Kirtan Kriya

An easy, low cost, side effect-free way to boost your brain power and help you be healthier and more spiritually attuned as you age would have a major impact on your quality of life and happiness. It would also reduce some of the staggering health care costs seen today.

Recently The Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation (ARPF), of which I'm the founding president and medical director, presented a summary of our innovative yoga meditation research at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Boston.

For the past 12 years, the ARPF has organized, helped design, and fund innovative research on a simple 12-minute singing yoga meditation called Kirtan Kriya (KK). This work has specifically focused on reducing risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and the enhancement of total brain fitness.

Our studies utilized recognized methods to measure aspects of brain health and specialized scans such as SPECT and fMRI, as well as sophisticated memory and blood tests, to determine the results of our studies.

I'd like to divide the outcome of our research into three categories: mind, body, and spirit, all of which optimize brain and body aging.

A. Mind: Here are the ways practicing KK improves your mind and brain power.

1. Improved Memory: People with memory loss improved on important memory tests. In our study of stressed caregivers, the KK practitioners had a better memory after KK meditation training.

2. Reduced Stress: Studies show cognitive decline caused by both acute and chronic stress secondary to the hormone cortisol's brain cell-killing effect in the memory center of your brain, the hippocampus. Meditation reduces stress
and lowers cortisol levels and, as seen above, can help reverse memory loss.

3. Enhanced Brain Blood Flow (also called cerebral blood flow or CBF): Patients with cognitive decline and stressed caregivers had increased CBF in critically important areas of their brain, including those well known to influence attention, concentration, focus, memory (hippocampus), depression, trauma and resiliency. Moreover, the first area that goes down in function when a person loses their memory increases with the practice of KK.

4. Increased Healthy Brain Size: Compared to beginners, long-term meditators have a larger and healthier looking brain.

5. Improved Brain Chemistry: It is well known that people who have a decrease in brain energy and function have a reduction in certain brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. Hence, the development of drugs that tried to increase these transmitters. Unfortunately, they are not very effective. KK, however, can help increase neurotransmitters in a more natural way and improve communication between brain cells, thus enhancing brain and memory function.

B. Body: Here are the ways KK improves your body all the way down to the level of your genes and DNA.

6. Increased telomerase: Telomerase is the enzyme that controls the length of your telomeres, the cap of your DNA. Longer telomeres equal better health. Shorter telomeres equal Alzheimer's disease and accelerated aging and a shortened life. An increase of 44 percent in telomerase was shown in our study on highly stressed caregivers doing KK for 12 minutes a day for eight weeks. This is the largest increase in telomerase ever seen.

7. Decrease in bad genes: 39 stressed caregivers utilizing KK for 12 weeks had what is known as down regulation of inflammatory genes, which signifies a reduction in the activity of the genes that cause inflammation. This is important because inflammation is a hallmark of many illnesses, including Alzheimer's.

8. Improvement of good genes including those that boost your immune system.

9. Improved Sleep: Sleep is critically important for optimal brain and body health. Disrupted sleep is a risk factor for Alzheimer's. KK can help improve sleep.

C. Spirit: You have a spirit that impacts your health and well-being. KK touches your spirit in a positive way. Here is how:

10. Less depression: 65 percent of subjects showed improvement on Depression Scales. Depression may be a risk factor for cognitive decline.

11. Clarity of Purpose: Meditators discover clarity of purpose and other aspects of psychological well-being such as acceptance, personal growth, and positive relationships. This has been shown to improve overall health and lower Alzheimer's risk.

12. Spiritual Well-Being: Practicing KK creates peace of mind and spiritual well-being, which is something we all can use more of in today's incredibly hectic and fast paced world.

As I've shared in this blog, studies on Kirtan Kriya meditation, a simple 12-minute singing memory yoga meditation, reveal many positive health benefits for your mind, body, and spirit, including a profound anti-aging effect all the way down to the level of your DNA.

To discover how to do it, simply go here. In the meantime I wish you all health, happiness, and a soaring spirit.

Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dharma-singh-khalsa-md/meditation-alzheimers_b_3625181.html