According to a study, elderly women who are at risk of Alzheimer’s disease may benefit cognitively from yoga

According to a recent UCLA Health study, Kundalini yoga reversed aging and inflammation-associated biomarkers, restored neural pathways, prevented brain matter decline, and improved cognition and memory in older women at risk of Alzheimer’s disease. These benefits were not observed in a group that underwent standard memory training exercises.

 

The results are the latest in a line of research from UCLA Health researchers that compares the benefits of yoga and conventional memory enhancement training for delaying cognitive decline and addressing other dementia risk factors. The studies were published in the journal Translational Psychiatry over the course of 15 years.

This most recent study, headed by UCLA Health psychiatrist Dr. Helen Lavretsky of the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, looked at whether postmenopausal women could use Kundalini yoga early on to prevent cognitive decline and the trajectories of Alzheimer’s disease.

Because of a number of variables, including heredity, increases in estrogen levels around menopause, and longer life expectancies, women are almost twice as likely as males to acquire Alzheimer’s disease.

More than 60 women 50 years of age and above with self-reported memory problems and cerebrovascular risk factors were gathered from a UCLA cardiology clinic for the new research. There was an equal division of the ladies into two groups. For a duration of 12 weeks, one group engaged in weekly Kundalini yoga sessions, while the other group received memory improvement training on a weekly basis. Daily homework tasks were also given to the participants.

In Kundalini yoga, breathing exercises and meditation take precedence over physical postures. In order to assist patients maintain or improve their long-term memory, the UCLA Longevity Center has devised memory enhancement training that consists of a number of activities including sorting groceries on a list or utilizing tales to help recall things on a list.

The women were evaluated by researchers for depression, anxiety, subjective memory, and cognition after the first 12 weeks and again after 12 weeks to see how stable any gains were. Additionally, blood samples were obtained in order to examine the molecules linked to inflammation and the gene expression of aging markers, both of which are risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. To examine alterations in brain matter, a small number of individuals had MRI assessments as well.

Researchers discovered that individuals in the Kundalini yoga group had a number of gains not seen in the memory enhancement training group. Peripheral cytokines and the gene production of anti-inflammatory and anti-aging molecules improved, as did the avoidance of brain matter reductions and the considerable improvement in subjective memory complaints. Additionally, the hippocampus, which controls stress-related memories, showed greater connection.

“That is what yoga is good for — to reduce stress, to improve brain health, subjective memory performance and reduce inflammation and improve neuroplasticity,” Lavretsky said.

The participants’ long-term memory was shown to have improved the most in the memory enhancement training group.

Lavretsky noted that the fact that neither group had changes in stress, anxiety, sadness, or resilience is probably due to the participants’ general well-being and lack of depression.

Although further research is needed to determine the long-term effects of Kundalini yoga on preventing or delaying Alzheimer’s disease, Lavretsky said the study shows that combining memory training with yoga may improve older women’s cognition in more ways than one.

“Ideally, people should do both because they do train different parts of the brain and have different overall health effects,” Lavretsky said. “Memory training would benefit from yoga’s neuroplastic brain effect, which has anti-inflammatory, anti-stress, and anti-aging properties.”