Kundalini Yoga Found to Enhance Cognitive Functioning in Older Adults

As life expectancy continues to increase, so does the need for more interventions to prevent or slow down the progression of cognitive impairment in aging populations. A pilot study presented at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry suggests that a certain type of yoga may serve as a viable therapeutic option for middle-aged and older adults who are looking for ways to prevent or delay cognitive decline.

“There is a growing population of older adults who are worried about memory loss and other cognitive impairments such as Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias,” said Helen Lavretsky, M.D., a professor in residence in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, in an interview with Psychiatric News. In fact, said Lavretsky, previous research has shown that subjective cognitive impairment occurs in an estimated average of 35 percent of community-dwelling older adults.

“We lack real interventions for people who are looking to prevent cognitive decline, so we wanted to show them that yoga could help them and offer an opportunity to improve their memory and cognition.”

For the study, Lavretsky and colleagues recruited 81 participants aged 55 and older who had subjective memory complaints and met criteria for mild cognitive impairment, indicated by a total score of 0.5 on the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale.

In a 12-week randomized trial, 39 of the participants underwent one-hour weekly sessions of Kundalini Yoga, a nonstrenuous yoga that focuses on meditation and breathing techniques. They also carried out 20-minute daily homework assignments on Kundalini-inspired meditation and stretching. The remaining participants underwent Memory Enhancement Training (MET)—the “gold standard” technique for improving cognitive functioning, said Lavretsky. MET participants learned techniques for enhancing memory such as log tracking of activities and strategies for learning faces and names.

All participants were evaluated on various aspects of memory, executive functioning, and verbal fluency as well as mood and resilience during 12-week and 24-week follow-ups. The study was blinded; evaluators did not know the participants’ treatment regimen.

The results showed that at 12 weeks, both the yoga and MET groups showed significant improvements in recall memory and visual memory. Verbal fluency was significant only in the MET cohort, whereas improvement in executive functioning was significant only in the yoga cohort. While both the yoga and MET groups showed significant sustained improvement in memory up to the 24-week follow-up, only the yoga group showed significant improvement in verbal fluency and sustained significant improvements in executive functioning at week 24.

In addition, the yoga cohort showed significant improvement in depressive symptoms, apathy, and resilience from emotional stress. “Those taking yoga experienced a broader and more sustained effect,” said Lavretsky, “not just on memory, but on other psychological domains.”

Lavretsky attributed the improvement in memory, executive function, and mood to stress-reducing mind exercises associated with Kundalini Yoga that may elicit a “brain fitness effect.”

She concluded that the findings should be addressed in longitudinal clinical trials that are directed at the prevention of cognitive decline and evaluate the response of biomarkers to treatment, thereby shedding light on the underlying mechanisms of the link between Kundalini Yoga and cognitive impairment. ■

An abstract of “Lifestyle Interventions In Late-Life Neuropsychiatric Disorders” can be accessed here.