Yoga Can Change Your Brain
While you’re striving to enhance cognition, getting regular physical activity is definitely something you don’t want to overlook. Exercise fuels the brain with oxygen-giving blood flow and releases endorphins that help maximize the performance of the brain and body. It’s true that any activity is better than no activity; but if you’re interested in growing your hippocampus, take note of a recent study!
               The hippocampus is the area of the brain which is responsible for learning, memory, and attention. Many nootropics focus on improving or activating key functions and processes of this brain region, including cholinergics. It’s one of the areas of the brain that declines with age-related cognitive changes, so keeping this brain region strong is imperative if you’re seeking a better memory, now and in the future.
Yoga’s Brain-Boosting Benefits
Recent research from the journal Brain Plasticity found that doing yoga had the same benefits as aerobic exercise when it comes to the brain, even though yoga’s gentle body-weight exercise is not considered aerobic. The hippocampus increases with yoga even for beginners who did yoga just once weekly for six months!
               Other types of brain changes occur with yoga as well, including larger amygdala size (the part of the brain responsible for emotional regulation, fight-or-flight), and brain networks and regions connected to making decisions and planning (the prefrontal and cingulate cortex).
Yoga’s Influence on Brain
               Since yoga isn’t aerobic, and the changes in hippocampus size have been noted previously in aerobic exercise studies, researchers believe that there are other factors influencing these positive brain changes. Yoga regulates stress by integrating breath and meditation, influencing brain function and cortisol response positively. Two months of yoga improve cortisol response, stress management, attention, and decision-making compared to non-yoga practitioners.
               Yoga is one of the most interesting forms of exercise which combines so many stress-relieving activities into one. Effort perception differs, but for the brain, the exercise intensity doesn’t affect the benefits, whether vigorous or gentle. Yoga provides equal benefits and suits those with injuries or limitations, offering an alternative when other exercises are impossible.
Further Reading
Neha P. Gothe, Imadh Khan, Jessica Hayes, Emily Erlenbach, Jessica S. Damoiseaux. Yoga Effects on Brain Health: A Systematic Review of the Current Literature. Brain Plasticity, 2019; 1 DOI: 10.3233/BPL-190084
Also read our blog on How to Heal a Leaky Blood-Brain Barrier
