拉丁舞可以活跃节日庆祝活动，促进健康

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Family gatherings and workplace parties with mouth-watering spreads are hallmarks of the holiday season. But if you want to boost your holiday cheer and your health simultaneously, 随着萨尔萨舞的节拍轻拍你的脚, 梅伦格和巴塔塔.

Adding Latin dance to holiday celebrations not only enlivens a party, 但它也可以保持你的健康. 舞蹈对大脑和心脏健康都有好处. 苏珊一度, a professor in the department of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

研究显示 that dance can reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression. 一度的 自己的研究 focused on Latin dance suggests that learning the rapid and sometimes complex movements of salsa, cha-cha-cha, 梅伦格舞和巴塔塔舞可以改善记忆力.

她说，这是有道理的，因为你必须学习新的动作. "You have to combine those steps and then you have to remember those steps from previous classes to create dance sequences."

Aguiñaga描述了摇摆臀部的梅伦格舞, 起源于多米尼加共和国, as the easiest Latin dance to learn because of its simple steps. 萨尔萨舞, a fast-paced confluence of Cuba's African and Spanish musical heritage, 难度最大是因为动作复杂吗, 她说.

Latin dance can be an endurance exercise that keeps you fit and improves heart health – at any age. And because dance is an integral part of Latin American culture, 许多西班牙人更喜欢它而不是其他形式的运动, 她说.

Aguiñaga has studied cognitive function among older Latino people through dance, which 她说 is crucial because they face a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, 这是最常见的痴呆症. 年龄较大的西班牙裔是1.5 times more likely to have dementia than their white peers, according to the 疾病控制和预防中心.

不过，Aguiñaga表示，拉丁舞并不只是拉丁裔人的专属. “所有人群——年轻人和老年人, 孩子们, 青少年, 成年人, 老年人可以从中受益,她说.

Dr. 伊丽莎白Pulgaron, an associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Miami, said dance is an effective aerobic workout that releases endorphins, 产生快乐和幸福感觉的荷尔蒙. It also can lead to bonding with others who enjoy dancing routinely in a class or another group setting.

"You're building a community and a moment in time where you connect with people from all different places and backgrounds and stages of life,她说.

But shuffling your feet to Latin rhythms at home can be just as fun and good for your body, Pulgaron说. She's been doing it since she was a youngster growing up in a Cuban household in Miami. Her grandmother made the 孩子们 clean on Saturdays with music.

"Dancing with the broom made it a little bit more tolerable,她说.

这也帮助她培养了对拉丁舞的热情. 这些天，她在尊巴舞课上跟着拉丁音乐跳舞.

When it comes to Latin dance, the intergenerational aspect is worth noting, Pulgaron说. "Perhaps you learned to dance from your parents or grandparents, or perhaps it's something you do in moments of celebration and hopefully something that can continue throughout one's life."

And when it comes to holiday celebrations with spreads that can encourage overeating, Latin dance could prove useful in helping to keep revelers healthy.

"We might need to do some extra dancing or put in some other forms of physical activity to be able to balance that, 但这是一个开始, 我认为这很重要,普尔加隆说.