Entries in Health (1)

Saturday
Feb052011

The Surgeon General Recommends Dancing

I came across this article in the New York Times Magazine. Turns out the Surgeon General, Regina Benjamin, agrees with me - at least on this one point!

What sort of exercise do you recommend for people who don’t love it?
I want exercise to be fun; don’t want it to be work. I don’t want it to be so routine that you’re bored with it. We used to jump rope a lot and double Dutch and went to a disco to have fun and enjoy ourselves. We didn’t go to the disco because somebody said, Go dance for 30 minutes.

When was this? When did you go to a disco?
When I was younger. I want us to get back to doing things because they’re fun.

Maybe we need to dance more as a nation.
Yes, I love to dance, and whenever I’m at events and places with music, I will dance. That exercise is medicine. It’s better than most pills.

Read the full article on the NYTimes website.

I particularly love that last comment. I've long wondered how to communicate to people that dancing is the best anti-depressant there is. Music, movement, social and physical contact are all to credit. And when you're dancing all those factors are coming together at the same time. 

Dont' take my word for it, ask the Surgeon General!