The benefits of yoga if you have diabetes

Although your doctor won't recommend that yoga should be the only way to treat certain major diseases, like diabetes, some studies have shown it has the power to help alleviate the symptoms. Here's how.

There are the simple pleasures of doing yoga:

• Yoga is calming for your mind and great fitness for your body.
• You will carefully stretch and strengthen your muscles, loosen your joints and align your posture.
• At the same time, you'll deepen and improve your breathing, slow your heart rate, and improve blood flow throughout your body.

All this slows your sense of aging and helps make chronic pain go away — both physical and mental! Best of all it can be done simply, at home and on your own.

Then there are the medical benefits:

• Although a comprehensive study has yet to be done on the effects of yoga on blood sugar levels or diabetes, smaller studies suggest that it can help to regulate them and improve insulin receptivity.
• Other research shows that yoga can assist in weight loss, lower blood pressure and even help cleanse arteries.
• The reasons are often ascribed to the relaxing effect of yoga; the practice calms mind and body and releases feel-good hormones believed to be beneficial to your health.

During one study, a research team tested 113 men and women, ages 35 to 70, with documented coronary artery disease:

• They placed 71 participants in a yoga lifestyle program, which included stress management, exercise and a plant-based diet.
• The remaining volunteers took heart medications and followed a more typical medical prescription of diet and lifestyle tweaks.

One year later the yoga group had fared much better:

• They had averaged a 23 percent drop in cholesterol levels compared with only a four percent reduction among the med-taking volunteers.
• Fourty-four percent of the yoga participants showed reversals of their heart disease and artery hardening was stopped in its tracks for 47 percent, significantly greater improvements than those in the control group.

Before engaging in any type of physical activity, it's always a good idea to speak with your doctor to ensure you don't injure yourself. However, when you're ready to begin here are some tips to bear in mind:

• Hold a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds (unless instructed otherwise). That's the time it takes for a muscle, tendon or ligament to have a meaningful, beneficial stretch.
• Don't bounce, jerk or overextend a stretch. Take it as far as is comfortable and hold it steady. If during the stretch you feel you can go a little further without strain, certainly do so. But don't go beyond what feels right for your body.
• Stretching should never hurt. If you feel pain, stop.
• Try to stretch all major muscle groups, not just your arms and legs. Lengthen your back, stretch your wrists and ankles, and carefully tend to your neck. It all helps.