Yoga has been found to increase grey matter and alter key networks in the brain. Now, there is hope that it can be used to help improve people’s mental health.
My right arm is shaking. Sweat drips from my forehead as I twist my body from a side plank into a yoga pose known as “Wild Thing” or “Camatkarasana.” It is quite the contraction—I arch my back, stretching my left arm over my head. My right foot is planted on the ground, and I look at the sky.
One translation of the Sanskrit word camatkarasana is “the ecstatic unfolding of the enraptured heart,” which is said to elicit confidence. Despite the strain, I feel invincible.
When I started practising yoga, I wanted to sweat and build strength. I saw it purely as a form of exercise but found it was much more.
The practice of yoga dates back over 2,000 years to ancient India. Today, there are many different types of yoga – from meditative yin yoga to flowing vinyasa—through their use of movement, meditation, and breathing exercises, and all forms focus on a mind-body connection. There is growing evidence that yoga may not just have physical benefits but may also be good for your mind. Some researchers even hope it could be a promising way of helping people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cope with their symptoms.
Indeed, research on the physical benefits of yoga is extensive. The first thing anyone who hasn’t tried yoga should know is that it can be surprisingly strenuous. It improves strength, flexibility and cardiorespiratory fitness. Studies have found yoga can improve stamina and agility. It can prevent injuries (although it can also cause injuries if not done correctly) and enhance performance in other sports, with advocates including world-class footballers, American footballers and basketball players.
And there is a growing body of research showing yoga can be beneficial for a wide range of health issues.
In epilepsy sufferers, for example, practising yoga has been seen to significantly reduce the number of seizures – or even prevent them entirely. Yoga has been used as an intervention to help manage type 2 diabetes, reduce chronic pain, and aid in stroke rehabilitation. It has also been shown to be more effective than physiotherapy at improving the quality of life for people with multiple sclerosis, and one trial even suggests it could be beneficial for cancer survivors.
Yoga can also help you live a healthy life for longer, says Claudia Metzler-Baddeley, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (Cubric) in the UK.
But yoga has also been found to change the makeup of your brain. Studies show practising yoga positively impacts both the structure and function of parts of the brain, including the hippocampus, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex and brain networks, including the default mode network, part of the brain involved in introspection and self-directed thought. Some researchers say this could mean it can potentially mitigate age-related and neurodegenerative declines there.
Metzler-Baddeley’s research focuses on the cognitive and neural mechanisms of ageing and neurodegeneration. “We think inflammation accelerates ageing, which can be caused by chronic stress,” she says. Stress hormones like cortisol cause inflammation, which can increase blood pressure. These are, of course, risk factors for unhealthy ageing.”
She added that meditation and mindfulness are integral to yoga practice and “seem to induce changes in brain networks, which are important for metacognition, meta-awareness, and regulating emotional responses to stress.”
“We know there’s potential [for yoga to] keep us healthy as we age,” she says. “There are studies that have found a number of structural differences [in the brains of people who practice yoga], and that certain areas important for metacognition and problem-solving seem to be larger.”
Neuroimaging has revealed that yoga can increase the volume of grey matter in the brain. Grey matter—or the cerebral cortex – is important for mental processes, including language, memory, learning and decision-making. In Alzheimer’s disease, there is a loss of grey matter volume, and one 2023 study found yoga could slow memory loss among women at risk of the disease.
All exercise is known to boost mood by lowering stress hormone levels and increasing the production of endorphins—often referred to as the “feel-good chemicals.” However, yoga’s combined postures, breathing, and meditative exercises may have additional benefits, reducing anxiety, stress, and depression and improving overall mental health. Studies have shown that yoga can improve the short-term symptoms of depression, for example.
“I didn’t want to go on. Life was too difficult,” says Heather Mason, founder of yoga therapy training school The Minded Institute. “Yoga transformed my life – helping me manage depression, anxiety and PTSD.”
