A new study of Jindian Medical Group shows that type 2 diabetes patients can better control blood sugar if they participate in physical and mental exercises such as yoga.
Although the past research was specifically aimed at yoga, this research was recently published online in the Journal of Comprehensive and Complementary Medicine, and also studied the benefits of other physical and mental exercises (including Qigong and meditation) on type 2 diabetes patients.
Professor Richard Watanabe, one of the researchers, from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Keck Medical School of Population and Public Health Sciences, said: “This study shows for the first time that no matter which treatment method is used, it has a very consistent impact on glycosylated hemoglobin (the symbol of diabetes).” “So I think one of the important messages is that…
any kind of physical and mental intervention is helpful, which is much more flexible than telling patients that they should (only) do yoga,” Professor Watanabe pointed out.
“If you are a busy person and don’t have time to do yoga, you can learn to meditate and do it anywhere.
So again, it [is]…
a flexible tool that can help patients control blood sugar.” “The most surprising finding is how good these practices are,” Fatimata Sanogo, the lead author from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, said in a statement.
“We expected a benefit, but never expected it to be so great.
Fatimata Sanogo from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, said in a statement,” The most surprising finding is the huge benefits of these practices.
Although we expected yoga and other physical and mental intervention exercises to bring benefits to patients with type 2 diabetes, we never expected it to be so great.
” However, Professor Watanabe also proposed that it is not completely clear how physical and mental exercise can reduce glycosylated hemoglobin, and more research is needed to clarify this point.
According to the research results, Professor Watanabe believes that these studies are based on the assumption that yoga and other physical and mental intervention exercises can play a role in reducing stress hormones.
Because these hormones affect glucose metabolism, reducing stress hormones in these ways can reduce glycosylated hemoglobin and blood sugar levels.
In addition, mindfulness exercises may also allow insulin to more effectively increase the absorption of glucose by insulin sensitive tissues.
The results of this study show that the effect of psychosomatic intervention will be higher than any standard care that patients receive, so it will certainly not be harmful.
Professor Watanabe also pointed out that for patients with diabetes, it is very stressful to constantly monitor their blood sugar level and observe their diet, which will only aggravate the difficulty of controlling blood sugar.
After evaluating the patient’s condition, doctors should work together to help choose the treatment plan that best suits the patient’s lifestyle and personality.
In this study, the researchers carried out a meta analysis analysis.
They identified 28 studies published between 1993 and 2022 that studied the use of mindfulness exercises in patients with type 2 diabetes.
All studies excluded patients who needed insulin to control diabetes and patients with heart disease or kidney complications.
The types of physical and mental exercises analyzed include meditation, breathing techniques, yoga and an ancient Chinese practice called Qigong, which is a slow moving martial art similar to Taijiquan.
HbA1c was used as a test to measure the average blood glucose level of patients in the past 3 months.
The results showed that the average HbA1c decreased by 0.84 percentage points overall.
HbA1c decreased in all types of physical and mental exercise.
In the patients using mindfulness decompression, the glycosylated hemoglobin decreased by 0.48 percentage points on average.
This kind of practice includes focusing on a person’s breath and a specific thought, object or activity to create a stable emotional state, fully living in the present and being aware of the surrounding environment.
Qigong exercise also reduced glycosylated hemoglobin by 0.66 percentage points.
However, among people who practice yoga, HbA1c has the largest decline of 1.0 percentage points, which is the same as that of Metformin (a drug widely used to treat type 2 diabetes worldwide).
In fact, during the study period, for every additional day of yoga every week, the average difference in glycosylated hemoglobin was -0.22 percentage points.
Fasting blood glucose also improved significantly with physical and mental exercise.
In general, the average reduction of glycosylated hemoglobin and fasting blood glucose has significant clinical significance, which indicates that physical and mental exercise may be an effective and complementary non drug intervention for type 2 diabetes.
(compiled by Weina)..