Last month I received a letter in the mail from the Alzheimer Society Grey-Bruce inviting me to work with them by hosting a fundraiser to raise awareness on the importance of keeping a healthy mind and body.
Their aim is to have all the yoga studios participating in every Grey-Bruce town this September.
I heartily accepted - of course! I'm thrilled to see them reaching out to us. The benefits of yoga and meditation on our mental and physical states have been well documented in scientific literature for many decades now; heck, I was reading about it more than 30 years ago.
To quote more literature, this time from the Society, here are some of the benefits:
an excellent brain exercise that work many different parts of the brain.
can reduce the presence of stress hormones & help individuals to cope more effectively with stressful situations
reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, and diabetes
may help delay cognitive decline
Read more about this topic in an article by Yoga Journal -
Here are a few quotes taken from the article:
- "... both yoga and meditation are ‘brain exercises’ that engage different parts of the brain based on the components of practice (breathing, movement, postures, chanting, visualization, concentration), and can help the brain form new connections and recover from injuries, or as we call it, to stimulate neuroplasticity." According to Helen Lavretsky, M.D., M.S., director of the late-life mood, stress, and wellness research program at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.
“Chronic stress and related stress hormones could negatively affect brain structures important for memory and cognition, like the hippocampus. Chronic stress is also associated with inflammation in the body and in the central nervous system/brain that is linked to Alzheimer's disease and other disorders of aging.
Yoga can reduce stress hormones and inflammatory factors, and teach an individual over time how to cope more effectively and protect the body from going through the stress response,” Lavretsky explains, noting that the younger you are when you start practicing yoga and meditation, the better.
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