Yoga is a practice and science of connection. Yoga is shown to have positive effects on the mind (cognition), body (physical), and soul (emotional) that can greatly benefit all of us including people living with dementia.
Mind
The brain is an adaptable organ that is continually creating new pathways, or neural connections, as it encounters new experiences. Research encourages exercises to challenge the brain and create new pathways, known as cognitive training. These exercises can be especially important during cognitive change as they are frequently connected with improved memory and decreased risk of dementia. Because it involves discipline and training of the mind, yoga is a great form of cognitive training. Yoga engages different parts of the brain based on varying components of the practice: breathing, movement, postures, and concentration.
Beyond improving brain function, the practice of yoga doesn’t require any memory. Instead, it is about focusing on the present. Yoga for people living with dementia offers freedom to be in the moment without pressures to remember facts or to meet anyone’s expectations.
The mindfulness component of yoga also has great benefits for people living with dementia. Recent studies have shown that adults with cognitive change who practice mindfulness show less atrophy (shrinking) in the hippocampus, a brain region commonly altered in people living with Alzheimer’s. Further, the study concluded that meditators have greater neural connectivity compared to people who do not meditate.
Body
Besides just exercising the brain, yoga requires significant physical effort. Research shows that exercise of any kind is beneficial to brain function. Particularly for people living with dementia, regular exercise has been shown to improve cognition, posture, and fine motor skills.
Because of its key components of focusing on breathing and holding poses, yoga has several added benefits. The practice can:
- Promote mobility and flexibility
- Increase oxygen intake and lung capacity
- Strengthen the core for greater stability and balance
Classes designed specifically for people living with physical and cognitive change can help eliminate barriers that make other exercises inaccessible. Pose modifications (such as chair yoga), appropriate pacing, and creative communication can help bridge physical gaps and cognitive differences. Yoga is a personal practice. Find pose expressions that make you feel comfortable.
Soul
It is no secret that stress affects overall well-being. Research has shown that stress and its associated hormones can affect brain structures that are important for both memory and cognition. Further, chronic stress is associated with inflammation throughout the body, particularly in the brain and nervous system. Studies show that this inflammation has been linked to dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Because yoga has been proven to reduce stress, it can help slow the progression of cognitive and physical changes. Not only can yoga help reduce stress hormones and inflammatory factors, but we can learn to cope with stress through yoga. Additionally, stress reduction can aid in a healthy immune response to help fight illnesses.
By integrating mindfulness into their practice, yoga can promote calmness for people living with dementia. Bhastrika Pranayama, a breathing exercise, can also be incorporated into yoga. The practice has been shown to improve blood circulation, concentration, and relax the mind and body.
By practicing with a group or with a care-partner, yoga can help people living with dementia feel less isolated and lonely. People living with dementia can use their practice as an opportunity to engage with the present and with others experiencing similar changes. Overall, practicing yoga can help all partners in care feel happier and find peace on their journey with dementia. We have also found through personal experience that when teaching care-partners to take a break by breathing ten cleansing breaths, their loved ones followed suit and both were relieved of stress.
Yoga and its Effect on Aging
While there is no cure for dementia or Alzheimer’s, yoga can improve the prognosis. There continues to be further research on the topic and the possibility that a regular yoga practice can reverse the signs of memory loss.
If you or your loved ones are interested in improving your memory or fighting memory loss, consider a regular yoga practice. Yoga and meditation are simple and safe solutions to improve brain fitness, strengthen the body, and lower stress.
Hello,
My name is Ashlyn Smith and I am a Gero 312 student as University of Southern Indiana. I have read articles about yoga helping with many mental health issues, but I never even thought that it could help with a disease so progressive like dementia. This article has helped me realize the importance of something so simple and relaxing like yoga in someones world that can be so jumbled up at times.
Thank you!!
Hi,
My name is Ronak Desai and I am an AGNG 320 student at the Erickson School of Aging. After reading your post, I have become more aware on certain activities that can help dementia. At first, I was under the impression that there isn’t much that can be done with individuals suffering from dementia. I found it very interesting that, “Yoga for people living with dementia offers freedom to be in the moment without pressures to remember facts or to meet anyone’s expectations.” Prior to reading this post, I knew that doing yoga has a plethora of health benefits including improved flexibility, higher metabolism, and increased effectiveness when dealing with arthritis. I believe that when it comes to yoga and individuals dealing with dementia, yoga can help with the stress of not remembering things. It can bring one to a state of peace.
