How yoga benefits dementia patients: new study uncovers brain-health boosts, supporting earlier research
- New research shows yoga’s robust health benefits for people experiencing cognitive decline or dementia
- What sets yoga apart as an exercise is its mindfulness component, one instructor says, adding how it helped tremendously with her own mental health
It’s well known that yoga keeps people lithe and flexible. What I didn’t know, however, is that yoga is just as good for the brain as it is for the body.
So says Dr Diana Karamacoska, a research support programme fellow in healthy ageing and dementia at the NICM Health Research Institute at Western Sydney University. She recently published the findings of a study on the health effects of yoga for people with mild cognitive impairment and dementia.
“The research uncovered several mechanisms explaining yoga’s robust health benefits for people experiencing cognitive decline or dementia,” she says.
These include better brain neuroplasticity, which is when the brain rewires or reorganises itself to be more efficient and effective; improved sleep quality, which in turn mitigates stress, inflammation and mental health issues (better sleep is excellent for brains in general); and more robust cardiorespiratory fitness, which means more oxygen is supplied to muscles through the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
