According to a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, for adult patients with type 2 diabetes, yoga treatment can reduce fasting blood glucose, postprandial blood glucose, HbA1c, total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels, while increasing HDL cholesterol levels.
Researcher Jie Cui from China and colleagues analyzed the data of 864 patients with type 2 diabetes in 12 randomized trials conducted from 1992 to 2014. These participants were assigned to yoga therapy or other treatment groups. All studies included a routine care control group. The sample size is between 20-277. Eleven trials came from the following four countries, including the United Kingdom, India, Cuba and Iran; follow-up time ranged from 15 days to 9 months. The main study outcome was fasting blood glucose; the secondary study outcome was HbA1c, postprandial blood glucose, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglyceride levels. The researchers used the random effects model to calculate the weighted mean difference (WMD).
The results showed that the total WMD of fasting blood glucose was –23.72 mg/dL (95% CI, –37.78 to –9.65). For HbA1c, WMD is –0.47% (95% CI, –0.87 to –0.07); for postprandial blood glucose, WMD is –17.38 mg/dL (95% CI, –27.88 to –6.89); for total cholesterol, WMD is –18.5 mg/dL (95% CI, –29.88 to –7.11); for LDL cholesterol, WMD is –12.95 mg/dL (95% CI, –18.84 to 7.06); for triglycerides, WMD is –12.57 mg/ dL (95% CI, –29.91 to 4.76). For HDL cholesterol, WMD was 4.3 mg/dL (95% CI, 3.25-5.36).
Researchers also observed that non-Indian diabetic patients benefit more from yoga treatment than Indian diabetic patients, which may be related to differences in diet and lifestyle.
According to these evidences, yoga can significantly reduce fasting blood glucose and other clinical outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. The findings also support that yoga-based training can replace exercise programs in the management of type 2 diabetes.