Diabetes And Blood Sugar: What Mr Iyengar, The Yoga Doctors And The Research Say

Told your blood sugar is creeping up, or that you have prediabetes or insulin resistance? You are far from alone, and there is a lot you can do. Wondering how to lower blood sugar without living at the gym? Yoga is one of the best-studied answers. Mr BKS Iyengar gave diabetes its own place in his book on yoga for health, the medical doctors who worked with him have their say, and more than 25 studies listed on this page tested yoga, breathing and mindfulness on blood sugar. This guide brings it all together, for prediabetes, type 2 and type 1 diabetes, diabetes in pregnancy and metabolic syndrome. Last updated: 4 November 2026.

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How to lower blood sugar with yoga: the short answer

Does yoga help blood sugar? Yes. Across 28 trials and 2,241 adults with type 2 diabetes, yoga lowered HbA1c (the three-month average of blood sugar) by about 0.64 points and fasting blood sugar by 1.36 mmol/L, with the biggest gains in people whose sugar was highest to begin with. That is about as much as other regular exercise. In a national trial of more than 3,000 adults with prediabetes, a yoga programme cut the chance of moving on to diabetes over three months by about two thirds. Yoga also eased insulin resistance, the slow start of the whole problem. Breathing practice and mindfulness lowered blood sugar too. And the one trial of Iyengar yoga, against supervised walking and gym work, found Iyengar yoga did better for blood sugar over six months in people whose sugar started high.

One thing to keep in mind as you read: most trials tested “yoga” of many styles, taught by teachers with very different training. Only one tested Iyengar yoga, taught by certified Iyengar teachers, and it did well. In our view as certified Iyengar teachers, well-taught Iyengar yoga is likely to go further than the average. Why the kind of yoga matters.

The bottom line: five key moves for blood sugar

1. Go to a yoga class at your level, two or three times a week, and keep going for at least 12 weeks. The trials that ran 12 weeks or more lowered HbA1c the most. Standing poses work the big leg muscles, and working muscles use sugar.
2. Add breath work (pranayama). It calms the mind and brings stress, worry and anger down. Stress pushes blood sugar up, and in trials slow breathing and relaxation lowered blood sugar and HbA1c.
3. Bring yoga awareness to the table. Notice when you are full, and notice how sugary, refined food leaves you feeling an hour later. Small, steady changes beat crash diets.
4. Look after your waist. Fat carried around the middle is the kind most tied to insulin resistance and diabetes. Yoga trims the waist and calms the stress hormone that drives belly fat.
5. Start now. New to Flametree, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price, in Darwin or LIVE online.

Iyengar yoga is the style we teach at Flametree. During the 20th century, Mr BKS Iyengar was the major person who codified traditional Indian yoga, through his seminal books and widespread teaching. He also pioneered the use of props, so poses can be adapted to almost any body. His style is sometimes called modern classical yoga. This guide is part of our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions. For type 2 diabetes in detail, including safe practice, read our post Yoga For Type 2 Diabetes.

This guide in short

• The stages: insulin resistance, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, in plain words.
• Mr BKS Iyengar: a steady, moderate course of reclining poses, forward bends, twists and supported inversions.
• Dr Timothy McCall: belly fat, stress and sugar spikes, and why trials test a “standard” yoga.
• Dr Krishna Raman: stress raises sugar, and exercise helps insulin work.
• Other voices: five pathways from Does Yoga Work?, Harvard, and Chris Lalor on sugar.
• For men: men carry more belly fat, and far fewer men do yoga.
• The research: 26 studies, including the Iyengar yoga trial, breathing, mindfulness, prediabetes, type 1 and pregnancy.
• Take it further: a free ebook on stress, our 2027 masterclasses, and classes in Darwin and online.

“Begin with small expectations. Restructuring muscles, bones, tissues, posture, and internal organs takes time.”

What are insulin resistance, prediabetes, diabetes and metabolic syndrome?

In short: they are stages and companions of one problem: sugar staying too long in the blood because insulin is not doing its job well.

Insulin is the hormone that moves sugar from the blood into the cells, where it is used for energy. When it works well, blood sugar rises after a meal and settles again. When it does not, high blood sugar becomes the norm. About 90% of diabetes is type 2, the kind tied to lifestyle (Flaherty, Does Yoga Work?).

