Retinal Imaging Shows How Yoga Helps Parkinson’s Disease Patients
Summary
- A yoga routine that is challenging both physically and mentally can improve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, Miller School of Medicine and University of Miami researchers have found.
- The research showed that noninvasive eye imaging techniques could give scientists clues as to how people’s brains are responding to the yoga program.
- The research team is now planning larger studies to validate data and answer ongoing questions.
A yoga routine that is challenging both physically and mentally can improve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Doctors can use noninvasive imaging of the retina to track a participant’s progress, according to new, collaborative studies by researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and UM.
About seven years ago, Joseph Signorile, Ph.D., a professor of exercise physiology and neuromuscular research at the UM Department of Kinesiology and Sport Sciences, and his team began developing YogaCue. The program that combines standard yoga poses with interval training and cognitive challenges.
“We knew high-intensity exercise had a positive impact on cognition,” said Dr. Signorile. “We also knew that providing a mental challenge would have a positive impact on cognition. So, we put the two together and made a combination program. That’s exactly what YogaCue is all about.”
Dr. Signorile found patients experienced improvements in physical and mental symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. But he wondered if there was a way to explore exactly how the brain was changing in response to the exercise. The research, which was partially funded by the Miller School, demonstrated that noninvasive eye imaging techniques could give scientists clues as to how people’s brains are responding to the program.
The Eye as a Window to the Brain
Dr. Signorile teamed up with Jianhua Wang, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of ophthalmology at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.
“We have a large research group at Bascom Palmer where ophthalmologists and neurologists work together. We focus on the eye as a window to the brain, or systemic disease, like diabetes and Parkinson’s disease,” said Dr. Wang. “The collaboration is very unique. No other lab can do the full spectrum of eye imaging like we do here.”
Dr. Wang and his team set out to develop a way to measure the changes in a person’s brain in a way that was inexpensive and could be done noninvasively during a routine doctor’s appointment.
Retinal tissue, he explained, is not just connected to the brain. It is a part of the brain. Visualizing how blood flow is changing here provides an idea of how the brain is responding to exercise without expensive brain scans.
In two small studies published earlier this year, the team found that changes in blood flow and density of capillaries in the retina correlated with cognitive performance and severity of disease.
The yoga is intense, explained Dr. Signorile.
“It is really an interval training program, and the intensity goes up throughout,” he said. “The stimuli for increased angiogenesis—the production of more blood vessels—and synaptogenesis—new connections being formed between brain cells—happens due to increases in aerobic and neuromuscular performance.”
The Future of YogaCue
One of the main priorities for both researchers is making the intervention and the imaging techniques as accessible as possible.
“Yoga is a very popular exercise. So if we can modify it in order to positively affect cognitive performance, as well as physical performance, then that’s very, very meaningful,” said Dr. Signorile. “And it doesn’t require a lot of equipment or anything else. It’s accessible.”
Dr. Wang added that once researchers can confirm the ways in which capillary networks in the eye change in response to disease and exercise, he hopes ophthalmologists will be empowered to use existing eye imaging technology to better understand diseases such as Parkinson’s.
The team is getting positive feedback from practitioners throughout the country, said Dr. Signorile. But they still need studies with many more participants to validate the finding.
“I cannot do my part alone, and Dr. Signorile cannot do his part alone,” said Dr. Wang. “We have a plan to do a large-scale study to address the questions we haven’t answered yet.”
Tags: Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, cognitive decline, Dr. Jianhua Wang, Dr. Joseph Signorile, neuroscience, ophthalmology, Parkinson's disease