How to properly “Use it or Lose it”: Kundalini Yoga vs. Crossword Puzzles

Yoga bet­ter than cross­words for pre­vent­ing pre-Alzheimer’s mem­o­ry loss (The Telegraph):

“His­tor­i­cal­ly and anec­do­tal­ly, yoga has been thought to be ben­e­fi­cial in age­ing well, but this is the sci­en­tif­ic demon­stra­tion of that benefit…We’re con­vert­ing his­tor­i­cal wis­dom into the high lev­el of evi­dence required for doc­tors to rec­om­mend ther­a­py to their patients.”

The form of yoga used in the study, known as Kun­dali­ni, focus­es on breath­ing, med­i­ta­tion and chant­i­ng as well as pos­es designed to increase strength and flexibility.

It incor­po­rates Kir­tan Kriya med­i­ta­tion, which involves chant­i­ng, hand move­ments and visu­al­i­sa­tion of light, and has been used for hun­dreds of years in India to pre­vent men­tal decline in old­er adults.

Dr Lau­ra Phipps of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “Exer­cise in gen­er­al can bring impor­tant phys­i­cal ben­e­fits as well as enjoy­able social expe­ri­ences, and has been linked to a low­er risk of cog­ni­tive decline and dementia…While there is a grow­ing body of evi­dence to sug­gest that phys­i­cal activ­i­ty is ben­e­fi­cial for cog­ni­tion, it’s still unclear what type and inten­si­ty of activ­i­ty could be most important.”

To learn more:

• 12 Ways Yoga Med­i­ta­tion Helps Nour­ish The Body, Brain and Mind
• Six tips to build resilience and pre­vent brain-dam­ag­ing stress
• Slid­edeck from the 2015 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Summit