Integrated Approach of Yoga for Diabetes
- Bina Desai, Fremont, CA
Diabetes is on the rise. Over 25 million children and adults in the United States have diabetes, and over 8% of the 25 million are Asian Americans (American Diabetes Association).
Diabetes Mellitus (Type 2) can be caused due to heredity, obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, diet, and stress. Diabetes is diagnosed by urine, blood, and ketone tests. Common symptoms for both types include increased thirst, urination, appetite, and fatigue.
How can Yoga help?
In yogic language, human existence consists of five sheaths (pancha koshas)—physical (Annamaya kosha), life force or the subtle energy flow (Pranamaya kosha), mental (manomaya kosha), intellectual (Vijnanmaya kosha) and spiritual/bliss (Anandmaya kosha).
Yoga prescribes a combination of body, breath, mind, and intellect practices to address the imbalances in all aspects of the human system – pancha koshas. The integrated approach to yoga therapy consists of practices that address all these layers of our personality.
Annamaya Kosha: At the physical level, Yoga offers fast loosening and dynamic practices (Shithilikarana Vyayama), postures, and “Yogic Kriyas” (cleansing techniques). These practices activate, revitalize, and tone the body. It also helps to improve physical and mental stamina. It helps improve blood flow to the pancreas.
Pranayama Kosha: At the Vital sheath, Pranayama, the breath work helps calm the mind and slow down breathing. Slowing down the breath helps regulate hormones and metabolism by giving deep rest to the body and, regulating the overall autonomic nervous system, bringing about a balance between sympathetic and para-sympathetic (fight-or-flight) and rest-and-digest.
Manomaya Kosha: At the emotional level, meditation helps increase internal awareness, silence the mind, and heal the body.
Vijnanamaya Kosha: At the intellect level, yoga philosophy helps us understand and deal with our own agitations, strong likes, dislikes, and notional imbalances. Understanding that stress is not a situation but a response to a demanding situation. Stress is the speed of the mind. When this speed slows down, the mind becomes calm.
Anandamaya kosha: Once we work at all four levels–koshas, Yoga takes us to our peaceful and blissful state of mind that is Anandamaya – spiritual kosha
Yoga also helps us incorporate lifestyle changes more easily and naturally without force or compulsion. This way, the changes will be permanent and joyful. Awareness helps us know what we eat and whether we are getting full. For example, when we eat, it takes a while to figure out whether our stomachs are full. By then, we have already overeaten. Increased awareness helps us catch the point of satiation early.
With yoga practices, the body becomes strong, the mind becomes calm, stress is reduced, and one can experience deep relaxation. This is when healing happens. The function of the pancreas is to improve the fluctuation in blood sugar levels and to decrease insulin resistance. Even though Yoga seems to have an indirect effect and may take longer to take effect, benefits are lasting, and there are no side effects, unlike medications.
Diet Tips for Diabetes Management
Keep a daily log of what you eat; keep healthy snacks handy so you don’t reach for junk food; eat regular small meals and healthy snacks in between meals.
Whenever you feel like eating, stop and ‘talk’ to your body and see whether you are hungry or if there is some other reason for reaching for the food.
Awareness helps us catch the point of satiation early.
Include large portions of vegetables in every meal. Also, eat good, healthy, and lean protein.
Avoid saturated fats like animal fat and artificial ghee made in a factory.
Avoid stale, processed, canned, and refined food.
Yoga is an effective complementary therapy for managing diabetes, particularly Type 2 diabetes. Yoga helps reduce stress, promotes weight management, improves cardiovascular health, and boosts mental well-being. Thus, diabetes patients can live a healthy and normal life with a quality of life if they practice Yoga regularly.