I Studied Brain Changes In Older Women With Alzheimer’s Risk. Here’s What We Found

For the longest time, I’ve been interested in the space where science and real-life experience meet. Not everything can be numerically quantified. In experiential contexts, averaging data is not helpful.

We hear things like “yoga is good for you” all the time. Everyone says it, but no one has a true explanation for its mechanism.

I have been trained extensively in clinical research, psychology, and neuroscience, and I’ve always wanted to know:

What is actually happening in the brain when we do yoga?
Can practices like yoga really change the trajectory of brain aging?

Somewhere between 2018 and 2021, I had the opportunity to explore exactly that at the University of California Los Angeles.

I want to share the discoveries with you, about the study I published with my principal investigator Dr. Helen Lavretsky, a well-established geriatric psychiatrist and a seasoned expert in alternative mental health medicine. You can find the publication here: “Yoga Prevents Gray Matter Atrophy in Women at Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial“.

The background of the study

The problem with Alzheimer’s disease is that by the time we see the symptoms, it has already progressed. Unfortunately, until today, there is no recovery, there is only slowing down.

This sneaky, mean neurodegenerative disease begins decades earlier. It is a silent companion in people’s brains for many years until it surfaces and becomes undeniable.

One of its earliest signs that can be seen before symptom inset, is something called gray matter atrophy. This is the gradual loss of brain volume, especially in areas involved in memory and cognition.

We also know that certain groups are at higher risk:

• Women

• People with cardiovascular risk factors (like high blood pressure or cholesterol)

• People with subjective cognitive decline (that feeling of “my memory isn’t what it used to be,” even if tests still look normal)

So our question was:

Can we intervene early - before measurable decline, i.e., when we’re at risk - and actually protect the brain?

Not all people with cardiovascular risk and subjective memory complaints will develop Alzheimer’s disease. There is another important risk factor, a gene called APOE-E4. While it is measurable and can give us information about whether a person carries the genetic risk, this is not something we can change. Also, not everyone with this risk gene automatically develops Alzheimer’s disease.

Because cardiovascular risk factors are mostly modifiable, we can change our lifestyle and lower the risk for cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease. This is a huge advantage we can leverage in our own interest.

What We Did

We designed a randomized controlled trial, the gold standard in clinical research that determines whether a treatment is effective, compared to a placebo control.

We recruited women in their early 60s who:

• Reported subtle memory concerns

• Had at least one cardiovascular risk factor

• Did not yet have measurable cognitive impairment (we tested this with a standardized clinical checklist over the phone and only invited those that scored without impairments)

We then randomly assigned them (this means basically flipping a coin for each of them) to one of two groups for 12 weeks:

1. Yoga Group (Kundalini Yoga + Kirtan Kriya)

Participants attended:

• A weekly 60-minute Kundalini Yoga class

• Plus a daily 12-minute yogic meditation practice (Kirtan Kriya) at home using a pre-recorded guided audio on CD

The yoga classes were performed by an experienced Kundalini Yoga teacher, and included multi-modal components (i.e., not just yoga poses):

• Breathwork

• Chanting

• Hand movements (mudras)

• Visualization

• Meditation

2. Memory Training Group (Active Control)

Since participants clearly knew whether they were doing yoga or sitting in a classroom, the term ‘placebo’ would not be accurate in this case. This is why in clinical trial language, this intervention was called ‘an active control group’. An alternative option that is commonly used is called a ‘waitlist control’, where people do nothing for 12. Once their 12 weeks are finished, they are offered yoga classes as a thank you for waiting.

This is an important piece of information for understanding the data of a clinical trial; people who sign up for a yoga study tend to be very disappointed if they don’t end up getting their yoga classes. Offering the classes after the completion of waiting for participating in an alternative type of class is meant as a thankful gesture and to keep people motivated to continue their study measurements.

Another important consideration is that people in the yoga group actually show up to our center and get social interaction with us researchers and the other participants. That by itself can have health benefits. Therefore, using an ‘active control’ can assure that all participants go through a similar experience, just that the content is different. This helps distinguish the effects of the yoga from the noise of all the other things going on for participants.

This memory training comparison group did:

• Weekly classes teaching evidence-based memory strategies

• Daily homework (about 20 minutes, similar to the meditation practice the yoga group had to do)

In sum, we didn’t compare yoga to “doing nothing.” We compared it to something that is already considered beneficial.

How We Measured Change

We looked at both psychological and biological outcomes.

