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A new UCLA Health study shows that Kundalini yoga may improve cognition and cognitive performance in older women at risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease by restoring neural pathways, halting the decline in brain matter, and reversing biomarkers associated with aging and inflammation. Have improved memory – Improvements were not seen in the group receiving standard memory training exercises.
The findings, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, are the most recent in a series of studies conducted by UCLA Health researchers over the past 15 years to compare the effects of yoga and traditional memory enhancement training on slowing cognitive decline and addressing other dementia risk factors. Are. ,
Led by Dr. Helen Lavretsky, a UCLA health psychiatrist at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, this latest study sought to determine whether exercise could prevent cognitive decline and the trajectory of Alzheimer’s disease in women after menopause. Kundalini Yoga can be used initially for this.
Women have about twice the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than 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 problems and cerebrovascular risk factors were recruited from the UCLA Cardiology Clinic. The women were divided equally into two groups. The first group participated in weekly Kundalini yoga sessions for 12 weeks, while the second group took weekly memory enhancement training during the same time period. Participants were also provided with daily homework assignments.
Kundalini yoga is a method that focuses more on meditation and breathing than physical postures. 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 preserve or improve patients’ long-term memory. Can go.
The researchers assessed the women’s cognition, subjective memory, depression and anxiety before and again 12 weeks later to determine how stable any improvements were. Blood samples were also taken to test for gene expression of markers of aging and molecules associated with inflammation, which are contributing factors to Alzheimer’s disease. A handful of patients were also evaluated with MRI to study changes in brain matter.
The researchers found that participants in the Kundalini yoga group saw many improvements that were not experienced by the memory enhancement training group. These include significant improvements in subjective memory complaints, prevention of brain matter decline, increased connectivity in the hippocampus that manages stress-related memories, and improvements in gene expression of peripheral cytokines and anti-inflammatory and anti-aging molecules. .
“That’s what yoga is good for — reducing stress, improving brain health, subjective memory performance and reducing inflammation and improving neuroplasticity,” Lavretsky said.
In the memory enhancement training group, the main improvement was found in the long-term memory of the participants.
Neither group saw changes in anxiety, depression, stress or resilience, although Lavretsky said this may be because the participants were relatively healthy and not depressed.
While further study is needed for the long-term effects of Kundalini yoga on preventing or delaying Alzheimer’s disease, Lavretsky said the study shows that using yoga and memory training together may have more widespread benefits for older women’s cognition. Could.
“Ideally, people should do both because they train different parts of the brain and have different effects on overall health,” Lavretsky said. “Yoga has anti-inflammatory, stress-reducing, anti-aging neuroplastic brain effects that will complement memory training.”
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