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The Perks of Yoga When You Are Diabetic

Yoga: Great For Your Mind & Body

If you have diabetes, doing yoga can help your overall health. Yoga is great for people with and without diabetes. It is a great way to exercise through different body postures, breathing exercises and meditation. This helps reduce glucagons, hormones treating severe low blood sugar. There are many advantages to yoga, including reducing stress in the mind and body.

Getting up and moving around in different yoga poses will promote better blood circulation. Just doing 30-45 minutes of yoga each day will have a great positive impact on your health. So, if you are looking for a new exercise regime to help improve your blood sugars, try yoga!

YogaUOnline explains how yoga is good for your body’s health.

Like other exercise routines, you have the potential to start reducing blood glucose levels after just one yoga session. After 3 months of a continual exercise routine involving yoga, there should be an improvement in glycemic control for diabetics.  Fasting plasma glucose blood glucose levels are reduced by 10% after a 10-day stint of yoga sessions. It is recommended that Type 2 diabetics should try yoga for ultimate glycemic control.

yoga for diabetics perks

Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews studied 1,292 Type 2 diabetics and pre-diabetics. This study found yoga helped treat the condition for those with Type 2 diabetes. For those with pre-diabetes, it was found to altogether prevent the severe progression to diabetes. The study checked blood glucose levels before and after the yoga sessions to see the effects of the exercise.

Combining your yoga routine with healthy food choices and regular exercise will put you on the best track to healthy living.

Remove Stress One Yoga Pose At A Time

Stress in life will increase diabetes symptoms.  A lot of stress increases glucagon hormone secretions. These hormones are responsible for increasing blood glucose levels according to The Art of Living. You can credit yoga for not only physical movement, but also stress hormone reduction, inflammation, and oxidative stress. All of these decreases of stress, in turn, improve your body’s use of insulin.

Not only does stress increase diabetes complications, high blood pressure does too. There are certain yoga poses that you can do to control hypertension. The best poses include the corpse pose, bridge pose, and child pose. Also, try the setubandhasana to control your blood pressure.

You should always focus on certain muscles and aim to heal specific parts of your body. For better blood flow to your liver and kidneys, try the big toe pose. Sometimes diabetics have complications like kidney failure because of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. So, protecting yourself by practicing this position will keep blood flowing properly. The triangle pose is also great for your kidneys. Digestion is improved and organs in your abdomen are stimulated while you are in this stance. For a pose that attends to your pelvis, try the western intense pose. Women with diabetes are more likely to get pelvic floor disorders. Ultimately, this could mean living with an overactive bladder. The western-intense pose will help strengthen the pelvic floor muscles and combat issues with your bladder while also promoting blood flow to your liver and kidneys and assisting in digestion.

Reducing Trauma Symptoms

The meditation aspect of yoga is known to reduce trauma symptoms like anxiety, depression, dissociation, and sleep apnea. Sanford Nidich lead two case studies on the effects of transcendental meditation on prisoners. One study was on females and the other on males. For the study on 181 males, it found that 47% of them had reduced trauma symptoms after completing four months of transcendental meditation. In this type of meditation, a person detaches from anxiety and promotes harmony by meditating and practicing different yoga poses and chanting mantras repeatedly. One person from the study explained, “Meditating twice a day has helped lessen my stress levels, allowed me to connect to and center myself at deeper levels… Meditating helps to facilitate my mental clarity, while at the same time calming me.”

Consider adding one of these into your daily or weekly regimen to help lower stress levels and ultimately lowering blood sugar levels. Blood sugar control is one of the most important goals for diabetics. Contact Lucas Research today to find out how we can help you achieve your goals!

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