Yoga for Type 2 Diabetes

Routinely inviting relaxation into our day is important for all of us, particularly when facing emotional or physical challenges. If you’re managing type 2 diabetes, make time to check in with your physical well-being with yoga and mindfulness.

Living an active lifestyle

The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology recommends at least 150 minutes of aerobic exercise per week, plus at least two sessions of resistance exercise per week for adults between the ages of 18 and 64. The Canadian Diabetes Association supports these recommendations.

Yoga does not require much special equipment and, at its core, encourages participants to check in and become in tune with their physical states. The Canadian Diabetes Association notes that yoga is one of the many ways people with diabetes can live an active lifestyle.

Incorporating yoga

It is recommended that you consult your health care practitioner if you are including yoga in your diabetes management plan. People with heart disease or blood pressure concerns should also consult a professional on how to adapt yoga for their needs. Consider working with a yoga therapist or teacher who has experience working with people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

While researchers acknowledge that more systematic research is needed, there is recent evidence that regular yoga practice can help people with diabetes reduce fasting glucose (blood sugar) and cholesterol.

Suggested poses

Yoga, meditation, and breath work are tools that many people use to tune into their bodies. Try out these yoga postures (asanas) to begin to incorporate yoga into your daily healthy living routine. These postures are great for beginners.

Consider joining a class in your community. It is possible to find classes for beginners, and some communities even offer introductory classes geared toward people with type 2 diabetes.

Always ask your health care practitioner for contraindication information, for more information, and before starting any new exercise program.

Mountain Pose (beginning posture) This pose is the foundation of many yoga postures. You can practice Mountain Pose anywhere you can stand. Stand up straight with your legs hip-width apart. Keep your feet parallel to each other. Keep your shoulders tracking down your back and lengthen the back of your neck. Engage your leg muscles by lifting your kneecaps. Keep your throat soft and relax your jaw. Feel centred on both feet. You can achieve this by slowly rocking subtly from side to side and front to back. Find where you feel centred on your feet. When you feel centred, stop rocking and focus on your breathing. Inhale through your nose, filling your lungs from bottom to top. Exhale, emptying your lungs. Take 5 to 10 breaths in this way, checking in with how your body is feeling.

Nitambasana (side stretch) This posture brings awareness to the lateral planes of the body and helps to open the shoulders. Begin in Mountain Pose, standing with your feet parallel. Inhale and lift both arms overhead with the palms facing each other. You can also keep your arms bent, with your hands on your hips if keeping your hands above your head feels like you are stretching too deeply. Gently bend from the waist to the right, feeling a stretch along the left side of your body. Focus on keeping your left leg grounded into the earth beneath you. Hold your arms on the right and inhale and exhale 1 to 3 times. On an inhalation, bring your arms to centre above your head. Repeat on the other side. You can modify this pose by keeping your hands on your hips. Remember not to strain or hold your breath. You should feel a subtle stretch.

Reclining Spinal Twist

Yoga twists are thought to help improve digestion.

• Begin by lying down on your back with your legs extended away from you.
• Bend your knees and bring your feet flat to the ground. Then, bring your knees toward your chest.
• Extend your arms out to the sides in a T position.
• Keep your jaw loose and the back of your neck long.
• Use your core to drop your knees to the right on an exhalation. You can squeeze a blanket or block between your thighs if you prefer.
• Take 3 to 5 breaths.
• Roll your legs back up to centre, and repeat on the other side.

Big Toe Pose (forward fold)

The ancient yogis believed this posture helps stimulate the kidneys and improves digestion. People with high blood pressure should seek advice from a health care practitioner before practising inversions.

• Begin in Mountain Pose.
• On an exhalation, fold forward from your hips, bringing your head and body in front of you.
• Grasp your big toes with your index and middle fingers. Bend your knees to help you, if needed. As a modification, you can pass a yoga strap under both feet at the big toe mounds and hold onto the strap instead of your toes.
• With an inhalation, lift your body partway out of the pose as if you were going to stand up, and then on an exhalation fold deeper into the pose. You should feel a stretch in your hamstrings.
• Hold for 1 to 2 breaths.
• Come slowly to an upright position to exit the posture on an inhalation.
• Keep your head and neck relaxed throughout the movements.

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Exercise Smarter-Not Harder-for Weight Loss

We all know that exercise is essential for weight management because it burns calories. But how much and what kind of exercise is best?

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh enrolled 201 overweight, sedentary women as participants in a one-year study. They were randomly assigned to one of four exercise groups: (1) vigorous intensity with high duration; (2) moderate intensity with high duration; (3) moderate intensity with moderate duration; or (4) vigorous intensity with moderate duration. All women were instructed to follow a 1,200 to 1,500 kilocalorie-per-day diet and reduce fat intake to 20 to 30 percent of total energy intake.

Weight loss was significant in all groups, with those exercising moderately gaining similar benefits to those who exercised vigorously. Participants who walked briskly (moderate exercise) for at least 50 minutes, five times a week, and who cut back on fatty foods saw the best long-term weight loss. In six months, they lost an average of 25 pounds, or about 15 percent of their body weight, and the program helped them keep the weight off the rest of the year. It came down to the calories they burned, not how hard they worked to burn them.

