Yogas Role in Slowing Brain

Decline

Supported by Alzheimers Association grant, Rhode Island Hospital

in Providence researchers are studying whether regular practice of yoga can
help a brain in slow decline. It is recruiting people with mild cognitive
disorder to study whether yoga can improve their condition. Yoga is an
ancient practice known to improve mental, spiritual and physical well-being
among its practitioners, a Hospital release says.
Led by Dr. Geoffrey Tremont, Neuropsychology Director at Rhode Island
Hospital, the study will direct patients through a 12-week, twice-weekly yoga
regimen. He hopes to enroll 70 patients in the study of yogas role in

improving cognitive conditions among people diagnosed with mild cognitive

impairment. The yoga program involves meditation, physical
postures, breathing exercises and relaxation, release says and adds, Yoga
has benefits for a variety of medical and psychiatric conditions.
Hindus have welcomed efforts of Rhode Island Hospital and Alzheimers
Association into exploration of yogas role in cognitive health.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today,
said that although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, yoga was a world
heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. According
to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to
attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human
nature, physical and psychical.
Yoga, referred as a living fossil, was a mental and physical discipline, for
everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around
2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, Zed, who is President of Universal
Society of Hinduism, pointed out.
According to US National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel
more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid
of stress. According to a recently released 2016 Yoga in America Study,
about 37 million Americans (which included many celebrities) now practice
yoga; and yoga is strongly correlated with having a positive self image. Yoga
is the repository of something basic in thehuman soul and psyche, Rajan Zed
adds.
Founded in 1863, awards-winning Rhode Island Hospital, whose tagline
includes Delivering health with care, and whose Mission includes We are
seekers; is dedicated to being on the cutting edge of medicine and
research. It is the principal teaching hospital of The Warren Alpert Medical
School of Brown University and home to Hasbro Childrens Hospital. A major
trauma center for southeastern New England, it had over 148,000

emergency department visits in 2014. Dr. Margaret M. Van Bree is the

President.