Impact of yoga on cognitive functions among chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients

Relevance. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), due to its chronic and progressive nature, affects multiple organs in the body due to its complex pathophysiology. A hypoxic effect on the brain due to COPD directly leads to nerve damage, followed by impaired cognitive functions. The cognitive impairment not only affects the physical function and health status but also aggravates mortality and disability in COPD patients. According to the literature, some modifiable factors, such as physical activity, balanced diet, cognitive training, and social engagement, can be improved to benefit patients with COPD who have presented evidence of cognitive impairment. Yoga training improves lung function and exercise capacity and could be used as an adjunct pulmonary rehabilitation program for COPD patients. Yoga entails pranayama and asana, two yoga practices that work together to keep the body and mind stable. Materials and Methods. The following electronic databases were searched: Pub Med, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Science Direct. Irrelevant studies were excluded in this review article. The employed keywords «yoga» and «COPD,» yoga and pulmonary disease, or «yoga» and «cognition,» or «COPD» and «cognitive decline», or COPD and cognitive impairment were typed in titles and abstracts. Results and Discussion. Chronic and progressive airway obstruction present in COPD could enhance the adverse hypoxic effect on the brain. Yoga improves breathing by causing bronchodilation that efficiently enhances the perfusion of many alveoli. Research shows that yoga intervention activates the central nervous system and helps improve cognitive functions. Conclusion. According to our review of different articles there are many environmental, genetic and behavioral factors which increases the risk of COPD in general population. Basic pathophysiology of COPD is chronic inflammation of airways which leads to multiple comorbidities. COPD itself causing hypoxia to multiple organs including brain and with other mechanism related to its comorbidities causes impairment of cognitive functions. Beside pharmacological treatment early stage involvement of non-pharmacological factors like yoga, Exercise, life style modification, cessation of smoking may be beneficial to these patients in decreasing the progression of disease and reducing the development of comorbidities. Based on available searched literature, there is a strong relationship between COPD and cognitive impairment, COPD and yoga, cognition and yoga.