Before and after the 12 weeks, participants underwent:

• MRI brain scans (high-resolution structural imaging of their gray matter)

• Assessments of:

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • Stress

  • Resilience

  • Subjective memory

Our Findings

We would have possibly expected that there might be more gray matter in some regions in the group that did yoga compared to the memory training group. This is not quite what we found.

1. Yoga Helped Preserve Brain Volume

Over just 12 weeks, the memory training control group showed significant gray matter loss across multiple brain regions.

This is not alarming, as we age, we consistently lose gray matter over time and if we have an MRI scanner that is sensitive enough, we can measure this slow decline even after only 3 months.

In the yoga group, this age-related decline was largely absent!

In some areas, brain volume didn’t just stabilize - it even marginally increased (not a lot, but imagine what it might do after a year of yoga!).

2. The Effects Were Widespread

The differences weren’t limited to one small region. We saw these protective effects in areas involved in:

• Movement

• Sensory processing

• Attention

• Higher-order or complex cognition

This finding is important, because it suggests that yoga isn’t targeting just one system - it’s engaging the brain globally.

3. There Were Signs of Hippocampal Growth

The hippocampus - a key structure for memory and one of the first areas affected in Alzheimer’s disease, showed:

• An increase in volume in the yoga group

This result didn’t survive strict statistical correction (small sample sizes will do that), but it aligns with previous research and is highly suggestive.

4. Mental Health Improved Too

Compared to the memory training group, participants in the yoga group showed:

• Reduced anxiety

• Reduced depression

Even over just three months.

5. But Not Everything Changed

Interestingly:

• We didn’t see strong changes in memory performance

• Stress and resilience didn’t shift significantly

While this is surprising and might sound disappointing, look at it from this perspective: brain changes may come before behavioral changes.

In other words, the brain might be adapting before we consciously notice it. Similar to Alzheimer’s disease symptoms that show up long after the brain starts to change.

How We Should Look At These Results

This was a small study (22 participants completed the MRI portion), and the study only ran for 12 weeks. If we did this study in a larger group and for longer, it is possible that the results might either get stronger, or that they might look entirely different. This is the tricky thing about science, there are so many reasons why we find a certain result, it is impossible to know all the reasons all the time. We try our best.

So, we are unable to conclude that:

• Yoga prevents Alzheimer’s

• Or that it will reverse cognitive decline

But what we can say is that in a high-risk group, over a short period of time, yoga appeared to protect the brain from age-related atrophy - more effectively than an active cognitive intervention.

This by itself is huge.

Why Might This Be Happening?

One of the most compelling aspects of this intervention is its complexity (remember, it was a multi-component yoga intervention) consisting of:

• Movement

• Breath regulation

• Cognitive engagement

• Sensory stimulation

• Emotional regulation

• Attention training

• Daily homework

From a neuroscience perspective, this is a perfect storm for neuroplasticity. The participants did not train a single brain network – they trained many, simultaneously. This is what we now know is the most helpful for slowing age-related brain loss.

My Personal Reflection

Working with these women doing an intervention I strongly believe in as a therapeutic method (whether objectively or subjectively) was such a pleasure. Many of them had already witnessed a parent or relative suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Now they were worried that their subjective memory problems were the first sign that they may also develop Alzheimer’s disease. In healthy people, this fear is clinically referred to as ‘the worried well’. They worry about it, but they are actually clinically well.

Memory problems can have various sources. If you have ever found yourself in a chronically stressful situation, you might now what I mean. A neuropsychologist can help you or your family member or friend identify whether the true cause of your experience is a neurodegenerative disease (these are usually more severe memory problems), due to stress or attention problems (an inability to pay attention can also look like a memory problem, but in reality, the information never even made it through the noise in your mind).

Where We Go From Here

The study was published in 2022 and some big questions still remain:

• What happens over 6 months? 1 year?

• Can these changes translate into real-world cognitive protection?

• Who benefits most? And why?

These are the studies we need next.

Conclusion

If there’s one takeaway from this work, it’s this:

Prevention doesn’t have to be extreme to be powerful.

Sometimes, it looks like:

• Sitting down

• Closing your eyes

• Breathing

• Moving gently

• Repeating a simple sound

And doing that consistently over a period of time. The longer and the more consistently, the better. But it doesn’t have to be a full-body 90-minute workout. As we saw in this study, the small things can be enough to reshape your brain.

For you

If you’re navigating similar questions - about your mind, your health, or how to feel more like yourself again - you’re in the right place.

I am building something thoughtful and real right here on Substack. You are always welcome to be part of it. I will keep sharing research like this - and what it actually means for real life.
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Questions and comments are always welcome.

Bea