• Insulin resistance: the cells stop responding well to insulin, so the body makes more of it to keep sugar in check. Often there are no signs for years.
• Prediabetes: blood sugar is higher than normal but not yet in the diabetes range. In the big Indian trial below, prediabetes meant an HbA1c of 5.7 to 6.4%.
• Type 2 diabetes: blood sugar stays high (an HbA1c of 6.5% or more).
• Type 1 diabetes: the body makes little or no insulin, so insulin is needed from the start. Dr Krishna Raman describes it as an autoimmune condition, different from type 2.
• Diabetes in pregnancy (gestational diabetes): high blood sugar that first shows up during pregnancy.
• Metabolic syndrome: a cluster of a large waist, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and unhealthy blood fats, which together raise the risk of diabetes and heart disease. Our weight and cortisol belly guide covers the waist side in full.

Whether you live in Darwin or anywhere else, the good news in the research is that the early stages respond well to yoga.

“Do not get discouraged if the healing of your ailment takes time.”

What did Mr BKS Iyengar teach about diabetes?

In short: a calm, steady course rather than a hard workout, with reclining poses, forward bends, twists and supported inversions, adapted to the person.

In Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health, Mr Iyengar sets out a yoga approach for 72 health conditions. Diabetes has its own entry in the section on the hormonal system (p. 304). In our words:

• What it is. He describes thirst, passing water often, hunger, weight loss and nausea, from too little insulin, and calls diabetes the commonest disorder of metabolism.
• A steady, moderate course. His approach is calmer than his course for obesity on the facing pages: reclining poses, forward bends, twists and supported inversions (upside-down poses with props). We do not publish his sequences. A sequence needs a teacher who can see you and adapt it, which is what a class is for.
• Hormones and practice. His claim, from the introduction to the hormonal section: regular practice helps the hormones reach the bloodstream effectively (p. 302).
• The right poses for the person. He warns that wrongly chosen poses can do harm (p. 260), and he works from the edges towards the affected area (p. 263). In serious or inherited conditions, he says, yoga may not bring full recovery but can ease some of the suffering (p. 260, his claim).
• Patience. “Do not get discouraged if the healing of your ailment takes time” (p. 263).

Teachers at the Iyengar Institute in Pune pass on another idea from Mr Iyengar and his daughter Geeta S Iyengar: that the practice should take the pancreas, the organ that makes insulin, through its full range of movement, with forward bends, twists, back arches and inversions. The clinic notes start gently, with supported poses, and add more standing poses as the person improves. This is known from long practice. Modern research has not yet tested it, and not yet studied is not the same as not working.

In Light on Yoga, his first book, Mr Iyengar also lists diabetes in his appendix of poses for ailments (p. 420). The course there is a broad one: supported inversions, forward bends, twists, back arches, abdominal work and arm balances, with the abdominal lifts (Uddiyana and Nauli), breathing practice and a long rest at the end. It fits the Pune idea of taking the belly organs through their full range. As with every entry, he asks that the poses be taken up with an experienced teacher and to suit your own ability (p. 413).

“As long as you take food, you need yoga.”

What Dr Timothy McCall says about blood sugar

In short: belly fat and stress drive high blood sugar, refined sugar sets off spikes and rebound hunger, and slow, steady change works best.

Dr Timothy McCall is a US medical doctor and yoga therapist, author of Yoga as Medicine and former medical editor of Yoga Journal. His June 2019 list of conditions helped by yoga includes diabetes (no. 24, with 24 references), metabolic syndrome (no. 57), gestational diabetes (no. 37) and diabetic lung problems (no. 25). His points below, in our words, come from Yoga as Medicine: his chapter on diabetes (chapter 16) and his chapter on weight. More of his thinking on stress and the belly is in our weight and cortisol belly guide.

