Dance your way into a long memory

By Patricia Li Source:Global Times Published: 2016/7/20 15:58:00

Illustration: Luo Xuan/GT



After retiring from her job as a hydraulic engineer, my mother morphed into a dance enthusiast. I recently read a piece on her passion that I later forwarded to her. 

Regular exercise, including walking, jogging, cycling or dancing is good for the aging brain and may help reduce the risk of Alzheimer's, an April article in the New York Times cited a study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease as saying.

The research, which began in 1989, tracked data from 6,000 senior citizens, both men and women, and showed that the gray matter - the part of the brain in charge of memory and thinking - is healthier if people do regular physical exercise.

"People who had more gray matter correlated with physical activity had 50 percent less risk five years later of having experienced memory decline or of having developed Alzheimer's," the article said.

The finding becomes another reason for me to support my mother's dancing. Since retiring three years ago, she has been going to a local park to dance two or three times a week. She downloaded a series of dance tutorial videos to her iPad and smartphone, so she can learn and memorize the movements when she is free. She also participated in filming dancing videos a few times with a group of dancing buddies.

My mother is a good dancer. There have been millions of middle-aged and elderly Chinese women who square dance, but she takes it more seriously. For her, dancing is not only exercise but also a creative outlet - something people born in her generation were unable to pursue when they were young.

I think it's also why she wanted to send me to dance classes when I was little. Perhaps watching her daughter dance was a way for her to fulfill her dream of dancing.

I sent her the article via WeChat. She said dancing would lead to better physical health, but singing, another of her hobbies, is the right way to prevent dementia "because you have to use the brain more often to memorize the lyrics and melody."

Both my mother and father are avid members of an online singing website that runs separate rooms for different ages and groups of singing lovers. They each have "fans" who log in every day to listen to their songs. One of the fans is my grandmother.

Nevertheless, the problem that concerns me is that my father does not exercise regularly. I sent the article to him as well.

My father, who used to be a basketball enthusiast in his youth, disagreed. He told me that his health philosophy is "life lies motionless."

"Every time you do exercise, you are consuming the energy reserve in your life," he said.

Apart from singing, my father loves computer science. He is the IT guy in his circle of friends and colleagues, helping them fix problems with their computers.

He still likes to watch sports. "Why isn't there an Olympic Games for senior citizens?" he complained to me the other day. "Sports arenas should not be only occupied by young athletes."

Maybe he is right, organizing sports events for senior citizens is a way to encourage more elderly people to do exercise.

This article was published on the Global Times Metropolitan section Two Cents page, a space for reader submissions, including opinion, humor and satire. The ideas expressed are those of the author alone, and do not represent the position of the Global Times.



Posted in: Twocents-Opinion

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