the University of Illinois in US.



The dance class acted as their stress buster and help them interact and build community. This impacted their physical as well as emotional health and wellbeing, the researcher noted.