How Practicing Yoga Combats Brain Aging
Yoga is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices that originated in ancient India and has been around for more than 5,000 years.
It is a total mind-body workout that combines strengthening and stretching poses with deep breathing and meditation or relaxation.
Over the years, Yoga has accumulated a vast amount of evidence indicating its health benefits for both body and mind.
Yoga has been shown to help lower blood pressure, lower the risk of heart disease, promote strength and flexibility and improve bones density.
In fact, it has a number of benefits that can support us aging well, healthily and can protect our brain.
What Are The Other Benefits Of Yoga?
Yoga is highly therapeutic.
Some of the ailments that can be relieved through the practice of Yoga include:
- Allergies
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Stress and Anxiety
- Arthritis
- Back pain
- Bronchitis
- Carpal Tunnel syndrome
- The Common Cold
- Constipation
- Depression
- Gastrointestinal disorders
- Headaches and Migraines
- High blood pressure
- Hypertension
- Weak immune system
- Menstrual cramps
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
We know that there are a number of risk factors for our aging minds that increase the risk of cognitive decline.
These may include, stress, anxiety and depression, medical risk factors like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and sedentary and socially isolated lifestyles.
Yoga can help address many of these issues.
Attending classes can help with reducing sedentary tendencies and offer opportunities for social engagement, as well as the health benefits described above.
Below are three reasons why Yoga can be a protection towards some of the risk factors for aging poorly.
Slow breathing is helpful for stress and relaxation, anxiety and depression
Recent studies have indicated that a risk factor for Dementia is the experience of mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and Yoga has been shown to be helpful in the reduction of their symptoms.
How?
There are possibly many answers but one explanation could relate to learning to breathe well.
Central to the practice of Yoga is attention to the breath. Breathing exercises (both in yoga and in clinical psychology therapeutic practices) are helpful in aiding people to reduce stress levels and alleviate the flight fight response when it is triggered.
When we slow down the breath we send a signal to our brain that says “everything is fine” “I am safe”. This calms the body (releases muscle tension, slows down the heart rate) and the mind,
Balance
Yoga also helps with the practice of balance (a skill that declines with aging).
Balance is a component of many yoga poses like the Warrior, the Triangle, and the Tree Pose.
Balance is a very important and often overlooked skill, which is essential for everyday activities.
To keep our balance we use sensory input from vision and space location, process it in the brain and quickly activate our muscles to change our posture accordingly.
As we age this process may slow down and become less responsive. Practicing balance not only prevents possible accidental falls but also stimulates the brain with new learning, which improves health and contributes to neuroplasticity.
The ongoing practice of Yoga as we age will not only prevent balance-related issues like accidental falls, but it will also stimulate the brain and promote neuroplasticity, which keeps our brain young and adaptive.
Mindfulness and Concentration
Finally, yoga helps us focus on the present by providing both physical and mental anchors to the here and now during our practice.
Mindfulness is the act of paying attention to the present moment with awareness and without judgment. During the practice of yoga, we are encouraged to notice our postures, our movements, and our breath, bringing mindfulness to the whole experience.
These activities strengthen our memory and improve concentration, cognitive skills that may decline with aging.
A fantastic plus is that Yoga has been shown to release endorphins in our brains; these are “feel good” chemicals that are released when a person is happy.
Yoga and Scoliosis
By combining the yoga postures with breathing awareness, one can also develop symmetrical alignment of the body.
This is accomplished by stretching muscles that have tightened and have become weak from asymmetrical imbalance.
With good structural balance, the body will create a more effortless posture using the bone structure, rather than overworking the muscles to hold itself up.
As a result, yoga practitioners also claim that the practice of the ancient exercise system is good therapy for Scoliosis.
Through Yoga, one can find that balance point which allows the scoliosis curve to coexist with gravity and activates the body’s natural plumb line.
The result for most people is better posture and less pain.
What IS Scoliosis?
Scoliosis is a medical term taken from a Greek word meaning ‘curvature.’
This disease often develops during childhood and causes the spine to curve laterally (to the side) to the left or right.
The spine’s normal curves occur at the cervical (neck), thoracic (chest), and lumbar regions (lower back).
These natural curves position the head over the pelvis and work as shock absorbers to distribute mechanical stress during movement.
Scoliosis only affects a small percentage of the population or approximately two percent (2%) of the entire U.S. population.
However, it has been found that scoliosis may be hereditary.
If someone in the family has scoliosis, the likelihood of an incidence of another case in another family member is approximately 20 percent.
Scoliosis Treatment Options
The traditional medical management of scoliosis is determined by the severity of the curvature, skeletal maturity, and likelihood of progression.
The conventional options are initially through observation, followed by bracing and surgery, and these procedures cost a lot.
Although many exercises help in reducing the scoliosis-related problems, yoga immediately helps improve the problem of uneven curves and is now considered to be the best scoliosis exercise.
Yoga postures are helpful for providing relief from scoliosis because they enable us to stretch our body and help regain the normal shape of the spine.
Yoga Benefits Everyone.
In any application, doing yoga is very empowering.
It gives hope that we can do something to improve our condition and our quality of living.
At BrainFit Resorts, yoga practice forms a large part of our programs.
We create an environment of peace and tranquility for seasoned practitioners and first-timers alike, to really feel the benefits of this age-old practice.
To give them the tools they need to return home and continue to build on the foundations of balance, stability, strength, and clear mental state.
Click HERE to find out more about our program.
We hope these tips provide you with some insights and assistance to living your most brain healthy life.
If you enjoyed reading this blog, and want to see more of our articles relating to physical activity, check out the links to some of our other articles and videos below:
- Healthy Bodies Make Healthy Minds
- Cognitive Decline: Can It Be Prevented? – Video
- Brain Aging… Can We Slow It Down? – Video
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