By David Easa
People dance for many reasons, but I would bet that nobody in the world has ever read an article on the metabolic and hormonal benefits of ballroom dancing and then decided on pursuing this avocation for health benefits. At the same time, there is an increasing body of evidence supporting the notion that dancing is good for your mental and physical health. I do not expect anyone to debate this point. Clearly it makes most people happy, so even if there were no empiric evidence for such claims, people will still want to dance. Humans are arguably hedonists by nature and sometimes these tendencies are ill directed as in the case of smoking or excessive drinking.
Dancing is much less controversial; few can find any negatives that would act as a significant deterrent. Perhaps if your spouse or unofficial life partner (I hate that term significant other) didn’t dance, jealousy could uncover it’s ugly face; thus, breakup of relationships might be an inevitable spillover to an obsessive pastime. But then again, any obsessive pastime will require patience and understanding from your partner, so this effect should not isolate itself to the exclusive domain of the dance world (unless dancing extends to other acts of intimacy).
As a doctor and student dancer, I am intrigued by the potential physiologic basis for improvements in health associated with any physical activity. OK, some of this is easy, we expend calories to keep our weight in check, we repeat difficult dance movements which take balance and strength and fitness and brain power to remember simple and not so simple dance routines. There are also some secondary benefits to dancing. For example, when we dance, we need to pretty up, dress well, and practice good hygiene unless of course we intend to punish our dance partners or discourage them from ever practicing with us again.
But what about hormone changes associated with physical activity? Indeed, we are all taught that a runner’s high has to do with endorphin release. What happens with dancing? Not surprising, not all that much is known. And maybe nobody other than me cares……..if that is so, you are free to resume your holiday shopping; but just in case anyone is curious…..
First the basics: we do know that cortisol is a hormone that is released by the human adrenal gland and strongly related to physical and emotional stress. Now there is a daily and predictable fluctuation in cortisol in humans, but aside from this natural circadian rhythm, increasing cortisol levels is considered a negative indicator of health and lowered levels is associated with positive ones.
A recent study (Murcia, 2009) has measured cortisol in 11 Argentine tango dance couples and showed that dancing tango during dance lessons with a partner significantly lowered cortisol levels…….see, dancing is good to your health!!!! But wait, these results contrast to those of West (2004), who observed significant increases in cortisol in a cohort of more vigorous dancers of African rhythms over a 90-min period. And they also contrast to a study by Rohleder (2007) who found increases in cortisol in ballroom dancers in a competitive situation. The authors suggested that these were due to the “psychological stress of the social evaluative threat situation”.
What about that powerful hormone testosterone blamed so freely for so many of the world’s ills? In the study by Murcia, increases in testosterone were found after the first and second tango session (but not in later sessions) resulting from the exposure to the “physical proximity of the partners eliciting testosterone increases”. I think this means that body parts rubbing together during a novel set of dance movements temporarily ignites a chemical flood of testosterone release and who knows what other physiology!
So, how can we better interpret these data? Probably with some caution….no really, dancing is probably no different than any other activity that can be both good and bad for you. As far as cortisol goes, it makes sense that if you are dancing socially and having a great time, you will be relaxed and your stress hormones will fall. But if stress is induced by competition, this may result in your cortisol level increasing.
But is this truly bad, should we not compete because it increases stress and cortisol levels? Is all stress bad for you, or does moderate stress have some adaptive benefit for humans at most ages? The answer can be drawn from the archives of common sense and logic and also from a growing body of literature that extols the benefits of moderate stress on human physiology (as for example on memory and the immune system).
Actually I found the testosterone data more interesting. The fact that both male and female partners had increases in testosterone when dancing in a close embrace, as is usually the case in Argentine Tango, confirms the notion that there may be more benefit to Argentine Tango than meets the eye….ha ha…
OK, I know you haven’t learned anything new from this writing. We know that dancing is good for us both mentally and physically, and that the minimal risks are greatly outweighed by the benefits. We know that it brings us happiness and joy, and a sense of personal pride that may be impossible to match by any other activity. And we know that even if I was able to provide overwhelmingly convincing data that dancing is bad for you, no one with a rational mind would believe it or want to believe it. So what’s the point?
The point is that I felt a need to write something to support Pepe’s blog at a time when others are probably not writing too much during this holiday season. I also wanted to wish the readers and particularly my friends who have encouraged me to continue to write a happy and safe holiday. And about the data, in the end, I am left wondering if the surge in testosterone that was shown after Argentine Tango dancing would still occur if the dancers they tested were age 60 years or older.
David
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
