Good Memory

Yoga offers tools to enhance memory and focus—and transform the way you think.

By Hillari Dowdle

Tune in to the news, and you can't help but notice that we live in a time of conflict and climate change and economic insecurity. The reported threats to our health and well-being seem ceaseless. And yet there's good reason not to let yourself be too riled by the news: All that negative input takes a toll on the brain.

A low-level nagging sense of fear can lead to a lack of concentration, forgetfulness, and even memory loss. We joke about these symptoms, calling them "mommy brain" or "senior moments," but in the worst-case scenario, the stresses underlying these mild forms of cognitive decline can lead to Alzheimer's disease.

"We know that stress damages the brain," says Maria Carrillo, the medical and scientific relations director for the Alzheimer's Association. "Along with the aging of the population and lifestyle risk factors, it's a big factor in the looming epidemic we're facing." She cites a study the association released this year, which estimates that someone develops Alzheimer's in this country every 71 seconds. The study projects that as many as 10 million baby boomers will be diagnosed with the disease in the coming years.

"It's shocking," says Dharma Singh Khalsa, MD, the author of Brain Longevity and the president and medical director of the Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation. "About 15 years ago, there were 4 million people with Alzheimer's; today that number is 5.2 million, and we're going to see it skyrocket. I think stress and lifestyle are leading causes. Right now in America we're being told to be afraid, be very afraid. There's so much stress and pressure in our society, it's creating an epidemic of memory loss."

Are you at risk? If so, don't fret. There's good news, too: Scientists have come a long way in understanding what works to improve brain function. And some of them say that yoga—4with its unique combination of exercise, meditation, relaxation, and focus—might be a great antidote to what's weighing on your mind.

Mold Your Mind

"When I was in medical school 20 years ago, we were taught that once you passed certain critical periods in childhood, the brain architecture is fixed," says Timothy McCall, MD, Yoga Journal's medical editor and the author of Yoga as Medicine. "Now, because of advanced neuroimaging techniques like PET scans, advanced EEGs, and functional MRIs, we know that the brain is constantly rewiring itself based on experience. Neuro-scientists like to say, 'Neurons that fire together, wire together.' When you think and do certain things repeatedly, you create neural pathways that get deeper and deeper over time—it's right in line with the yogic idea of samskara."

As you think, so you are—this fundamental tenet of yoga is now the basic idea of plasticity, an emerging field in neuroscience. "Many people still think of the brain as a machine that wears out over time—the gears start to slip, and the belts get loose," says neuroplasticity guru Michael Merzenich, a professor at the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience at the University of California at San Francisco. "But there's a completely different way of looking at it. It's a machine that's constantly remodeling itself based on how you use it. When we start to lose our cognitive abilities, it's not so much a problem of the brain's physical condition but a result of how it's been used."

Change is possible, in other words; in fact, neuroplasticity holds that it's inevitable. Through action or inaction, our brain will is changing all the time. This news has led to an increase in popularity of games and exercises that "train" the brain to make it work better. Brain Age, anyone?

Keeping your mind active promotes healthy aging, notes Carrillo, as does a healthy diet. But exercise may play a bigger role yet. A series of recent studies published in such journals as Science and the Journal of Neuroscience have shown that exercise can stimulate the generation of new brain cells—and that the cells can migrate from one area of the brain to another. "This is evidence that you can move beyond molding and shaping the mind: You can literally create a new brain," Khalsa concludes. "It's beyond neuroplasticity. It's neurogenesis."

But there's a hitch. These same studies show that new brain cells don't stick around long if we're stressed. To create and maintain them, Khalsa says, you need to move your body, engage your mind, and manage your stress.

And that's where yoga comes in.

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