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Tangotherapy

A neuroscientist friend of mine who is an enthusiast of tango will be very interested in this article that I read in the news today. It reports that dancing tango could benefit patients with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.

steps.jpg
Image: PeterForret

Unfortunately, the news report doesn't have a reference for this claim, although a cursory look in PubMed discloses this paper, which showed preliminary evidence for some benefit of tango on Parkinson's patients. The news report did say, though, that the First International Congress of Tangotherapy will take place next July in Argentina. Their current speaker list looks somewhat slim for a three-day meeting, but you never know how many more people will ultimately participate, even though I didn't see any dancing-only sessions in the program.

tango.jpg
Image: Luke Robinson

By the way, pending future evidence that tango is also good for people with Alzheimer's disease, I must be skeptical; it didn't seem to help the memory of my tango-dancing friend, who forgot about me a long time ago.

Posted by Juan Carlos Lopez on April 21, 2008 11:16 AM |

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