Summary: In a 12-week trial in socioeconomically disadvantaged women with type 2 diabetes, a structured yoga programme improved fasting glucose, HbA1c, and self-care compared with usual care, with a larger glycaemic effect than typical yoga trials suggest.
PICO Summary
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Population | 70 women with type 2 diabetes from low socioeconomic backgrounds (35 per group); single-centre RCT, Turkey. |
| Intervention | Structured group yoga, 1-hour sessions twice weekly for 12 weeks (n=35). |
| Comparison | Standard diabetes care with weekly follow-up calls (n=35). |
| Outcome | At 12 weeks, fasting glucose was lower in the yoga group (mean 88 vs 130 mg/dL; p<0.001). HbA1c fell to 7.21% with yoga but rose to 8.39% in controls (p=0.008). Self-care scores improved with yoga (87.14) and declined in controls (81.26; p=0.030). No adverse events. |
Yoga for glycemic control in low-income women with T2DM
RCT · type 2 diabetes · 12 weeks
Over 12 weeks, structured yoga lowered HbA1c to 7.21% while controls rose to 8.39% (p=0.008), with parallel gains in fasting glucose and self-care. The effect is larger than typical yoga trials, partly from control-group deterioration.
Expert Commentary
This is an equity-minded trial addressing a population that bears a heavy diabetes burden yet is usually excluded from lifestyle research, and that focus is its strength, since yoga is low-cost, needs little equipment, and can be delivered in community settings. The direction of benefit is clear and biologically reasonable, combining physical activity with stress reduction, and the improvement in self-care alongside glucose suggests a holistic effect that may aid adherence. I would, however, read the magnitude with measured caution. The between-group HbA1c gap of more than a percentage point is considerably larger than the 0.3 to 0.5% that meta-analyses of yoga typically show, and part of that gap reflects deterioration in the control group rather than yoga alone, which can happen in small single-centre trials and may not reproduce elsewhere. The sample of 70 women over 12 weeks, single setting, and unstated durability further temper extrapolation. Can I use this with my patients? Yes, readily. For women with diabetes facing barriers to conventional exercise or high stress, I would encourage accessible community or home-based yoga as a safe adjunct to standard care, while framing the likely glycaemic benefit as real but probably more modest than this striking result implies.
References
Solmaz G. The effects of yoga practice on glycemic control and self-care among low socioeconomic status women with type 2 diabetes: a randomized controlled trial. Niger J Clin Pract. 2025;28(10):1121–1129. doi:10.4103/njcp.njcp_491_25