Dementia: Doing yoga can help prevent and improve symptoms of the condition

Dementia is a neurological disease that mainly affects the elderly, but it is not too late to start making lifestyle decisions that could prevent the onset of the condition or improve the symptoms. A new report reveals that a kind of exercise can help alleviate the symptoms and prevent dementia in the long run.

Express reports that exercise is one of the ways to prevent dementia, or at least lowering the risk as there is no definitive answer as to what causes the neurodegenerative condition. So far, all that can be done is to engage in physical activities like aerobic exercises and sports. But along with aerobic exercises, yoga has also been one of the exercises that are known to promote brain health.

A study on this found that yoga is just as effective as aerobic exercises when it comes to boosting the well-being of the brain. Researchers analyzed 11 studies on the association of yoga practices and brain health. Five of these studies involved participants who were also beginners in yoga practice, and they had one or more yoga sessions per week in the course of 10-24 weeks. Their brain health was compared at the beginning of the experiment and at the end.

The other studies only compared the brain health of those who did yoga on a regular basis and those who did not engage in yoga practice. The yoga practice that was done in this study, in particular, was Hatha yoga. They found that the benefits that yoga gave were not that different from those who did aerobics. At the end of their analysis, they found that yoga also promoted visual-spatial memory.

Although the cause nor risks that put people in dementia is not clear (including those whose risk for Alzheimer’s is hereditary), there are ways to lower the risk. Such ways include keeping blood pressure in check, as cardiovascular health is also important to promote brain health and cognitive function. Cognitive training may also help lower a person’s chances of developing diseases under dementia as well, to keep the mind alert. Diet may also play a role in preventing the onset of dementia in the long run.