https://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2017-08-reverse-aging-brain.html
From the article:
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
As we grow older we suffer a decline in mental and physical fitness, which can be made worse by conditions like Alzheimer's disease. A new study, published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, shows that older people who routinely partake in physical exercise can reverse the signs of aging in the brain, and dancing has the most profound effect.
"Exercise has the beneficial effect of slowing down or even counteracting age-related decline in mental and physical capacity," says Dr Kathrin Rehfeld, lead author of the study, based at the German center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Magdeburg, Germany. "In this study, we show that two different types of physical exercise (dancing and endurance training) both increase the area of the brain that declines with age. In comparison, it was only dancing that lead to noticeable behavioral changes in terms of improved balance."
From personal experience, and having worked extensively in senior care and aging, I can definitely attest to the fact that exercise has a very beneficial effect on brain function. Further, in my personal practice of outdoor jogging and treadmill, I have combined the the two practices of exercise and dancing and taken my workout to another level.
It is difficult to assemble an adequate set of adjectives to describe the euphoria that comes from running in rhythm and pushing yourself to engage with the music in creative ways.
The result of this effort of challenging mental coordination is a high which goes beyond any other; because this high comes with a clarity of mind and spirit that allows one to feel the euphoria while being in a state of complete awareness.
Be blessed.