I am an AGING 320 student at the Erikson School of Aging. Yoga is a part of my weekly routine and I find it critical to incorporate it into my schedule as being a division 1 swimmer can cause for a very stressful and cluttered mind with all of the things we have to do on a day to day basis. As yoga focuses on the mind, body and spirit, it helps de-stress and lift the heavy weight that may be bearing down on us and leads us to focus on the here and now. This is why I try to fit my yoga routine in the beginning of the week to start fresh and let go of what is behind me. Yoga is good for those with Dementia because they can focus on the “here and now” aspect of it and not feel pressure trying to concentrate on anything else. Yoga is good for building muscle especially when it becomes a routine in a person with dementias life since the risk of falls are at greater risk as you age and also a higher risk with dementia. Practicing yoga can help with strength, good mental health and less risk for other health issues and diseases/conditions.
Hello Kaylynn,
I am a student in AGNG 320 from the Erikson School of Aging and as a person who has had many cases of dementia run in my family, I know how important it is to engage in physical activity that stimulates the brain positively. According to the text that my course references, “Persons with dementia in the mild to moderate stages may benefit from cognitive stimulation, such as social day programs that can provide cognitive-stimulating activities that take into account patient and family preferences.” (Haber 2016, p. 280) I like how in the mind component on this post, Ms. Evans says that yoga doesn’t require any memory and it’s more about focusing on the present. The fact that yoga will require actions that derive from specific areas of the brain show how much it can help one’s cognitive functioning. A specific excerpt from our textbook touches on the effects studied from yoga, “These practices improve body awareness, reduce stress, improve balance and coordination, and increase the maximum range of motion by expanding joint mobility (Haber 2016, p. 140). A study of 2,200 people over age 65 reported an association between physical fitness and delayed onset of dementia or cognitive decline (Wang, Larson, Bowen, & van Belle, 2006). While there isn’t 100% causality in the relations between physical fitness and dementia, evidence from many studies support that activities that require physical activity can at least delay symptoms of dementia.
Good evening,
I am an AGNG 320 student at the Erikson School of Aging.
I am fascinated by the fact that yoga functions as physical and cognitive training. According to my course’s reading, physical and cognitive training are associated with improved mental health (Haber 2016). Something that stood out to me in this post is the point about reversing memory loss. I have never thought of the theory concerning reversing or slowing down memory loss, but I can think of a few reasons related to the theory. Practicing yoga can provide a sturdier sense of structure to a person’s day. Yoga breaks the norm of regular daily activities that an older adult would complete and could even provide a metaphorical “anchor” for the mind. Things are often easier to remember when they differentiate from a person’s regular activity. So when an older adult does a daily ten minute yoga exercise, there is probably a higher chance that they would have a stronger memory of the yoga than other daily activities. Through using this “anchor,” perhaps events leading up to the exercise, or the ones afterward, would have a higher probability of being remembered as well.
(Response cont.)
Though there is not enough evidence pointing towards the process of reversing memory loss, the biological research behind slowing memory loss could be represented here. Dementia involves damage to the brain’s synapses, which are the connections between neurons that transmit messages to one another (Haber 2016). Yoga, shown to improve proprioception and improve neuronal connections in the motor cortex, would slowly increase the number of neural connections in a person’s brain (Haber 2016). Furthermore, a study done by Wang, Larson, Bowen, & van Belle (2006) showed a relationship between regular physical activity and a delay in the effects of dementia. Knowing the science behind dementia and that an active lifestyle is associated with greater neuronal connections, one could argue that it would take longer for synaptic damage to spread due to the large amount of connections between the neurons. I am excited for the potential discoveries that researchers will find in the future.
Hello Kaylynn,
As a student in AGNG 320 from the Erickson School, I found your blog to be very inline with what we have learned so far over the course. Yoga sounds like a great exercise that many adults should adopt into their lives as it is a great physical exercise. Not only does it offer benefits for the body such as better movement which many older adults lack, it also offers great benefits for the mental and can even help with dementia which is a serious illness. Yoga classes can offer older adults a means to get together as like you mentioned they tend to get lonely. Its a great benefit to anyone partaking in the classes as it helps their body and their soul.
