By Paula Baniotaite, Healthier Jupiter Intern

Mental health is a key element to a person’s overall health. It plays an equally important role as healthy eating and active living to ensure people live their healthiest life. To help make sense of mental health’s role in healthy living, Healthier Jupiter worked with a student intern from Florida Atlantic University’s John D. MacArthur Campus to research various topics related to mental health and healthy eating or active living. In the HEAL (Healthy Eating and Active Living) Series, read about promising interventions encouraging people to engage both mentally and physically in healthy behaviors. The following blog post looks at the benefits of yoga for improving senior population’s cognition and mood while reducing depression.

While aging is a natural process we all eventually go through, there are certain negative aspects that can be associated with aging, such as cognitive decline or progressive mental health illnesses. The most prevalent mental health illnesses observed amongst the elderly are anxiety, affective, and substance-related disorders (Chobe et al., 2020). Researchers have been interested in examining the relationship between exercise and the prevention of cognitive and mental decline in the elderly.

A review conducted by Chobe et al., (2020) aimed to investigate this relationship as it pertains to yoga. The authors reviewed studies that included participants varying from ages 55-92 years old. The yoga interventions that were used varied in intensity, they included: chair yoga, hatha yoga, integrated yoga, kirtankriya, kundalini yoga, laughter yoga, silver yoga, trataka and yoga exercises (Chobe et al., 2020).

The effects of yoga on cognition showed a significant improvement in executive functioning, as well as an improvement in working memory following yoga interventions. The effects of yoga on the elderly’s mental health showed promising results. Individuals reported improvements in anger and anxiety following yoga interventions. The participants also indicated significant improvements in their depression levels as well as improved mood and reduced stress following the intervention. In almost all cases, there was no negative side effects of practicing yoga amongst the elderly; this indicates the applicability of the practice of yoga for various settings, from at home interventions to group sessions.

Likely partners to address some of these practices may include senior citizen focused centers and associations.

The HEAL Series focusing on mental health’s connection to healthy eating and active living is part of an internship opportunity with FAU John D. MacArthur Campus at Jupiter student Paula Baniotaite. Paula holds a Bachelor's in Psychology.Strong advocate for mental health and spending time in nature. Animal lover. Avid hiker and camper. Dedicated to spreading the message about healthy eating habits and living an active life. Proud vegan. If you are interested in interning with Healthier Jupiter, please contact joanna.peluso@jupitermed.com.

READ MORE IN THE HEAL SERIES

Sources:

Chobe, S., Chobe, M., Metri, K., Patra, S. K., & Nagaratna, R. (2020). Impact of Yoga on cognition and mental health among elderly: A systematic review. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2020.102421

HEAL Series: The Importance of Yoga for Seniors