Transcriber: aya nabil Reviewer: Emma G
Good afternoon, everyone.
Today we’re going to start with a little exercise.
Well, everyone who can stand, please stand up from your chairs.
Now, close your eyes and focus on your legs.
Feel the weight of your body on the bottom of your feet.
Now shift your weight forward towards the balls of your feet.
Open your eyes and take a small step forward with your right.
Now backwards with your left.
Try to sidestep to your right and another to your left.
Congratulations, you have now learned
one of the basic concepts of Argentine tango.
You may sit back down.
Dance has been there for me my entire life.
It supported me through immigration when I was 13 years old,
through family challenges,
when I was in high school, through medical school,
and now through residency during the COVID pandemic.
I was first introduced to Argentine tango right here
through the Anello Tango Club at Florida State as a freshman.
I was immediately captivated by the sophisticated,
intricate and complex nature of the dance.
Anyone who’s dance the Argentine tango knows
that sometimes it can be more like a love hate relationship,
because it's such a sophisticated, intricate and complex dance.
You see, what’s different about this dance compared to other dances
is that we do not have a basic step.
What we have is the walk.
We have the forward walk, the backwards walk,
sidesteps and even a circular walk.
And each one of these steps is broken down
to the various joints and muscles in our body.
The torso gets twisted as we contract our abdominal muscles
one way and stretch the other.
We lift the hip, the knee, the ankle,
and start to shift our weight forward as we fall into the next foot.
We lead with our chest to stay in the line of dance and so much more.
But as you’ve seen in the earlier performance
by these two lovely people,
this process among the dozens of others
is invisible to the naked eye.
And that is the magic of Argentine tango.
Thank you. Thank you.
Despite the love hate relationship, I stuck with it the next several years
when I started medical school at FSU.
However, it was significantly more challenging to find the time to dance,
and when I did have the time, I felt guilty for not studying instead.
During my first year as a medical student,
I was lucky enough to be introduced to Dr. Maitland,
one of our very own neurologists.
Dr. Maitland graciously allowed me and a few other medical students
to observe his care of patients in the clinic
and be exposed to neurologic practice firsthand.
One of the very first patients I saw
had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease
and was accompanied by his wife.
As some of you may know, Parkinson's disease is
a neurodegenerative disease that is most famous
for its resting pill rolling like tremor.
The disease slows people down their movement,
their speech and even facial expressions.
So as expected, this patient had difficulty with walking.
As part of the physical exam, we ask the patient
to get up from the chair and walk across the room.
While the patient was able to get up from his chair slowly,
he could not initiate that first step.
But what his wife did next, eally caught my eye.
She stood up beside him in a side hug,
and together they shifted their weight from one foot to the other,
back and forth, back and forth,
until he was ready to take that first step.
I remember sitting there and thinking,
“Oh my goodness, this is exactly
how we start every single dance in Argentine tango!”
We come together in the embrace
and together we shift our weight from one foot to the other
until we take that first step.
And so by the summer of 2018,
we had put together a study exploring
the effects of Argentine tango on Parkinson’s disease.
In our study, we had participants who walk across the mat
with 18,000 sensors that analyzes their walk
and calculates a score representing their fall risk.
Now, if someone healthy walked across this mat,
they may score somewhere between 95 and 100.
If a Parkinson's patient walks across this mat,
the main score is somewhere in the 80.
This means that when a Parkinson’s patient walks,
they are more likely to fall when compared to a healthy individual.
That summer, we had 11 participants
who learned to dance the Argentine tango
and nine participants with Parkinson’s Disease,
who served as the control group
and did not participate in the lessons.
Lessons lasted about one hour each, three times a week for four weeks,
and consisted of learning the tango walk,
balance and weight shifting, the embrace,
forward step, backward step, sidesteps and even pivots.
To measure the effects of Argentine tango on Parkinson’s disease,
we ask all 20 participants to walk across the mat
before and after the month long intervention.
Now some of these lessons are quite challenging, as one would imagine,
but what was most challenging was something I didn't expect.
I learned that some people with Parkinson’s disease
will look at their lives before and after the diagnosis.
Some of the participants were dancers in the before or athletes.
They were all people who were used to telling their body
what to do and it would just do it.
A simple forward step that you and I don’t even think about is a struggle.
And overcoming that hardship, overcoming the memories of the before
was a challenge I did not foresee.
One time I was dancing with one of the participants
when I suddenly noticed she had tears streaming down her face.
Of course, I immediately panicked and thought
that I stepped on her or done something wrong.
But before I got too ahead of myself,
I asked her how she was doing and she started telling me
how she used to dance ballroom with her late husband
and how these lessons reminded her of him.
She continued to express frustration that last time she danced,
her body moved gracefully.
And now, now she’s in the after.
Despite the mental and physical challenges,
these group of participants was among the most motivated people
that I have ever met.
Now, one of them gave up during the lessons,
and some of them even seemed to enjoy it.
This was easily one of my most rewarding experiences.
And what makes it even better is that it worked.
In our study, we found that learning and dancing the Argentine tango
for one month, three times a week,
does in fact reduce fall risk
in the Parkinson’s disease patient population.
(Applause)
Why Argentine tango, though? Why not? Ballroom tango.
And yes, there’s a difference or other dances like salsa.
Well, like I mentioned before, Argentne tango doesn’t have a basic step,
but we have our techniques for how to walk, turn, balance ourselves.
While other dancers may have similar techniques,
they don’t get taught until a far more advanced skill level.
This dance starts with these intricate ways to move around the dance floor.
It teaches people whose brains forgot the mechanics of a simple step
how to walk all over again.
As a resident physician, I have learned and seen the wonders of medicine
and it truly is wonderful.
And even though I've only been doing this for almost a year,
I have also seen its limitations.
This study, among the dozens of others
that explore non-pharmaceutical intervention for disease
shows us that we have more control over our body than we may think.
Whether it’s dancing, boxing, yoga or tai chi,
all of these interventions have been shown
to be helpful in Parkinson’s disease.
But we don’t have to stop there.
Anyone with any medical condition
can choose to do one or more of these activities,
even if it’s mostly for fun with a side benefit of reducing fall risk.
Thank you very much. (Applause)