Joy Sassoon by Tanya Constantine

by Nina

“The more fit you are, the less likely you may be to develop Alzheimer’s disease — with those who are the most fit having a 33 percent lower risk for this dementia than the least fit, according to a report to be presented to the American Academy of Neurology at its annual meeting next month.” —Linda Searing, Washington Post

It’s a very common myth these days that the best way to keep your brain healthy is to exercise it with mental exercises, you know, by learning a new language, doing crossword puzzles, and so on. But there is more and more evidence that physical exercise is actually much more effective at helping keep your brain healthy than mental exercises (though those are probably a good thing to continue with). If this seems counterintuitive to you, think of your brain as another organ in your body, like your heart. And just as exercise is good for heart health as you age, it’s also good for the other organs in your body, including your brain!

Our long-time staff writer, Ram Rao, who is a neuroscientist as well as a yoga teacher, wrote a wonderful post years ago about this very topic called How Exercise Fosters Brain Health. In it he describes why and how this is true, including explaining some of the science behind this understanding.

I’m writing about this topic again today because a recent article in the Washington Post with a photograph of older women doing yoga caught my eye. This was the headline: “The most-fit are 33 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s, report says.”

Naturally I had to go on and read it! These days I try to go for a 2 to 3 mile walk every day as well as meditating (which can improve brain strength) and doing asanas. Of course, doing these activities is no guarantee of preventing Alzheimer’s, but hearing that at least it reduces my chances of developing it was very heartening.

The report the article was referring to is based on a study that researchers from the Washington VA Medical Center and George Washington University will be presenting to the to the American Academy of Neurology next month at its annual meeting so I can’t get my hands on it yet. But, according to the post article, these researchers tested and tracked 649,605 veterans with an average age of 61 for around 10 years. They divided them into five groups, from lowest to highest fitness level, which was based on their cardiorespiratory fitness.

The researchers found that compared with the least-fit group, the risk for Alzheimer’s disease dropped as follows:

  • The slightly more fit had a 13 percent lower risk
  • The middle group had a 20 percent lower risk
  • The next higher group had a 26 percent lower risk
  • The most-fit group had a 33 percent lower risk

Because the report isn’t out yet and the article was very brief, I don’t have any more information than that. Still, that’s definitely some good motivation for maintaining good cardiovascular health. That’s because what’s good for the heart is also good for the brain. For specific information about many different ways to use yoga for brain health, including how to use asanas for physical exercise to foster brain health, see How to Foster Brain Health With Yoga.

It was also so interesting that the photo they used to illustrate the article was older women doing yoga! I can’t show it here because it had a copyright, but the women were sitting outside on yoga mats doing a seated twist, Ardha Matsyendrasana (Half Lord of the Fishes Pose).

 

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