You already know that exercise is crucial for shedding excess pounds and keeping blood sugar in check. What you may not know is that yoga, an ancient form of exercise that’s undergoing a renaissance, is ideal for treating type 1 and type 2 diabetes. While many older folks may think yoga is for new-age hippies, a list of yoga’s benefits for diabetics often changes their minds.
Why Yoga Is Perfect If You Have Diabetes
Yoga has a number of advantages that other forms of exercise don’t:
Works Fast: Don’t want to wait for the benefits of exercise to kick in? With yoga, you don’t have to. Studies show that just 9 days of yoga significantly impacts blood sugar levels.
Accessible: If you can’t see your toes, never mind touch them, the idea of exercising can seem a bit overwhelming. What’s great about yoga is that it can be done by anyone. Modified practices for diabetics are quite common nowadays.
Because you won’t be working beyond your fitness level, the chance of suffering from an injury is greatly reduced.
Lose Weight: There’s no doubt that losing should be priority number one for treating and reversing your diabetes.
Although research is conflicting, it appears that practicing yoga regularly can help people lose weight. Certain forms of yoga, especially “power” hatha yoga are head to toe calorie-torching workouts.
Decreases Stress: Mental stress raises stress hormone levels in your body and increases blood pressure… both of which make type 2 diabetes harder to manage. Study after study shows that yoga is a fantastic stress-reducer. Yoga gives you time to yourself and allows you to focus on nothing but your breathing and movement.
The result? Melting away of tension, relaxation, and a marked reduction in stress.
Helps The Whole Body: While a medication only treats diabetes, yoga benefits the health of your entire body. A study published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine that investigated the effects of yoga on diabetes found that after just one week of yoga: “Fasting plasma glucose, serum total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the ratio of total cholesterol to high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and total triglycerides were significantly lower, and HDL cholesterol significantly higher, on the last day of the course compared to the first day of the course”.
In other words, the entire body got a tune-up.
Get Into Yoga
Due to the exploding popularity of yoga, there’s sure to be a yoga practice for you. Most yoga studios offer yoga for loss, yoga for the disabled, and yoga for the out of shape. You can even do it at home with little practice and using equipment like yoga wheel
The idea of breathing heavy and stretching in a room full of strangers freak you out? No problem. DVDs are a great way to get introduced to the foundations yoga and are an incredibly convenient and cost-effective way to try out yoga.
Whether its in a studio or your living room, now’s the time to put aside your objection and give yoga a try. If you do, you may find yourself more relaxed, at peace and, if combined with a clean diet, without type 2 diabetes.
Are you looking for effective ways to manage your type 2 diabetes?
To download your free copy of my E-Book, click here now: [http://drugfreetype2diabetes.com/faq.html]Answers to Your Questions… It’s based on questions many diabetics have asked me over recent months.
Beverleigh Piepers is a registered nurse who would like to help you understand how to live easily and happily with your type 2 diabetes. http://drugfreetype2diabetes.com/blog
my sister practices Yoga and i also find it interesting that is why i am also practicing Yoga now *
I have been doing Yoga since college and i love the way that it can relax my body. yoga is great for stress relief. .