Yoga, Meditation Improve Memory Better Than Brain Games, Study Finds

This is some much-needed fantastic news you can share with all your friends and family…and, no, it has nothing to do with putting your feet over your head, Uncle Charlie. A recent study found that yoga, yes yoga, is better at keeping your memory sharp than all those puzzles and brain training apps you download to try and “exercise” the old noodle. In the “more good news” department, yoga was also found to relieve depression and anxiety in people who practiced regularly.

The study, which was funded by the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation in Tuscon, Arizona, involved 25 participants over the age of 55, 11 of whom had weekly hour-long memory training sessions with things like crossword puzzles and computer games, and the other 14 of whom were given weekly hour-long yoga sessions and a 20-minute Kirtan Kriya meditation to practice at home every day over the course of 12 weeks.

After the 12 weeks? Participants showed similar verbal memory improvements, but the yoga group improved the most with visual-spatial memory. Through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans the researchers saw changes in the way the brain cells connect with each other changed in both groups, but they were only statistically significant in the people practicing yoga.

Science seems to be catching up to what a lot of us have been experiencing anecdotally. “Historically and anecdotally, yoga has been thought to be beneficial in aging well, but this is the scientific demonstration of that benefit,” said lead researcher Harris Eyre, of the University of Adelaide. “We’re converting historical wisdom into the high level of evidence required for doctors to recommend therapy to their patients.”

What’s maybe a most interesting part of this study is the type of yoga they chose. Kundalini yoga incorporates movement, breath, sound (mantra) and meditation and is not your typical asana or vinyasa practice, but rather a series of invigorating kriyas that will sometimes have you flapping your arms or donkey-kicking your feet for several minutes at a time to stir the Kundalini energy, the primal serpent energy, at the base of our spine.

The Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation also recommends Kirtan Kriya—chanting the sounds Sa, Ta, Na, Ma—for better memory. ”Clinical research has shown that practicing Kirtan Kriya for just 12 minutes a day can improve cognition and activate parts of the brain that are central to memory,” their website states.

For participants of the study, this regular practice not only improved memory capabilities, it improved mood and helped them better cope with stress, depression and anxiety, which is important for the emotional components of aging, or managing symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

“When you have memory loss, you can get quite anxious about that and it can lead to depression,” said Professor Helen Lavretsky of the University of California at Los Angeles, a co-author of the study.

“If you or your relatives are trying to improve your memory or offset the risk for developing memory loss or dementia, a regular practice of yoga and meditation could be a simple, safe and low-cost solution to improving your brain fitness,” Lavretsky said.

The study was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Want to give Kirtan Kriya a go yourself? Here’s one you can sing along to: