The effectiveness of physical-mental hatha yoga exercises on telomerase, cortisol and stress in middle-aged women

Telomeres play an important role during aging process. Chronic psychological stress and high cortisol levels could damage the telomere. The effect and mechanism of physical-mental exercise on changing the level of telomerase enzyme as a telomere protector is unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of hatha yoga exercises on telomerase, cortisol and stress in middle-aged women.

During this quasi-experimental trial, 24 middle-aged women with high perceived stress scale (PSS>27) were purposefully and accessibly selected and randomly divided into two groups including exercise (n=12) and control (n=12). The exercise group participated in hatha yoga exercises for eight weeks, two sessions per week for 60-90 minutes each session. Forty-eight hours before and after the training protocol, blood cortisol and telomerase levels were measured by ELISA and stress levels were measured using the Cohen perceived stress scale. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance and linear regression tests at a significance level of p<0.05.

Serum levels of telomerase enzyme significantly increased and cortisol and stress were significantly decreased (p= 0.001) in the exercise group compared to the control group. A significant negative correlation also was observed between baseline cortisol and telomerase levels in both exercise (p=0.02) and control (p=0.001) groups, as well as a significant negative correlation at changes due to hatha yoga exercise was observed in the exercise group (p=0.003); Moreover, 56% of telomerase changes based on cortisol changes were predictable.

Hatha yoga physical-mental exercise can be a good method to reduce the aging process caused by psychological stress in middle-aged women who have high levels of stress, by increasing serum telomerase levels via the cortisol reduction mechanism.