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Yoga & Diabetes
November 9, 2008 by Ray Baskerville
Diabetes is an increasingly common condition in the developed world, in the US it is responsible for over 350,000 deaths annually. Clinical research in the west has focused exclusively on diabetes as a physical disorder and hence the treatments that have been developed involve stimulating the pancreas through drugs, or by controlling the glucose levels by dietary restrictions, artificial insulin, and more recently, by physical exercise. Clinical research in India, by contrast, has recognized diabetes as a psychosomatic disorder, in which the causative factors are sedentary habits, physical, emotional and mental stress and strain. It has studied the beneficial effects of the practice of yoga, and the factors that make it more than a just physical exercise.
Several studies have focused on why yoga is more profoundly successful in treating diabetes than other forms of exercise. One of the keys seems to come down to yoga’s effect on stress. Stress plays an important role in diabetes because it elevates blood glucose levels and increases the odds of developing certain complications, such as heart disease, stroke and infections. Yoga and meditation are undoubtedly two of the best practices for reducing stress.
M.V. Bhole and K.N. Udupa, two scientists who research yoga in India, have measured the effects of yoga on mental stresses. They have shown that yoga is more powerful in beneficial in treating stress than regular exercise because it begins to change one’s attitude towards the situations of life by developing mental relaxation and balance. It is also a holistic system and develops health and vitality at physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels of being. Being holistic in nature, at the physical level the whole system is effected positively, and as a system the body is naturally predisposed to move toward balance and health. In this view, illness is a symptom of imbalance in the system,
Researchers at the Laboratory Division, Central Research Institute for Yoga, Delhi, India studied the effects of yoga on 149 non-insulin-dependent diabetics. Sixty-nine percent of the respondents showed a fair to good response. The researchers concluded that yoga was a simple and economical therapy useful for non-insulin dependent diabetics.
Another study at the Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi attempted to discover whether yoga postures could help diabetics release insulin from the pancreas. Twenty healthy young volunteers were given four sets of yoga postures to perform. The asanas given were:
1) Dhanurasana (bow pose)
Matsyendrasana (seated twist)
2) Halasana (plow pose)
Vajrasana (thunderbolt pose)
3) Naukasana (boat pose)
Bhujangasana (cobra pose)
4) Setubandhasana (bridge pose)
Pavanamuktasana (wind relieving pose)
Each volunteer practiced the above sets in random order for five days with a two day interval between consecutive sets of asanas. Blood tests showed that the cumulative effect of yoga led to improved "sensitivity of the b-Cells of the pancreas to the glucose signal."
In another study at The Yoga Biomedical Trust, founded in 1982 by biochemist Dr. Robin Monro and an Indian yoga research foundation, it was discovered that if people practiced yoga for 30 minutes a day for one full month, the activity helped reduce blood glucose levels in some diabetics.
One of the studies conducted to cure diabetes was the one set up where yoga patients participated in one or two 90-minute weekly sessions for 12 weeks. Participants worked out with certain yoga classes in their homes; including the bow, the spinal twist and some abdominal breathing.
Near the close of the session, the participants’ blood sugar levels decreased greatly across the board and were only somewhat elevated in the control group, a group who had not participated in the yoga sessions. Notable also was that three yoga students were even able to reduce their own medications they’d been on, including a person who had been on the same drug regime for nearly 20 years.
A 2005 study published in the Nepal Medical College Journal put 20 people with type 2 diabetes on a 40 day yoga routine taught by an expert yoga teacher. The postures performed were:
Surya Namaskar (sun salutation)
Trikonasana (triangle pose)
Tadasana (mountain pose)
Sukhasana (easy pose)
Padmasana (lotus pose)
Bhastrika Pranayama (breathing exercise)
Pashimottanasana (posterior stretch)
Ardhmatsyendrasana (half spinal twist)
Pawanmuktasana (joint freeing series)
Bhujangasana (cobra pose)
Vajrasana (thunderbolt pose)
Dhanurasana (bow pose)
Shavasana (corpse pose)
At the end of 40 days of yoga, most of the participants had a decrease in fasting glucose levels, a significant decrease in waist-hip ratio and beneficial changes in insulin levels. These asanas have great effect on the pancreas and other glands, such as adrenal, thyroid and sex glands. The muscles and organs of abdominal area are fully activated practicing these asanas providing stimulation and rejuvenation to the cells of the pancreas and other endocrine glands by way of compression. Compression of these glands, followed by relaxation, causes an increased volume of highly oxygenated blood to reach the cells, bringing nourishment that rejuvenates atrophied cells.. As a result of this activation the condition and functioning of the pancreas is energized and strengthen. It also increases the blood supply to various parts of body, improving insulin administration in the body.
Specific asanas like backward bending postures bring stimulation to the pancreas, as they exercise the erector spinae, latissimus dorsi, obliques, deep intertransversarii and posterior abdominal wall. Also, most of these postures cause the internal viscera to stretch, bringing stimulation to the pancreas and other glands and organs that otherwise receive no stimulation.
If you have any concern that you may be at risk from developing diabetes or may even be in the early stages of it’s onset The American Diabetes Foundation have a self test you can do here.
To practice the asanas mentioned in this article it is recommended you seek out a knowledgeable and experienced teacher.
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Diabetes is becoming one of the common factors for human death. As mention Yoga can be very effective in reducing those disorders, moreover it creates a pattern of health for our body. The types of yoga mentioned are very effective and can be performed daily for betterment.
We lost our dad to a diabetes related illness a few years back. Unfortunately he was the type that would turn his nose up to yoga and meditation among other things. I am going to pass this article on to my sister though, who is a Type 1 diabetic. She started yoga not too long ago but I am not sure if she knows the benefits that comes along with it when it comes to her diabetes.
very informative article. i have not really thought about yoga as a prevention from having diabetes. maybe this can prevent but not cure diabetes. and sometimes it is really genetically acquired which we can not avoid. but it is not wrong to believe because yoga has so many benefits to our physical, mental, spiritual and emotional being.
You really got to try the DVD Yoga Therapy Prescriptions by Laura Hawes. So many great restorative sequences on that DVD.
Steve