Hi Kaylynn! I am an AGNG 320 student at the Erickson School of Aging. I believe yoga is the perfect mind-body medicine for all older adults because of the positive effects it has on the mind, body, and soul. The most significant benefit to yoga for individuals living with dementia is the studies you have mentioned that shows the cognitive changes associated with mindfulness. Engaging in the mindfulness activity shows less atrophy in the hippocampus, which is the most common region in the brain that is altered for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. There is a popular yoga activity mentioned by Haber called hatha yoga. This form of yoga incorporates a variety of stretching and twisting movements where an individual holds a position for a couple seconds and repeats the same position to get the full effect. The effects associated with this form of yoga is that it “improve body awareness, reduce stress, improve balance and coordination, and increase the maximum range of motion by expanding joint mobility” (Haber, 2016). Along with the physical and mental benefits yoga brings to an older individual, it also provides another protective factor that is important to every being which is the social factor. People living with dementia tend to feel isolated and withdrawn from society. As you have mentioned, practicing yoga with a group is a great way to engage with others experiencing similar changes.
Hi,
My name is Nobert I am an Aging 320 student at the Erikson School of Aging. After reading your blog post, I found it very interesting as it correlates with some of the readings we studied from Haber, D. To be precise, chapter 4 of Haber’s Health Promotion and Aging 7th edition is dedicated to various exercises and how they can benefit the older aging population. Yoga in particular is a great activity for you if you have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or heart disease. It gives you strength, flexibility, and mind-body awareness. Yoga can help you stay flexible and strong without putting added stress on your joints which is a common complain amongst older adults 60 and over. If you have high blood pressure, diabetes, or heart problems, you may need to avoid certain postures, like those in which you’re upside down or that demand more balance than you have right now. A very gentle program of yoga, coupled with a light aerobic activity like walking or swimming, may be the best way to start. Research conducted about effects of yoga on older adults showed that it led to faster recovery and also led to a healthy lifestyle which was prompt to increase life expectancy.
Hi,
My name is Kristen and I am an Aging 320 student at the Erikson School of Aging. The subject of yoga has come up multiple times in class. Based on what we have learned in class, I wholeheartedly agree that there are significant benefits of yoga in the aging process. We have studied it’s effect on fall prevention, stress relief and cognitive function. As you mentioned, yoga is also an opportunity for socialization and peer support. What I really find to be an important complement to these benefits is that it is already a popular activity and something that many older people already enjoy doing. I think that it is great when the activity itself and the enjoyment a person gets from that activity can serve as the reward. Though yoga is not for everyone, I think it’s something that a lot of people are likely to adhere to and can help multiple facets of health.
Hi,
My name is Andrew and I am in an aging 320 course at the Erickson school of Aging at UMBC. Throughout the semester we have been learning about the actions someone can take to stay as healthy as possible. Because of my athlete background I agree that yoga is an extremely effective activity not only for the elderly, but for everyone. A lot of people today are running around with so much stress that if they just took an hour to stop and relax and do yoga, so much of that stress would be gone. Stress reduction in elderly people with dementia is very important. They are so often pushing themselves to try and remember as much as they can, which can put a lot of stress on the brain. Yoga allows them time to not have to worry about remembering anything and just relax, while still improving brain function and strengthening neural pathways which will improve their memory. Yoga teaches us how to relax and stay calm as well as improving memory and balance. I believe that for the elderly the memory and balance improvements are the biggest advantages. The memory improvements help keep their mind sharp, and the increase in balance can allow them to continue to move around and be independent for a longer period of time with less of a chance of falling and injuring themselves.
My name is Taylor and I am an Aging 320 student at the Erickson School of Aging. I loved reading your post and found it extremely interesting, as I partake in the practice of yoga, as well. Yoga is essentially for the overall benefit of ones mind, body, and spirit. As yoga has amazing physical benefits, its mental and emotional benefits are great too. Yoga focuses on being in the present, breathing, movement, postures, and concentration. For older individuals suffering with dementia, yoga can be beneficial for them as they are under no pressure to meet others expectations or remember facts, they only have to focus on being in the present moment. As dementia includes memory loss and gradually get worse over time, it is important for these people to live in the present moment (Alzheimer’s Association, 2019). Yoga can also help with coping with stress, with stress reduction one can improve their immune system.
Yoga also helps older individuals maintain their flexibility, core strength, promotes oxygen intake with different breathing strategies, while performing this exercise in a low impact way. Staying active with age is extremely important in maintaining muscle composition, which often decreases with age (Haber, 2016). Participating in yoga can also help older people socialize with each other, which is also important as people age to keep up their human interactions especially after a spouse dies (Haber, 2016). This blog post demonstrates the many ways that physical activity, specifically yoga, is beneficial to older individuals and allows them to be in a healthy environment that will leave them feeling empowered and strong.