• The apple shape matters. Fat carried around the belly is more efficient at turning calories into fat, and is more tied to diabetes and heart disease than fat on the hips and thighs. His claim.
• A loop of stress and eating. Self-criticism about weight raises the stress hormone cortisol, which drives what researchers call “food-seeking behavior”, which adds weight and more stress. Yoga calms the loop.
• Sugar spikes. Simple sugars and refined starches (white rice, white flour, desserts, soft drinks) cause insulin spikes and later rebound hunger, and alcohol can do the same. His claim, which he notes fits the old Ayurvedic view of these foods.
• Seeing clearly. Yoga trains you to see your own habits as they are, without judgment. That awareness, he says, is what lets a habit change.
• Small steps. In his experience as a doctor, steady small changes, around 250 calories a day through food, movement or both, add up over a year and last, where crash diets do not.
• Muscle keeps the engine running. Strength work, which can include yoga poses, keeps muscle, and muscle keeps the body’s metabolic rate from dropping.
• Why trials test a “standard” yoga. In his afterword he points out that the best yoga therapy is tailored to each person, so a trial that gives everyone the same set routine is testing a second-best version of yoga. That fits our point about Iyengar yoga: the yoga in most trials is not the yoga a skilled teacher adapts to you.

His diabetes chapter. McCall says a full practice can help with blood sugar control in three ways: it lowers the stress hormones that push blood sugar up, it gives a gentle kind of exercise that suits people with weight, joint or heart limits, and it builds the steadiness that changing your diet needs. His expert teacher, Sandra Summerfield Kozak, a yoga and Ayurveda therapist who studied with Mr Iyengar among others, uses an energetic practice made safe with modifications, holds built up slowly, morning practice and simple food. The studies he cites are small and mostly from India, plus a 12-week randomised trial in London that found lower fasting blood sugar and HbA1c than in the comparison group. He puts safety first, and so do we: if you take insulin or blood sugar tablets, your blood sugar can drop during or after practice, so keep a quick source of sugar nearby; eye disease from diabetes is a reason to go carefully with head-down poses; and feet with nerve damage need care. Always follow the directions of any doctor you are consulting.

“We cannot eliminate stress and tension from our lives. That is not the point.”

What Dr Krishna Raman says

In short: stress raises blood sugar, exercise helps insulin work better, and the teacher needs to know which kind of diabetes you have.

Dr Raman is a Chennai physician who trained in yoga under Mr Iyengar. His question-and-answer book on yoga and medical science touches on diabetes in several places. His views, in our words:

• Know the type first. Type 1 and type 2 are different conditions, and the yoga is planned around which one a person has (question 474).
• Exercise helps insulin. Regular exercise raises insulin sensitivity, meaning the cells respond better to the insulin the body makes (question 474).
• Stress raises sugar. Stress pushes blood sugar up (question 350). In his experience, with yoga, insulin stays within normal limits (questions 351 and 355, his claim).
• Upside-down poses with care. He lists diabetes, with blood pressure and eye problems, among the things a teacher takes into account before inversions (questions 326 and 431). Tell your teacher if you have diabetes.
• Medicine. He regards medication as essential in diabetes. Always follow the directions of any doctor you are consulting.

What did Geeta Iyengar say about type 1 diabetes?

In short: do not over-exert, balance active and restful poses, and use supported poses to recover after a low.

Geeta S Iyengar, Mr Iyengar’s daughter and one of the great teachers of the method, taught a convention in Sydney in May 2003. At question time on 11 May, a student with type 1 diabetes asked which poses keep the pancreas healthy, and which help after a hypo (an episode of low blood sugar). Iyengar Yoga Australia’s journal Yoga Vaani printed her answer. In our words:

• Do not push too hard. “One has to know not to exert oneself too strongly,” she said. Manage your energy in the standing poses so it is not used up.
• Balance active and restful. Both kinds of pose belong in the practice, so you do not run out of energy.
• Rest after a low. She gave supported reclining poses, with the chest lifted on a bolster, to help recovery after a hypo, and supported forward bends with the belly and chest resting on a support, so the body extends without spending energy.
• Strong back bends, with support. Too many strong back bends on one day can tire you out and bring on another low, she warned, so she preferred them supported.
• Inversions, supported. She kept head balance and shoulder stand in the practice, done in the ropes, on a chair or with other support.

