The Role of Yoga in Managing Diabetes

Dr Pramod Tripathi Jun 21, 2019

Yoga and its practices are found to be playing a significant role in managing diabetes to a large extent, and which is why a lot of diabetics across the globe are resorting to Yoga for diabetes management and control. Performing Yoga regularly stimulates glycemic control and lowers the risk of complications in diabetics. But that isn’t it, there are several other aspects associated with Yoga’s role in managing diabetes, and we will be exploring those aspects through this article.

What is Type 2 Diabetes?

In order to understand Yoga’s role in diabetes management, at the outset, it is important to understand Type 2 diabetes, the most commonly found lifestyle disorder in the modern world. Type 2 diabetes is a result of insulin resistance or its complete deficiency, which, in turn, leads to chronic hyperglycemia, and several other micro and macrovascular complexities. As per the International Diabetes Federation, in 2017, the number of Type 2 diabetics in the world was around 425 million, and unfortunately, the projections are even more promising. This is because, by 2045, this number is going to reach a whopping 629 million. The development of Type 2 diabetes is attributed to a lot of modern lifestyle reasons such as unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, sedentary lifestyle, and physical and mental stress.

How does Yoga Benefit in Managing Diabetes?

Technically, Yoga is a series of physical, mental and spiritual disciplines, the blend of which helps relax the body, mind and soul. Let us now understand Yoga’s role in diabetes management.

Yogasan: The asanas in Yoga modulate gene expression, and increase muscle strength, activity, flexibility, balance, and endurance. This, in turn, stimulates weight-loss and has favourable effects on dyslipidemia, adiposity, and insulin resistance.
Improved Cardiac Autonomic Function: Cardiac autonomic dysfunction is a diabetes-related complication, and is also found to be the reason for sudden death in a lot of diabetics. Nevertheless, according to clinical research, the regular practice of Yoga improves cardiac autonomic function, thus reducing the risks to a large extent.
Improved Glycemic Control: Often, improving glycemic control with up-titration of the insulin regimen, or through anti-diabetic medicines, but without diet control or regular exercise, leads to weight gain in a lot of diabetics. But, as against this fact, Yoga improves glycemic control without any weight gain, and in fact, some studies suggest a reduction in weight a well.
Prevention of Diabetes through Yoga: For individuals with a high risk of diabetes, practising Yoga helps prevent the development of the disease. It helps reduce fasting blood sugar, haemoglobin A1C, postprandial blood sugar, and the need for an anti-diabetic drug, thereby suggesting an improvement in glycemic control.
Improved Insulin Kinetics: Yoga improves insulin kinetics by lowering fasting insulin levels, moving the peak insulin levels to the left, and regularizing the insulin-to-glucose ratio. Besides, Yoga also lowers free fatty acid levels, thus, in a way, referring to an improvement in insulin sensitivity, or reduced insulin resistance.

Yoga’s gradual and long-running benefits help prevent, reverse, and control diabetes in a natural and healthy way. Hope this article offered adequate insights on the role of Yoga in managing diabetes.