Dear Reader,

If there’s one thing that most people believe changes with age, it’s memory. Many healthy older adults report that their memory has declined. They forget the names and faces of acquaintances they once knew, or they forget the point they were going to make in a conversation.

Such memory hiccups aren’t necessarily early signs of dementia or even mild cognitive impairment. They are often just the typical lapses that come with aging.

If you could do just one thing to stave off normal memory loss, what should it be?

Perhaps you’re just as surprised as I was to learn that. But research studies in many countries and cultures have found that dance lessons improve memory in older adults. It doesn’t have to be a particular kind of dance—ballroom, swing, salsa, tango, or line dancing—and it can be solo or with a partner.

Does it help on Day 1? Probably not. Most published studies that find improvements in memory involve attending a dance class for six months or more.

Best of all, the neuroscience reveals that you won’t just learn some dance moves that you can do at your granddaughter’s wedding. You’ll actually gain more brain. Researchers have found that dancing increases brain volume through a process called neurogenesis, in which you sprout new neurons.

It might seem odd that dancing would help, but study after study finds that, at least for older adults, it’s more effective than taking up other exercise routines. Part of it is consistency—people are more likely to keep going to a dance class whereas they might give up on something equally effortful that they do independently—but another part is that it combines physical, mental, and social skills. In a dance class, you have to get your heart pumping, you have to remember the steps, and you have to joke with that person you keep bumping into.

Growing new brain tissue at age seventy? Yes, please. Pass me those tap shoes.