The Benefits of Kundalini Yoga for the Memory of Older Women

A new study has found that Kundalini yoga offers several benefits for cognition and memory in older women at risk of Alzheimer’s disease. These include restoring neural pathways, preventing brain matter deterioration and reversing age- and inflammation-related biomarkers – improvements that were not observed in a group receiving standard memory training exercises.

Kundalini Yoga Against Alzheimer’s Disease

The findings, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, are the latest in a series of studies conducted by UCLA Health researchers over the past 15 years examining the comparative effects of yoga and traditional memory training on slowing cognitive decline and addressing other risk factors for dementia. Led by UCLA Health psychiatrist Dr. Helen Lavretsky of the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, this latest study examined whether Kundalini yoga can be used early to prevent cognitive decline and the development of Alzheimer’s disease in 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 genetic factors. In the new study, a group of more than 60 women aged 50 and older who self-reported memory problems and cerebrovascular risk factors were recruited from a UCLA cardiology clinic. The women were evenly divided into two groups. The first group participated in weekly Kundalini yoga sessions for 12 weeks, while the other group underwent weekly memory training during the same period. The test subjects were also given daily homework assignments.

Kundalini yoga is a method that focuses more on meditation and breath work than physical poses. Memory training, developed by the UCLA Longevity Center, involves a series of exercises, such as using stories to remember items on a list or organizing items on a shopping list, to maintain or improve patients’ long-term memory.

The researchers assessed the women’s cognitive abilities, subjective memory, depression and anxiety after the first 12 weeks and again 12 weeks later to determine how stable the improvements were. Blood samples were also taken to examine gene expression of aging markers and molecules associated with inflammation that contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. A handful of patients also underwent MRI scans to examine changes in the brain matter.

Combination of Yoga and Memory Training Brings Broader Benefits to Older Women’s Cognition

The researchers found that participants in the Kundalini yoga group experienced several improvements that the memory training group did not. These included a significant improvement in subjective memory complaints, prevention of brain matter decline, increased connectivity in the hippocampus, which manages stress-related memories, and an improvement in peripheral cytokines and gene expression of anti-inflammatory and anti-aging molecules. In the memory training group, the participants primarily improved their long-term memory. There were no changes in anxiety, depression, stress or resilience in either group, but according to Lavretsky, this is probably because the women were relatively healthy and not depressed.

While the long-term effects of Kundalini yoga on preventing or delaying Alzheimer’s disease still need to be studied further, the researchers say the study shows that combining yoga and memory training could bring broader benefits to older women’s cognition. Ideally, they should do both because they exercise different parts of the brain and have different effects on health. Yoga has this anti-inflammatory, stress-reducing, anti-aging neuroplastic brain effect that would complement memory training.