Living with a chronic condition like diabetes can be quite overwhelming as it involves a lot of hard work to control diabetes and maintain healthy blood sugar levels, excessive urination, lack of concentration, and high blood pressure, and other such health issues every passing day. And with no potential remedy or diabetes treatment, prevention is the only getaway to cure! To cope with which experts recommend different diet plans and physical exercises, which you can know more about in our extensive blog ‘Exercise That Help Fight Against Diabetes’. (Link) Out of which, yoga has recently gained popularity in becoming a potential tool to combat with challenges of diabetes.
According to a review published in September 2018 in Endocrinology and Metabolism, yoga can help reduce stress and manage the condition. Yoga consists of a series of mental, physical, and spiritual discipline poses called (Asanas) that originated in ancient India over 5,000 years ago. Yoga has multiple health benefits such as lowering blood pressure, boosting mood, and improving the quality of sleep. Here are some simple moves can improve your overall quality of life and lead to significant transformations:
Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose
This restorative inversion move allows your hamstrings, pelvic muscles, lower back, front torso, and back of the neck muscles to relax. This helps lower stress levels, which in turn may help lower your blood pressure and blood sugar levels. It has also proven helpful in relieving headaches, boosting energy, and increasing blood circulation.
Reclining Bound Angle Pose
This restorative pose not only helps calm your nervous system but also reduces stress levels, which may help lower blood pressure and blood sugar levels at the same time! It’s also thought to stimulate the abdominal organs, bladder, groin muscles, pelvic muscles, and kidneys.
Seated forward bend
This pose is therapeutic and helps you calm your anxiety. In addition to lowering blood pressure and promoting weight loss, this forward bend may help relieve headaches and fatigue. It works up the pelvic muscles, erector spinae, gluteus maximus, and gastrocnemius muscles, leaving them flexible and relaxed.
Plow Pose
This inversion pose will not just help stimulate the thyroid gland, but also increase blood circulation, and reduce muscle stress in your body. Its therapeutic effects also help relieve backache, headache, and insomnia along with working rotator cuff, hamstrings, trapezius, and spinal extensor muscles.
Bow Pose
This backbend stretchy pose opens up your chest and stimulates your abdominal organs. It also lowers your blood sugar levels, as well as relieves constipation and respiratory ailments, along with working out your gluteus maximus, hamstrings, quadriceps, and pectoralis major muscles.
For people with type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes, diet and exercise are crucial for managing blood sugar levels and preventing complications. Starting an exercise regimen in one go can feel daunting; yoga, however, can be a gentle way to start building up your strength as a beginner. The American Heart Association (AHA) lists a number of reasons why yoga is good for health, including heart health. Although, you should consult your Yoga instructor to understand which asanas work best for you and which of them may benefit you the most!