Governments and societies need to be prepared to confront population aging. Such preparation includes policies that can improve quality of life, functional capacity, and health of the general population, encouraging a more active and healthier lifestyle. Normal aging is associated with changes in brain structure and function, which may cause behavioral and cognitive impairments. It is important to understand which changes make some individuals healthier than others. Yoga has been associated with improved quality of life, cognition, and physical health as well as brain functional and structural changes.
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As longevity increases in the population, the incidence of aging-related diseases also increases, generating higher medical costs (Grootjans-van Kampen et al., 2014). Advances in prevention and treatment, in addition to improved public health policies, have successfully increased life expectancy. At present, the greatest number of deaths is due to diseases related to lifestyle (Rouquayrol & Almeida Filho, 1999). Lifestyle has components, such as such nutrition habits, physical activity, and leisure, which constitute important factors to promote health and quality of life. Both, Government and society need to be prepared to confront this state of affairs. Such a preparation includes policies that can improve quality of life, functional capacity, and health of the general population, notably the elder, encouraging a more active and healthier lifestyle.
As life expectancy increases, it is necessary to face this reality by tackling the problems of what has been described as unsuccessful aging. Young et al. (2009) define successful aging as: “A state wherein an individual is able to invoke adaptive psychological and social mechanisms to compensate for physiological limitations to achieve a sense of well-being, high self-assessed quality of life, and a sense of personal fulfillment even in the context of illness and disability”. This multidimensional approach takes into consideration three domains: physiological, psychological, and social. From this perspective, lifestyle is of fundamental importance for a healthy aging and also to promote a resilient brain (Taket et al., 2013) which is associated to reduced mental disorders in life, better mental health and greater psychological well-being (Smithet et al., 2014).
Whilst sedentary elderly are more likely to develop health problems, a healthy lifestyle may help reverse the situation, potentially modifying risk profiles for frailty syndrome (Cesari et al., 2015), mortality, and overall disability (Seeman et al., 1995), contributing to a more successful aging (Kanning & Schlicht, 2008).
In addition, normal aging, even before occurrence of Alzheimer’s disease or cerebrovascular disease, is associated with changes in brain structure and brain function, which may cause behavioral and cognitive impairments (Lockhart & DeCarli, 2015; Persson et al., 2006). Although aging causes changes in brain and cognition, some individuals, unlike others, despite advanced aging, have more preserved brain structure and more stable cognition over the course of aging. Thus, it is important to understand what kind of changes are associated with normal aging and, on the other hand, which makes some individuals healthier than others.