Executive Summary : | The rapid aging of the population and increasing morbidities necessitate the development of anti-ageing therapies or interventions to extend the healthy life span of humans. Targeting aging can prevent or delay multiple chronic diseases and death simultaneously. However, geriatric trials in humans are time- and cost-intensive due to the lengthy lifespan. Human aging is a gradual deterioration of integrity across multiple organ systems that is not easily measured in clinical trials. Biomarkers have been proposed as a potential tool for additional evidence on individual aging in geosciences trials. Biological age (BA) estimated by biomarkers has been proposed to be independent of chronological age and accurately predict health outcomes such as physical function, cognition, morbidity, and mortality. These markers reflect different aspects of aging and have been reported to have higher predictive ability for mortality compared to telomere length, a widely used biological aging marker. Lifestyle interventions, such as yoga, play a crucial role in harnessing the process of biological aging and provide better advantages in terms of unforeseen toxicity and adverse side effects. The efficacy of yoga has not been studied to target biological aging, but it has been reported to exert significant glycemic control and other metabolic, endocrine, immune benefits associated with intrinsic pathways of aging. Yoga-based interventions have also been reported to be feasible, safe, and well-accepted by elderly individuals. To test the hypothesis that yoga-based intervention could serve as an important geosciences intervention to target the process of aging, an open label, two-group Randomized Controlled Trial will be conducted on 160 elderly Indian subjects aged 60-75 years. Assessments will be performed at baseline and postintervention 9 months of follow-up. |