A recent study found Kundalini yoga provided several benefits to cognition and memory among older women at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, including restoring neural pathways, preventing brain matter decline and reversing aging- and inflammation-associated biomarkers -- improvements not seen in a group who received standard memory training exercises.

For the study, a group of more than 60 women ages 50 and older who had self-reported memory issues and cerebrovascular risk factors were recruited from a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) cardiology clinic. The women were divided evenly into two groups. The first group participated in weekly Kundalini yoga sessions for 12 weeks while the other one underwent weekly memory enhancement training during the same time period. Participants were also given daily homework assignments.

Kundalini yoga focuses on meditation and breath work more than physical poses. 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 help preserve or improve long-term memory.

Researchers assessed the women's cognition, subjective memory, depression and anxiety after the first 12 weeks and again 12 weeks later to determine how stable any improvements were. Blood samples were also taken.

The Kundalini yoga group participants saw several improvements not experienced by the memory enhancement training group, including significant improvement in subjective memory complaints; prevention of declines in brain matter; increased connectivity in the hippocampus, which manages stress-related memories; and improvement in the peripheral cytokines (inflammatory cells) and gene expression of anti-inflammatory and anti-aging molecules.

In contrast, the memory training group mainly experienced improved long-term memory.

The authors suggest that using both programs in tandem could provide more comprehensive benefits for cognition in older women.

To download the study,  published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, click here