Yoga Therapy For Prediabetes

Yoga has been considered beneficial for your health and wellbeing, since ages. While learning ways to reverse prediabetes, it is essential to consider yoga – an all-round wellness method. It would be very effective to practice yoga therapy for prediabetes.
Yoga has various benefits to offer – both physical and emotional. This not only helps you stay fit and healthy but also keeps your stress under control. This makes it a must-try modality for 45 plus people, as they need to be healthy and emotionally fit increases with age.
Let us understand how yoga therapy works for prediabetes.

Yoga Therapy For Prediabetes

Prediabetes can be reversed with dietary control, exercises, and managing lifestyle problems like obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. It is noted that people with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes may have a poor capacity to engage in rigorous exercises,. This may be due to associated factors like sedentary lifestyle, inactivity, being overweight, joint pain, or other health problems. However, yoga, which originated in India more than 5000 years ago, aims at balancing and harmonizing your body, mind, and emotions. These factors play an important role in modifying your behaviors, which can help in reversing prediabetes.

Yoga can influence your appetite, eating patterns, self-awareness, and improve your body-mind connection. Regular yoga practice is known to develop mindful eating, which can have a direct impact on your dietary intake, weight management, and glycaemic index. Yoga practice also recommends yogic diet, kriyas, or practices to cleanse your body. However, these are best undertaken only with your doctor’s approval and performed under the supervision of a yoga expert. Nevertheless, the yoga poses or asanas, pranayama, and breathing exercises, which are an integral part of yoga can be performed comfortably. If you have any health concerns, it is best to take medical advice.

Yoga therapy for prediabetes is mainly helpful as the yoga poses or asanas improvise your body and mind awareness while focusing on breathing and movement. Yoga poses involve twisting, stretching, and relaxation of muscles and body parts.

Let us look at some of the benefits of yoga poses for maintaining blood sugar levels and how yoga therapy works for prediabetes.

• It helps to improve stability, strength, perseverance, and flexibility.

• Most yoga poses exert pressure on the body organs in such a way that it stimulates the organs to perform their function better.

• The twisted poses squeeze the intestines, massages them, which helps in better gut clearance.

• The seated and forward bending postures stimulate the pancreas, which helps to improve pancreatic function and stimulate insulin secretion. When performed regularly, these yoga poses can help reverse prediabetes by improving the performance of the pancreas and insulin.

• Practicing yoga poses regularly can also improve blood supply to the muscles, which augments insulin function to improve the glucose uptake by the body cells.

These are just a few benefits of yoga poses, which are particularly beneficial for prediabetics and diabetics. With these proven benefits, it is clear that yoga therapy for prediabetes is a must-follow regimen when trying to reverse prediabetes. 

Best Yoga Poses – Yoga Therapy For Prediabetes 

Now that we have seen the benefits, let us look at some of the most effective yoga poses recommended for diabetics and prediabetics. As these poses mainly stimulate blood glucose metabolism, it can greatly help to reverse prediabetes naturally.

Here are the 10 most effective yoga poses that you can include in your yoga therapy for prediabetes.

1. Downward-facing dog pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana) – This pose improves circulation, relieves strained back and thigh muscles, and stimulates abdominal organs. It is considered great to stimulate the pancreas and improve blood sugar control.

2. Bow pose (Dhanurasana) – This pose helps improve the flexibility of the back and strengthens the shoulders, back, and core muscles. It stimulates reproductive and abdominal organs, thus improving gastrointestinal, renal, and pelvic area functions.

3. Child’s pose (Balasana) – This popular pose is not only good for relaxation but also great for massaging the internal organs. It is one of the simple yet important poses of yoga therapy for prediabetes.

4. Pelvic bridging (Setubandhasana) – Great for strengthening the back, this pose also works on the abdominal muscles and organs. It helps improve gut movement and boost metabolism.

5. Lying-down body twist pose (Supta Matsyendrasana)
This pose is great to release back and leg strain while massaging the internal organs. It improves digestion and metabolism, thus helping reverse prediabetes.

6. Legs Up the Wall Pose (Viparita Karani)
This pose helps calm your body and mind, relieve stress, and great for prediabetics. It improves lymphatic drainage and relieves swelling in feet or ankles.

7. Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)
It helps to strengthen and relax the neck, back, and shoulder. It gently stimulates the thyroid gland, which helps to boost your metabolism. This pose is specifically beneficial to gain control over your weight and blood sugar levels.

8. Sitting half spinal twist (Ardha Matsyendrasana)
It helps improve spinal flexibility, cleanse internal organs, and calm the senses, thus relieving stress. This is very effective for reversing prediabetes.

9. Tree pose (Vrikshasana)
Great for thigh, legs, and sciatica, this pose also helps tone your abdomen and improve your body and mind coordination and balance. This can relieve your stress, improve your concentration and determination.

10. Corpse pose (Savasana)
This pose helps your muscles and mind relax – called a meditative state. It helps in repair, healing, and rejuvenation of cells and is best to perform at the end of your yoga session.

Some poses may not be ideal for people with certain conditions like heart disorders, hernia, lower back troubles, severe arthritis, and periods during post-surgery or pregnancy. It is best to take medical advice before planning your regimen of yoga therapy for prediabetes. In our next blog, we will discuss the role of pranayama in reversing prediabetes.