Posted on 02/27/2024 10:01:38 AM PST by ConservativeMind
A new study found Kundalini yoga provided several benefits to cognition and memory for older women at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, including restoring neural pathways, preventing brain matter decline, and reversing aging and inflammation-associated biomarkers—improvements not seen in a group who received standard memory training exercises.
In the study, a group of more than 60 women ages 50 and older who had self-reported memory issues and cerebrovascular risk factors were recruited from a UCLA cardiology clinic. The women were divided evenly. The first group participated in weekly Kundalini yoga sessions for 12 weeks, while the other group underwent weekly memory enhancement training. Participants were also provided daily homework assignments.
Kundalini yoga is a method that focuses on meditation and breathwork more so than physical poses. Memory enhancement training includes a variety of exercises, such as using stories to remember items on a list or organizing items on a grocery list, to help preserve or improve the long-term memory of patients.
Researchers assessed the women's cognition, subjective memory, depression, and anxiety after the first 12 weeks and again 12 weeks later to determine how stable any improvements were. Blood samples were also taken to test for gene expression of aging markers and for molecules associated with inflammation, which are contributing factors to Alzheimer's disease. A handful of patients were also assessed with MRIs to study changes in brain matter.
Researchers found the Kundalini yoga group participants saw several improvements not experienced by the memory enhancement training group. These included significant improvement in subjective memory complaints, prevention of brain matter declines, increased connectivity in the hippocampus, which manages stress-related memories, and improvement in the peripheral cytokines and gene expression of anti-inflammatory and anti-aging molecules.
Among the memory enhancement training group, the main improvements were found to be the participants' long-term memory.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
And we all know women need their cognitive benefits.
Best is mild aerobic exercise often, it helps with heart disease prevention, stroke prevention, better kidney function, less pains in bone joints, less chance of falls, and delays age associated senility. In my personal opinion, exercise is also a cancer preventer.
I also wonder if it would have to be yoga or if it could be any increase in physical activity?
I am not really into yoga, per se, but I would do secular stretching exercises.
Ti Chi practice is pretty helpful- and soem other forms of martial arts that are more geared towards he stretches and movements and balance than actual combat-
The article says “Kundalini yoga is a method that focuses on meditation and breathwork more so than physical poses.” So this appears to be more mindfulness rather than physical. You probably need both.
One of "Love and Rockets" best songs, IMHO
Kundalini Yoga, or Raja Yoga as it is also called, is very powerful.
By focusing on breath work while doing the postures it moves the soul energy of a person.
It can also be very dangerous. I’ve worked with quite a few people who became paralyzed doing Kundalini Yoga.
You fear and condemn that which you do not understand.
The perfect mudra in yoga is the two hands pressed together in a prayer position. There is good reason for this.
There is a science behind the power of breathwork. Seek to understand it and grow.
When Ben Franklin invented bifocals, the religious fanatics were against them. Same with cars replacing horses. Samr with air travel. Small minds are content to label everything they don’t understand as bad.
Even the sign of the cross is considered a yoga movement. Ever notice the hand gestures common in Christian services. Most of them are from yoga which is much older than Christianity.
I guess it depends on who or what you are praying to.
Yoga teaches you to “Search Within.”
Exactly what Jesus told us we must do to find God.
John 14
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
If you searching for Jesus, you will not find Him in Yoga!
John 14, tells us that Jesus said he would put His Holy Spirit In believers, but He said nothing about putting the Hindu Kundalini spirit in us. The Kundalini is a demonic spirit which is a counterfit or mimic of the Holy Spirit.
Please do not pretend that the Hindu religion has anything to do with Christianity.
I have already found Jesus and commune with Him Daily. Oh how your blinders cause you to fear what you don’t know and in doing so keeps you blind.
His perfect Love casts out all fear. Fear keeps us blind. Maybe you can understand why Jesus stated that “You will see me, but others will not see me.”
Jesus is already here. Like the lightning in the east is seen in the west, Jesus is everywhere, but the blind in Spirit cannot see Him.
I am wondering if you don’t really know what the “Kundalini spirit” is that this article speaks of. Kuṇḍalinī is associated with Paradevi or Adi Parashakti, the supreme being in Shaktism, and with the goddesses Bhairavi and Kubjika.
If you are a Christian as you claim, perhaps you are familiar with God’s commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.”
And are you familiar with : Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6)?
I am familiar with both of those.
John 14 is one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible.
I have met very few people who actually understand the scripture you cited. Following Jesus is not like following a person on a path to a destination. It is quite different.
The statement is factually true to me based upon both understanding and experience. I’ve had several people who are non-Christians tell me privately that they met Jesus during their Near Death Experiences. It was quite a shock to them.
I’m glad to hear that. So let’s look closely at both.
(1) If God commanded us to have no OTHER gods who we follow or listen to or worship, or obey, or allow into our lives, then why do you think it’s okay to want or allow the goddess associated with Kundalini to enter your body?
(2)If Jesus is the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him, then it must be true that God (nor any part of the Trinity) will be found through yoga or anything else, but ONLY through belief in and acceptance of Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb who paid on the cross for our sins thus allowing us fellowship with God.
What is so difficult about both of those to understand? God makes a commandment. We obey Him. Jesus tells us there is ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND HIM AND GAIN ETERNAL LIFE, we believe Him.
Do you not understand that playing with the Hindu gods and goddesses of yoga are out-right disobeying God!
Lastly, please understand that I do believe you are sincerely seeking Jesus. If I didn’t think that I would have quietly left the thread and not bothered with you. Instead I felt a responsibility to warn you of the truth about Yoga and the Kundalini spirit. I have seen it (first hand) DESTROY a person’s life and I pray you don’t let that happen to you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.