Over the past 15 years, UCLA Health researchers have been exploring an interesting way to reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease: the beneficial effects of yoga compared to standard memory-enhancement training.

Their recent study in the journal Translational Psychiatry recruited 60 women ages 50 and older who had been through menopause and reported memory issues and cerebrovascular risk factors.

The researchers wanted to see if 12 weeks of Kundalini yoga (which focuses on meditation and breathing) could improve cognition and memory better than 12 weekly memory-enhancement training sessions, which use exercises such as creating stories to remember items on a list.

They took blood samples to evaluate inflammation and look at gene expression of markers related to aging, and they did MRIs at 12 and 24 weeks.

The researchers found that Kundalini yoga participants had measurable improvements in memory, less decline in brain matter, increased neural connectivity in the hippocampus (where stress-related memories are managed), an increase in anti-inflammatory and anti-aging molecules, and fewer aging and inflammation-associated biomarkers.

The very best brain protection, they say , is combining this breathing and meditation centered yoga with memory-enhancing training, especially if you do speed-of-processing games such as Double Decision. Studies show that doing them over a 10-year period reduces cognitive deficits in people ages 73 to 83 by more than 33%.

Also smart is an anti-inflammatory, plant-based diet.