New study finds that yoga benefits older women who are at risk of Alzheimer’s disease

Researchers have now discovered that yoga can have a positive impact on women who have risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease.

Kundalini yoga is a form of yoga that focuses on breathing, meditation, and mental visualisation. Kundalini yoga is becoming popular these days after a recent UCLA Health study suggested that this type of yoga can have several positive benefits on older women who had risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and they’ve been concerned about episodes of memory deterioration.

Researchers at UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behaviour used a type of MRI that measures activity in regions and subregions of the brain and found that kundalini yoga increased connectivity in an area of the brain which is often impacted by stress and this can even be associated with memory decline.

The findings of the institute were also published online in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Psychiatrist Dr Helen Lavretsky led the project and under her guidance, UCLA researchers studied the effects of yoga and compared them to the gold-standard approach of memory enhancement training (MET) on connectivity in the subregions of the hippocampus, which is a critical area of the brain for both learning and memory.

MET is derived from techniques that use verbal and visual association and practical strategies to improve memory.

“Kundalini yoga appears to better target stress-related hippocampal connectivity, whereas MET may better target sensory-integration subregions of the hippocampus, supporting better memory reliability,” said Lavretsky, director of the Late-Life Mood, Stress, and Wellness Research Program.

“The key takeaway is that this study adds to the literature supporting the benefits of yoga for brain health, especially for women who have greater perceived stress and subjective memory impairment,” she said.

“This gentle form of yoga, which focuses more on breathing and mental engagement than on movement, like other forms of yoga, is ideal for older adults who may have some physical limitations,” she further added.

The study included 22 participants who were part of a larger randomized controlled trial studying the effects of yoga on Alzheimer’s risk. The mean age among the yoga group was 61 and it was about 65 in the MET group.

All of the participants self-reported decline in memory function over the previous year and one or more cardiovascular risk factors, which can also increase the risk for Alzheimer’s disease. These often included plaque buildup in arteries, recent heart attack, diabetes, and treatment for high blood pressure or high cholesterol.