Shaking a leg on the dance floor can have more advantages than you thought, for a new research has found that dancing improves ability to function and quality of life among chronic heart failure patients and may be a good alternative to other aerobic exercises.
"Our research suggests that dancing is a new choice of exercise training for patients with heart failure," said Romualdo Belardinelli, lead author of the study.
"This is good news, because if we want patients to take part in lifelong aerobic exercise at least three times a week, it should be something that is fun and makes them want to continue," he said.
In a previous study, he and colleagues found that dance -- specifically, slow and fast waltz was safe and improved functional capacity and quality of life for people who suffered from heart disease and previous heart attacks.
"We repeated the study in patients with chronic heart failure, and the results were identical," he said, adding: "The amount of work during a session of dance is very similar to that of a session of traditional aerobic exercise."
Researchers monitored patients' heart rates during exercise and dancing sessions. At the start of the study and at eight weeks into it, all patients underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing -- an exercise stress test that analyzed ventilation and gas exchange to determine the effect of training and gauge functional ability.
Participants also underwent imaging tests on their arteries.
Patients then completed the Minnesota Heart Failure Living Questionnaire to rate their quality of life. Participants rated how heart failure affected their sleeping ability, participation in hobbies, housework, sexual activity, level of worry, depression and other aspects of daily life.
"The results indicate that dancing improves functional capacity and quality of life -- particularly when it came to questions about emotions -- among patients who underwent the dance protocol, while there was no improvement in these areas at eight weeks in the patients who did not exercise," Belardinelli said.
Cardiopulmonary fitness increased at similar rates in those who did routine exercise training and in those who danced, with dancers experiencing slightly greater benefits.
Oxygen consumption (peak V02) increased 16 percent among the exercisers and 18 percent among the dancers. Anaerobic threshold, the point above which muscles fatigue, increased 20 percent among exercisers and 21 percent among dancers.
