A brand new UCLA Well being examine discovered Kundalini yoga offered a number of advantages to cognition and reminiscence for older ladies liable to creating Alzheimer’s illness together with restoring neural pathways, stopping mind matter decline and reversing growing old and inflammation-associated biomarkers — enhancements not seen in a gaggle who obtained commonplace reminiscence coaching workout routines.
The findings, printed within the journal Translational Psychiatry, are the most recent in a sequence of research led by UCLA Well being researchers over the previous 15 years into the comparative results of yoga and conventional reminiscence enhancement coaching on slowing cognitive decline and addressing different threat elements of dementia.
Led by UCLA Well being psychiatrist Dr. Helen Lavretsky of the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Conduct, this newest examine sought to find out whether or not Kundalini yoga could possibly be used early on to forestall cognitive decline and trajectories of Alzheimer’s illness amongst postmenopausal ladies.
Ladies have about twice the danger of creating Alzheimer’s illness in comparison with males because of a number of elements together with longer life expectancy, adjustments in estrogen ranges throughout menopause and genetics.
Within the new examine, a gaggle of greater than 60 ladies ages 50 and older who had self-reported reminiscence points and cerebrovascular threat elements had been recruited from a UCLA cardiology clinic. The ladies had been divided evenly into two teams. The primary group participated in weekly Kundalini yoga periods for 12 weeks whereas the opposite one group underwent weekly reminiscence enhancement coaching throughout the identical time interval. Members had been additionally offered day by day homework assignments.
Kundalini yoga is a technique that focuses on meditation and breath work extra so than bodily poses. Reminiscence enhancement coaching developed by the UCLA Longevity heart contains quite a lot of workout routines, equivalent to utilizing tales to recollect gadgets on an inventory or organizing gadgets on a grocery record, to assist protect or enhance long-term reminiscence of sufferers.
Researchers assessed the ladies’s cognition, subjective reminiscence, melancholy and nervousness after the primary 12 weeks and once more 12 weeks later to find out how steady any enhancements had been. Blood samples had been additionally taken to check for gene expression of growing old markers and for molecules related to irritation, that are contributing elements to Alzheimer’s illness. A handful of sufferers had been additionally assessed with MRIs to review adjustments in mind matter.
Researchers discovered the Kundalini yoga group members noticed a number of enhancements not skilled by the reminiscence enhancement coaching group. These included important enchancment in subjective reminiscence complaints, prevention in mind matter declines, elevated connectivity within the hippocampus which manages stress-related reminiscences, and enchancment within the peripheral cytokines and gene expression of anti-inflammatory and anti-aging molecules.
“That’s what yoga is nice for — to scale back stress, to enhance mind well being, subjective reminiscence efficiency and cut back irritation and enhance neuroplasticity,” Lavretsky mentioned.
Among the many reminiscence enhancement coaching group, the primary enhancements had been discovered to be within the members’ long-term reminiscence.
Neither group noticed adjustments in nervousness, melancholy, stress or resilience, although Lavretsky acknowledged that is probably as a result of the members had been comparatively wholesome and weren’t depressed.
Whereas the long-term results of Kundalini yoga on stopping or delaying Alzheimer’s illness require additional examine, Lavretsky mentioned the examine demonstrates that utilizing yoga and reminiscence coaching in tandem may present extra complete advantages to the cognition of older ladies.
“Ideally, folks ought to do each as a result of they do prepare completely different elements of the mind and have completely different general well being results,” Lavretsky mentioned. “Yoga has this anti-inflammatory, stress-reducing, anti-aging neuroplastic mind impact which might be complementary to reminiscence coaching.”