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Yoga and Arthritis

Age-related arthritis?

Myths and misconceptions about arthritis abound, but the biggest is probably the idea that arthritis is just age-related aches and pains. Actually, the term arthritis includes about 100 diseases and conditions, some of which can strike before the age of 16.

Isolation and pain

Many arthritis sufferers also face isolation. Not only is pain cited as a reason for limiting social activities among people with arthritis, but it is also the most commonly mentioned barrier to sufficient exercise. Pain-related fear of movement is certainly understandable, but the right exercises can actually be very therapeutic for people living with arthritis; they can help reduce pain and elevate mood.

Yoga for exercise

“Parents of children with arthritis are often told that prolonged rest is good for arthritis and arthritic joints,” notes Dr. Brian Feldman, senior scientist and head of the Division of Rheumatology at the Hospital for Sick Children. “We believe that physical activity and exercise are much better for arthritis than too much rest. Studies are ongoing, but basically exercise seems to improve physical function. Moderate exercise is safe for children with arthritis, but intensity and duration should be limited by symptoms.”

Iyengar yoga, particularly, has been found to reduce disability and pain in people with chronic low back pain. It is still undecided whether or not hot yoga (which is performed in a specially heated room) should be practised by people with rheumatoid (or inflammatory) arthritis, but many patients do swear by it.

When deciding to start a yoga practice, don’t be afraid to talk to the teacher or studio owner first. They may not advertise a “yoga for arthritis” class, but they can help you choose the right class, poses, and adaptations to suit your symptoms and needs. Beginner classes in any type of yoga will ease you into building strength and flexibility, so you don’t have to be naturally flexible to start.

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Working Out while listening music

If you think listening to music while working out or playing competitive sports improves your performance and mood, you’re probably right. As many recent studies have suggested, music helps to boost mood and improve sport performance. However, a new study shows that not all music is created equal—your favourite music has the biggest effect.

A recent study divided its 64 participants into three sports: netball, football, and running, and then polled them about their favourite type of music. The participants were assessed in three ways—before and during training, before competitions or races, and with and without their favourite music—and they were scored on perceived motivation, focus, enjoyment, challenge, awareness, and rate of perceived exertion.

Overall, participants who listened to their favourite music were more “in the zone” and also had reduced perceived exertion—that means they didn’t think they were working as hard as they really were.

If you want a more focused and seemingly easier workout the next time you’re at the gym, go ahead and play your favourite songs on your iPod without shame—whether it’s Beethoven, the Beatles, or even the Spice Girls.

Other tips for sport performance

• Choose the right sports drink for you.
• Consider a protein supplement.
• Avoid common fitness fallacies, and beware of certain sports supplements.
• Learn the dos and don’ts of proper sport nutrition.

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Endurance Training, Your Heart May Be At Risk

The summer months are upon us, and therefore, it’s time to train for those long-distance marathons, bicycle races, biathlons, and triathlons.

But before you lose track of just how hard you’re training, you might want to consider looking into new information provided in the June issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings , which suggests excessive endurance training can have negative long-term health effects.

What’s the risk?

The study does not contradict the fact that regular exercise is still highly effective for the prevention and treatment of many common chronic illnesses—and beneficial for overall cardiovascular and long-term health.

Where exercise becomes a risk is during long-term training for extreme endurance exercise, which can create temporary structural changes within the cardiovascular system and elevate markers for injury. These signs of risk typically disappear within one week after intense training, but over months and years of repetitive injury, athletes may develop conditions such as patchy scarring of muscle tissue in the heart and an increased susceptibility to irregular heart rhythms.

The study cites a case where 12 percent of seemingly healthy marathon runners showed signs of patchy myocardial scarring. The rate of coronary heart disease was also higher among marathon runners in the study’s two-year follow up.

Coronary artery calcification, diastolic dysfunction, and large-artery wall stiffening may also be conditions associated with chronic excessive exercise.

"Physical exercise, though not a drug, possesses many traits of a powerful pharmacologic agent,” says lead author James H. O'Keefe, MD, of Saint Luke's Hospital of Kansas City, MO. "However, as with any pharmacologic agent, a safe upper dose limit potentially exists, beyond which the adverse effects of physical exercise, such as musculoskeletal trauma and cardiovascular stress, may outweigh its benefits."

Set limits for yourself

Researchers identified that lifelong exercisers generally are in better health than people who don’t exercise regularly. Regular exercisers generally have low mortality and disability rates and excellent functional capacity. Further investigation is needed to identify who might be at risk for effects of adverse heart conditions related to excessive exercise.

There is no claim that exercise is bad for you, but make sure to know your limits. Markers for health conditions within the study typically disappeared within just one week of rest after intensive training.

While not everyone will be training for an ultra-marathon this summer, it’s important to reduce the risk of injury when exercising. 

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