AIIMS Delhi yoga study on Alzheimer’s disease reveals yoga can aid in early stage

News Topical, Digital Desk : The researchers at Delhi-based AIIMS have reportedly found that the yoga practice, done at least an hour daily for 12 weeks could aid in improving memory in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease. Yoga is an ancient art that has proved beneficial in combating many health ailments.

It’s done on June 21, as an International Day of Yoga and for the year, the theme chosen was “Yoga for Healthy Aging”.

Let us see in which diseases can yoga be beneficial – “Yoga can be beneficial for Alzheimer’s patients. AIIMS Delhi researchers found that in a study conducted, a yoga practice, doing it for 60 minutes daily could help the patients improve their mental ability, overcome the condition with memory loss and depression too. An AIIMS study published in the Alzheimer’s Disease Journal has suggested that regular yoga can be useful in early stage Alzheimer’s disease.” ‘The study was done jointly by the Departments of Anatomy and Neurology of AIIMS Delhi.

We took patients who have mild Alzheimer’s, did 60-minute yoga for them for 12 weeks daily, and found significant positive changes on three different levels – cognitive performance, depression and gut bacterial microbiome.

We measured it before and after,’ said AIIMS professor and lead researcher, Department of Anatomy Dr. Reema Dada,” as per news reports. These were the positive results found after patients regularly practice yoga-patients reported improvement in their mental capabilities, as measured by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a clinical evaluation for general cognition; their symptoms of depression, measured using the PHQ-9 depression scale, dropped significantly; and their gut microbiome showed positive shifts - an increase in helpful microbes like Bifidobacterium and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, which produce substances linked to gut and brain health, and also a decrease in detrimental ones like Collinsella aerofaciens and Klebsiella.

‘Gut health and its relation to brain health have emerged over the last few years and research have shown that an unhealthy gut can also lead to brain diseases,’ said Dr. Reema Dada “This is a preliminary study which indicates that healthy activities and lifestyle interventions such as Yoga can promote healthy gut-brain axis to manage the illness in early stage patients and even reverse mild cognitive impairments.” - AIIMS professor Dr. Reema Dada said that the researchers ‘aim for longer, multicentre studies’ that would require longer duration of study and bigger patient group with Alzheimer’s.

“This study gives an early evidence based support for lifestyle interventions like yoga in the context of Alzheimer’s care,” she stated, adding that “We cannot claim yoga can be a cure for Alzheimer’s yet, but it could serve as an important complement in its management, especially in the early stages or for individuals with mild cognitive impairment.”

“These benefits could stem from changes induced by Yoga on inflammatory pathways, production of SCFAs (short-chain fatty acids) which are protective of brain health,” she added. Dr Manjari Tripathi, head of neurology at AIIMS, said yoga helps calm down people and improve concentration. “However it can’t be termed a cure for it. A lot of patients with Alzheimer’s tend to feel down and yoga would help in managing the mood as well as boosting the concentration powers in them,” she quoted.