Yoga provides unique cognitive benefits to older women at
risk of Alzheimer's disease
Summary=>
A new study found Kundalini yoga provided several benefits to cognition
and memory for older women at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease
including restoring neural pathways, preventing brain matter decline and
reversing aging and inflammation-associated biomarkers -- improvements
not seen in a group who received standard memory training exercises.
The findings, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, are the
latest in a series of studies led by UCLA Health researchers over the past
15 years into the comparative effects of yoga and traditional memory
enhancement training on slowing cognitive decline and addressing other
risk factors of dementia.
Led by UCLA Health psychiatrist Dr. Helen Lavretsky of the Jane and Terry
Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, this latest study
sought to determine whether Kundalini yoga could be used early on to
prevent cognitive decline and trajectories of Alzheimer's disease among
postmenopausal women.
Women have about twice the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease
compared to men due to several factors including longer life expectancy,
changes in estrogen levels during menopause and genetics.
In the new study, a group of more than 60 women ages 50 and older who
had self-reported memory issues and cerebrovascular risk factors were
recruited from a UCLA cardiology clinic.
The women were divided evenly into two groups. The first group
participated in weekly Kundalini yoga sessions for 12 weeks while the other
one group underwent weekly memory enhancement training during the
same time period.
Participants were also provided daily homework assignments.
Kundalini yoga is a method that focuses on meditation and breath work
more so than physical poses.
Memory enhancement training developed by the UCLA Longevity center
includes a variety of exercises, such as using stories to remember items
on a list or organizing items on a grocery list, to help preserve or improve
long-term memory of patients.
Researchers assessed the women's cognition, subjective memory,
depression and anxiety after the first 12 weeks and again 12 weeks later to
determine how stable any improvements were.
Blood samples were also taken to test for gene expression of aging
markers and for molecules associated with inflammation, which are
contributing factors to Alzheimer's disease.
A handful of patients were also assessed with MRIs to study changes in
brain matter.
Researchers found the Kundalini yoga group participants saw several
improvements not experienced by the memory enhancement training
group.
These included significant improvement in subjective memory complaints,
prevention in brain matter declines, increased connectivity in the
hippocampus which manages stress-related memories, and improvement
in the peripheral cytokines and gene expression of anti-inflammatory and
anti-aging molecules.
"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.
Among the memory enhancement training group, the main improvements
were found to be in the participants' long-term memory.
Neither group saw changes in anxiety, depression, stress or resilience,
though Lavretsky stated this is likely because the participants were
relatively healthy and were not depressed.
While the long-term effects of Kundalini yoga on preventing or delaying
Alzheimer's disease require further study, Lavretsky said the study
demonstrates that using yoga and memory training in tandem could
provide more comprehensive benefits to the cognition of older women.
"Ideally, people should do both because they do train different parts of
the brain and have different overall health effects," Lavretsky said. "Yoga
has this anti-inflammatory, stress-reducing, anti-aging neuroplastic brain
effect which would be complementary to memory training."
