Dance your way to a better heart

That's the question posed by Italian researchers who've found that waltzing improves heart function and quality of life among chronic heart failure patients.

The benefits appear at least as great, and sometimes greater, than the benefits gained from more traditional aerobic exercise.
"Why not?" said Dr. Louis E. Teichholz, division director of cardiology and chief of complementary medicine at Hackensack University Medical Centre, in Hackensack, N.J.

"The important thing about exercise is that you have aerobic exercise, and certainly this is good aerobic exercise, especially a waltz, where you're constantly moving."

Added Dr. Robert Myerburg, a professor of medicine and physiology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine: "For the person with heart disease, this might be a good way to do exercise to their level of tolerance, and it would be enjoyable for them. You could adjust the form of dance you're doing for the person who is mildly limited because of heart disease."

The Italian researchers presented their findings Sunday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting, in Chicago.

Explaining the rationale for the research, lead study author Dr. Romualdo Belardinelli told a recent AHA news conference,

"The problem is that sometimes the adherence of cardiac patients to exercise training programmes is not very high, so we have to find something that may capture their interest."

"Waltz dancing improves functional capacity and quality of life for chronic heart failure patients without important side effects. It may be considered in combination or as an alternative to exercise training in these patients," added Belardinelli, the director of cardiac rehabilitation and prevention at Lancisi Heart Institute in Ancona, Italy. In a previous study, the same researchers had found that slow and fast waltzes were safe and effective forms of exercise for people who suffered from heart disease and previous heart attacks.

This time, the investigators basically repeated that first study in 110 individuals with chronic heart failure, 89 of them men, with an average age of 59.

"I don't think you could say this is better than good aerobic exercise," Teichholz said. "The major difference is people were happier doing it."