My name is Caroline and I am an Aging 320 student at the Erickson School of Aging. As a student athlete with a heavy course schedule and a job, I myself find yoga practice to be a great stress reliever. Something that I have picked up from practicing yoga is the mantra “be here now” which reminds me to breathe in the present and exhale the past, something that is very effective for me, so it makes a lot of sense that it would also be effective for individuals dealing with dementia. As dementia alters memory and judgement, with symptoms including “forgetfulness, limited social skills, and thinking abilities so impaired that it interferes with daily functioning” (“Dementia”, 2019), yoga works to “reverse the signs of memory loss”. Along with the cognitive training, yoga allows for the individuals dealing with dementia to become stronger physically through different flow patterns and feel a part of something––group or one-on-one yoga allows human connection––removing feelings of isolation and loneliness that is common in individuals with the disease.
Throughout the text, Haber praises yoga for its accessibility to elders in its low impact form and modifiability that many exercises do not have the option of. The topic I selected from the Healthy People 2020 list of objectives was “Increase the proportion of older adults with reduced physical or cognitive function who engage in light, moderate, or vigorous leisure-time physical activities”. Throughout the course, the importance of physical activity to enhance overall mobility as well as cognitive function is emphasized. Despite the preconceptions regarding exercise in aging adults such as the “belief that exercise will be painful, unenjoyable, and perhaps even harmful” (Haber, 147) the benefits outweigh these preconceptions. I agree that yoga is the answer for any aging individual who finds themselves to feel discouraged in regards to their physical and mental well-being.
I am an AGING 320 student at the Erickson School of Aging, and found your blog post very insightful.
I agree with your findings that yoga can help the mind, body, and soul. Yoga requires focus while moving your body and ultimately brings relaxation. One aspect that made me rethink the value of yoga was, “the practice of yoga doesn’t require any memory. Instead, it is about focusing on the present”. This conviction is a great way to keep adults suffering from alzhiemers and dementia active mentally while not demanding them to struggle with their fading memory. In class, we have followed the textbook of Dr. David Haber, Health Promotion and Aging, which emphasized the need for regular exercise for a healthy aging process. One of the methods Dr. Haber suggests is taking up yoga, and lists the same benefits mentioned in this blog as yoga promotes flexibility, core strengthening, and stability. These health benefits lower the chances of an older adult suffering an injury such as a fall. Building muscle strength promotes increased bone density that can keep people mobile and healthy longer. Dr. Haber adds that yoga reduces stress and is a way for the eldelry to socialize. While yoga can be done on one’s own time, going to a class allows for better instruction and the opportunity to interact with peers. All of these directly correlate with the ideas presented in this blog post.
Hi Kaylynn,
I’m an AGNG 320 student at the Erickson School of Aging. Based off of what we learned within our course and different research, I strongly agree with your blog post. Yoga is an all-around beneficial activity because, as you said, it improves cognitive, physical and emotional functions. A key aspect is definitely that no type of memory is required to perform yoga, rather you focus on the present. In turn, this alleviates any stress upon the participants with dementia as they don’t have to recall anything. Different research articles have shown that for those with dementia/Alzheimer’s, yoga is beneficial as it is “exercise for the body, exercise for the mind, and a tool for stress reduction” (Institute on Aging, 2018). Yoga can also be used as preventative measures for dementia/Alzheimer’s. This is beneficial to one of the objectives from the Healthy People 2020 website that labeled is OA-6 which is, to “increase the proportion of older adults with reduced physical or cognitive function who engage in light, moderate, or vigorous leisure-time physical activities” (ODPHP, n.d.). Yoga seems to be a probable course of action to achieve this. Overall, yoga seems to be a vital concept to be incorporated in others’ lives in order to treat and prevent dementia.
REFERENCES
Institute on Aging. (2018, April 18). Yoga for Alzheimer’s Patients: Mindfulness and Movement. Retrieved from https://blog.ioaging.org/medical-concerns/yoga-alzheimers-patients-mindfulness-movement/.
NIA. (n.d.). Cognitive Health and Older Adults. Retrieved from https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/cognitive-health-and-older-adults.
Thanks for this.
Yoga and meditation is a cure to all possible problems. Then why not dementia? A regular Yoga practice where help you stay fit it can also make your mind sharp, body fit and soul calm. An hour of Yoga everyday is must for everyone.
Yoga would actually be a huge help for people with dementia.