Grab a partner and get dancing at your own pace. Take dance lessons or dance to live music. Dance is great exercise and can have a positive effect on the attention and thinking problems caused by chemo brain. Dancing can also help improve problems with balance and dizziness caused by cancer and treatment.
- According to the Scott Hamilton CARES Initiative, many cancer medications and treatments such as chemotherapy cause problems with balance and dizziness, which affects people's mobility and thinking.
- Results from a study by the University of Birmingham showed that aerobic exercise significantly improved quality of life measures, including depression, for breast cancer patients.
Dance can stimulate your mind because it requires you to pay attention and memorize movements, and can stimulate communication between the right- and left-sides of your brain. It also stimulates the three parts of your mind that influence movement and balance. For example, to dance, the back part of your brain that controls movement needs to communicate with your inner ear that controls balance and with the front of your brain that organizes everything.
Get Dancing To Better Cope With Cancer Fatigue
According to Canadian researchers, a major reason why cancer patients don’t stick with aerobic exercise is because of fatigue. However, participating in dance or aerobic activity (with your doctor’s approval) can equip your mind and body to better cope with fatigue. If you ask a friend or partner to schedule time to take dance lessons each week at your own pace, you can get even more support to stick with it. Finally, make sure to tell your dance instructor or partner about any physical or mental limitations you are experiencing so you get the support you need.
