Could dancing be the best medicine for senior citizens with arthritis?

A new study found that a low-impact dance class significantly improved the health of elderly patients with stiffness or pain in their knees and hips.

Researchers from Saint Louis University studied the effect of dancing on a group of residents in a senior citizen apartment complex. The study participants were primarily women who were about 80 years old. Half of the participants were assigned to attend a 45-minute dance class twice a week.

After 12 weeks, the participants who went to the dance class reported a noticeable decrease in pain. In fact, the dance class members reduced their usage of pain medication by 39 percent. Those who didn’t attend the class actually increased pain medication usage over the same time period.

In addition, the dance class participants’ walking gait speed was faster than that of the study participants who did not take the dance class. Why is that important? Walking gait is considered one of the “vital signs” physicians can use to gauge an elderly adult’s risk of injury. Older adults who walk slowly are more likely to fall, become hospitalized or require care from others.

Although it wasn’t measured in the study, there was one more obvious improvement: the morale of the participants. Coming from a generation that especially loved to dance, the dance class participants talked at length with researchers about how much they loved it. That means the participants will be much more likely to continue the program than they would a less-engaging exercise class.

Called Healthy Steps, the dance therapy can be done slowly while sitting or standing. It uses low-impact aerobic dance steps choreographed to music. It’s used in nursing homes all over the world.

Now that’s something to twirl about.