Why Yoga for Diabetes?

If you suffer from diabetes and need to lose weight, yoga for diabetes can help. In general, yoga will help build your concentration and willpower so that it’s easier to stick with a healthy weight-management program.

Dietary and other lifestyle changes can dramatically control or reduce the negative effects of both Type 2 diabetes and obesity.

Yoga can help me manage diabetes?
While yoga can’t "cure" diabetes, it can assist with the lifestyle changes required to manage diabetic symptoms, and it can help you feel more in control of your health and well being.

Exercise is important for losing weight and normalizing blood sugar levels. Yoga is a great exercise for people who are overweight or suffering from diabetes. It's gentle and non-competitive, doesn’t strain the heart and is less likely to cause a rapid blood sugar drop.

Yoga exercises gently tone and shape the body, improve balance and flexibility, decrease stress, and improve moods. Most yoga exercises improve circulation, especially to the extremities which is extremely important for diabetics and gently stimulate the body’s glands and organs, resulting in positive effects on the digestive, endocrine, and reproductive systems.

Yoga breathing techniques are especially helpful because they teach you to focus your attention on your breathing — to the exclusion of everything else, which is soothing to the nervous system while helping increase focus and concentration.

By releasing muscle tension and teaching you how to relax, gentle yoga for diabetes helps reduce the harmful effects of physical and mental stress. A 2002 study demonstrated that stress-management techniques like yoga decrease glucose levels and improve diabetes management.

The increased awareness you cultivate during yoga carries over into other areas of your life. You begin to pay better attention to your thoughts and actions, which can lead to healthier lifestyle and dietary choices. Often cravings become more manageable too.

Many people also report increased feelings of well-being, improved mood, better sleep, increased inner strength and improved self-perception.

Take back control with yoga for diabetes
So don't let obesity and Type 2 diabetes control you. Take control with yoga. FInd a gentle yoga class suitable for those with diabetes, hire a private yoga teacher, or try a gentle yoga DVD. One of my personal favorites is Yoga Rx: Weight Management for People with Curves from Larry Payne's Yoga Rx series.