Can yoga lower blood sugar
Can yoga lower blood sugar? The answer is yes, and here’s how it works in a way that’s easy to understand.
When you think about diabetes or high blood sugar, stress is often a big part of the problem. Stress makes your body release hormones like cortisol, which can cause your blood sugar to go up. Yoga helps calm your mind and body, which lowers these stress hormones. When you feel less stressed, your body doesn’t have to work so hard to keep everything balanced.
Yoga isn’t just about stretching or relaxing—it actually changes what happens inside your body. Certain yoga poses help stimulate the pancreas and make it easier for your muscles to use sugar from the blood. This means less sugar stays in your bloodstream where it can cause problems.
Breathing exercises in yoga are also important. They help switch off the “fight or flight” response that keeps you on edge all day long. When this alarm system calms down, you feel more relaxed and stable inside.
Some types of yoga are especially good for people with diabetes because they combine gentle movement with laughter or mindfulness. Laughter Yoga, for example, has been shown to lower stress hormones even more and may help improve nerve health if diabetes has caused pain or numbness.
Yoga also helps with weight management by strengthening core muscles and burning calories gently—without putting too much strain on joints or making exercise feel like a chore. Keeping a healthy weight is another way yoga supports better blood sugar control.
So while there are many ways to manage diabetes—like eating well and taking medicine—yoga offers extra benefits by calming stress, helping muscles use glucose better, supporting healthy weight loss, and even improving mood and sleep quality over time.
If you want something simple but powerful for managing blood sugar levels naturally alongside other treatments—yoga could be just what you need!