New Delhi, Jan 14 (PTI) Practising yoga regularly canslow down ageing of the brain and helps it stay young, claimsa study.
The study by the researchers of the Defence Institute ofPhysiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), said that yoga mighthelp in prevention of age-related degeneration by changingcardiometabolic risk factors and brain-derived neurotrophicfactors among men.
DIPAS is a laboratory of the Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation (DRDO).
The research study, which was published in the AmericanAgeing Association, focused not only on the brain butcomparative studies were conducted on hypertension, bloodpressure, heart rate, and stress.
According to the researchers, a brain develops till theage of 20-30. After that, development of the brain halts andafter 40 years, its slow degeneration starts.
As part of the study, done by Rameswar Pal, Som NathSingh, Abhirup Chatterjee and Mantu Saha, 124 healthy andphysically active men aged between 20 and 50 years wererandomly selected and divided into three age groups -- 20–29,30–39, and 40–50 years.
Inclusion criterion were normal healthy and physicallyactive males, absence of disease which could have contributedto obesity, hypertension, and neurological disorders, not inmedication and no prior knowledge of yoga. Smokers,alcoholics, and tobacco eaters were excluded from the study.
The respondents were made to practice yoga for one houreveryday for three months.
The blood pressure which was recorded at 122/69 in theage group of 20-29 before yoga reduced to 119/68 (systolicpressure is 119 and the diastolic pressure is 68) after doingyoga.
Similarly, the blood pressure which was 134/84 among therespondents (40-50) came down to 124/79 after yoga.
Cortisol, which is a stress hormone released by theadrenal glands and helps body deal with stressful situationswas 68.5 per cent in the age group of 20-29 which declined to47.4 after the exercise.
The cortisol level which was 95 before yoga reduced to72.7 after three months of yoga in the group 40-50 years.
Further, dopamine and serotonine levels whicheffectively improve motivation, focus, mood and instillpositivity were found to have improved in all the groups afteryoga.
Those having low dopamine levels may experience feelingsof depression, boredom, or apathy. They may lack the energyand motivation to carry out ordinary tasks, the researcherssaid.
"Based on the results of the study, it may be concludedthat the ageing process has an active role on degenerativechanges in autonomic functions, and monoamines as well aslevels of BDNF, which may revert back towards normal or near-normal levels through yogic practice in healthy active males,"the study said. PTI PLBZMN.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.