14 DAY TRIAL // More than five million people in the United States could benefit from the positive effects of yoga. All these individuals are caring for someone suffering from dementia, and a new research shows that practicing yoga for just a few minutes daily has the potential to improve their well-being.
Caregivers are under a lot of pressure and stress, and these are both risk factors for depression. At the same time, the practice has been shown to improve cognitive functioning, and to reduce the amount of cellular aging that is induced by stress.
The investigation was carried out by scientists at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). The team says that the number of dementia caregivers will spike over the next two decades, as the average age of the population is expected to increase considerably.
Dementia, including Alzheimer's, tends to affect seniors. Their families need to care for these patients, since their impaired memories and cognitive functions tend to make them do dangerous things.
One extra reason for caregivers to practice yoga is that they are not young themselves. Statistics show that adults or seniors are the primary caregivers for dementia patients, which means that they themselves are at risk of developing this condition.
Furthermore, caregivers tend to develop an “impaired resilience” to stress, which increases the incidence of cardiovascular disease and mortality in this population, PsychCentral reports.
“We know that chronic stress places caregivers at a higher risk for developing depression,” Dr. Helen Lavretsky explains. She holds an appointment as a professor of psychiatry at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.
“On average, the incidence and prevalence of clinical depression in family dementia caregivers approaches 50 percent. Caregivers are also twice as likely to report high levels of emotional distress,” the expert goes on to say.
In a series of experiments the group conducted, it was revealed that practicing yoga led to a 50 percent improvement on a depression rating scale, and a 50 percent improvement on a mental health score for caregivers.
Participants also showed a 43 percent improvement in telomerase activity – meaning less cellular aging – as opposed to a 3.7 percent improvement in a control group. “To a varying degree, many psychosocial interventions like this have been shown to enhance mental health for caregivers,” Lavretsky says.