Yoga is a practice that has been around since ancient times in India. In recent history, it has made its way to the west, and people all around the world are now more curious about the the many benefits it offers. While the majority of westerners who practice yoga do so to improve their strength and flexibility and to reduce stress in their lives, modern research is suggesting that yoga may have many benefits for brain health as well.
Studies have been demonstrating that people who have no background in yoga can improve the health of their brain by taking up a yoga practice. One recent review took a collection of studies that related to yoga and brain health and drew correlations between them all in order to bring light to the topic. These studies took a group of people who had not practiced yoga on a regular basis previously and had them take up the practice for a period of two and one half months to six months at a time.
Brain health markers were monitored at the beginning of the study and at the end and of the study in order to have solid data that could be used for comparison. The data was collected from people who practiced yoga on a regular basis and those who didn’t. The study was able to show that people who practiced yoga regularly had an increase in the volume of gray matter in their brain. It is known that gray matter is related to improved mental functioning and is also connected to higher intelligence. Hatha yoga was used during these studies, which is a kind of yoga that focuses on meditation, movement, and breath exercises.
Many other studies have continued to demonstrate how yoga can be of great benefit for the brain of anyone who practices it. It has been shown to help with attention, impulse control, the speed at which the brain processes information, and many other cognitive abilities. Studies have used many different methods to make these determinations and have used modern technology to produce images of the brain of participants in order to show the countless brain health benefits that come with taking up the ancient practice.
MRI scans and PET scans have been able to show part of what is going on inside of a person’s brain after they have been practicing yoga for various periods of time. People who practice yoga on a regular basis have been shown to have a thicker cerebral cortex in comparison to those who don’t do yoga. This part of the brain is related to how information is processed and can grow smaller as a person ages. The fact that older people who practice yoga have been shown to have less shrinkage in this area of the brain is something that is very important and exciting for anyone who is hoping to get brain health benefits from doing yoga.
Memory is a function that can decrease as a person gets older and older. Alzheimer’s disease and dementia have become the norm for many aging people and can make the life of anyone who suffers from these conditions extremely difficult. There is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, and the best most people can hope for is to manage it using various strategies and to treat it with medications. There are various ways to prevent getting Alzheimer’s disease, and there is increasing evidence that yoga should be one of the tools that people consider using in their fight against this disease and other age-related memory conditions.
It is known that people who suffer with Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related conditions show a reduction in activity in a brain network named the default mode network. This network comes to life when people make plans, daydream, or think. A recent study demonstrated how yoga can help to improve mild cognitive impairment as well as various memory functions. During the three month long study, it was shown that people who practiced yoga were able to increase connections in the default mode network in their brain. All of these various studies and more are clearly demonstrating the power of yoga and how it can improve the brain health of those who practice it on a continuous basis.