Springing into Movement
Photo credit: Steven Pisano
A message from our executive director:
Dear friends,
As March comes to an end and we step into Spring, we invite you to join us in celebrating Brain Awareness Week, a global campaign initiated by the Dana Foundation to foster public enthusiasm and support for brain science. Since 1996, this global campaign has fostered enthusiasm and support for brain health—something we at DanceStream Projects deeply embrace.
🧠 What is brain health?
Brain health is more than memory or reasoning; it’s a lifelong, dynamic state that includes cognitive, emotional, and motor well-being, shaped by our environment, according to Chen et al. (Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2023).
What this means is that our brains work in a constant collaboration and negotiation with our body’s systems and our environments. Our brains are vitally interconnected with the way we move, feel and think as well as the social and ecological communities we live in.
Underpinned by this understanding of brain health, the hopeful message of research presented by the Lancet Commission illuminates 14 modifiable risk factors all of us can take across our life which positively influence our brain health.
We can strengthen our brains and reduce dementia risk by 45% with these simple actions:
Get active: even 5 minutes a day is sufficient to contribute to cognitive benefits. Put on your favorite song and dance in any place! Dance to 4 songs a day and you’ll get 30 minutes of daily movement and be on your way to achieving the recommended 150 minutes of aerobic activity/week.
Check your hearing and vision: using assistive devices can slow cognitive decline. Each 10-decibel worsening of hearing is associated with a 16% increase in dementia risk. Using hearing aids can reduce cognitive decline by nearly 50%. A similar situation applies to vision impairment.
Get your dose of social connection: strong relationships boost brain health and reduce stress. Social isolation can increase a person's risk of dementia by about 60%. Take a moment today to connect with someone in your community.
Wherever you are in your life’s journey, take a moment today to consider your brain and adopt one action that helps keep it healthy and strong.
In solidarity,
