Dancing Can Help Seniors with Bad Knees and Hips
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Photodisc/Thinkstock(ST. LOUIS) — To paraphrase an old Bee Gees song, “You should be dancing, yeah, if you’re a senior citizen.”
Hitting the dance floor, albeit gently and slowly, will help to alleviate chronic knee and hip pain, according to a Saint Louis University study.
What’s more, lead author Jean Krampe says that dancing also improves everyday walking of the elderly.
Krampe conducted her study with three dozen seniors, average age of 80. who danced in two 45-minutes sessions weekly for 12 weeks. Virtually all the seniors were women and complained about arthritis that made their knees and hips stiff.
Compared to a control group that did not participate, the dancers said they felt less pain in their knees and hips after the 12 weeks and found they were walking better as well.
Perhaps even more significantly is that the control group increased their pain medications by 21 percent while those who took part in dance-based therapy reduced their meds by 39 percent.
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