Source: Geeta S Iyengar, question and answer at the Sydney Convention, 11 May 2003, Yoga Vaani 91, September 2007, pp. 15 to 16. See the issue in the Iyengar Yoga Australia e-library (members). Her teaching, known from long practice. It sits well with the trial of yoga in teenagers with type 1 diabetes listed below. Tell your teacher you have diabetes, and in our Iyengar yoga classes in Darwin and online the bolsters, chairs and ropes are there for exactly this.

An Australian student’s account. In the same journal in December 2002, Suzanne Eggins wrote about Paul Webb, a busy Sydney barrister who took up Iyengar yoga in late middle age to see if it would help his type 1 diabetes. He came to two classes a week and did almost no practice at home. In his account, his average blood sugar came down and he needed less insulin in the first six months, “the only positive result” in his whole history with diabetes. His story, not a trial. (Suzanne Eggins, “Home Practice: Chore or Choice?”, Yoga Vaani 71, December 2002, see the issue.)

Other yoga voices on blood sugar

In short: a careful review of the research gives yoga a clear yes for type 2 diabetes, and explains five ways it helps.

• Yes for type 2 diabetes and its risk. Mary Flaherty, Does Yoga Work?, a careful review of the yoga research, gives yoga four stars for type 2 diabetes and for the risk of getting it (pp. 224 to 226). She notes the American Diabetes Association lists yoga as a suitable activity.
• Five pathways. Flaherty sets out how yoga helps (pp. 77 to 78): less stress; the calming nervous system switched on by breath and rest; more movement, because working muscles take up sugar; awareness and mindful eating; and the support of a class. Our diagram below follows her five.
• What the best programmes had in common. Flaherty draws three lessons (p. 75): programmes with meditation and pranayama did better; longer programmes, of 6 to 9 months, did better; and better attendance gave better results.
• The company counts. She also notes a study where a stretching group that chatted did better on stress than a quiet yoga group. A class is a community, and that helps people keep coming.
• An hour, three or four times a week. Harvard Medical School’s report An Introduction to Yoga notes that HbA1c fell most with an hour of yoga three to four times a week for 24 weeks, and links stress with type 2 diabetes (pp. 7 to 10).
• Forward bends. Dr J. T. Shah, in Therapeutic Yoga, lists diabetes among the conditions the seated forward bend helps. His claim.
• Mindfulness first, then the sugar. Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and certified Yoga Therapist, cleared three bags of sugar out of her kitchen after a Bali retreat. Read Chris’s story.

For women: diabetes in pregnancy and after menopause

In short: mindful eating and yoga lowered blood sugar in women with diabetes in pregnancy, and the waist changes of midlife make steady practice worth more.

• Diabetes in pregnancy. In a trial of pregnant women in Thailand with gestational diabetes, mindful eating and yoga lowered fasting blood sugar, after-meal blood sugar and HbA1c (Youngwanichsetha 2014). Tell your teacher you are pregnant. In pregnancy we leave out fast bellows breathing, uneven breath ratios and long breath holds.
• After menopause. Women tend to carry less fat inside the belly than men before menopause, and that protection fades after it (Lee 2025). Our menopause guide covers these years in full.

For men: why does belly fat matter more for blood sugar?

In short: men are more likely to be above a healthy weight and to carry it around the belly, the kind of fat most tied to insulin resistance and diabetes, yet far fewer men do yoga.

• More men are above a healthy weight. In Australia, 71% of men and 61% of women were overweight or obese by BMI in 2022 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, National Health Survey).
• Men carry it around the belly. Men tend to store fat around the trunk and abdomen, women on the hips and thighs (Bredella 2017). Before menopause, men with obesity carry more fat inside the belly than women of the same age (Lee 2025). Dr McCall links exactly this belly fat with diabetes.
• Men do far less yoga. In a national survey of yoga practitioners in Australia, 85% were women (Penman 2012).
• What men can do. Come to class. Standing poses build strong legs and trunk, the big muscles that use the most sugar, and the calm at the end works on the stress that pushes sugar up. In the Iyengar yoga trial below, 18 of the 48 people were men. Bring a mate or come alone, but give it 12 weeks.
• For men, start here: our free ebook Stay In The Game, on yoga for men.

“Asana is not a physical exercise, but an organic or physiological exercise.”

What does the research show about yoga and blood sugar?

In short: yoga lowers blood sugar and HbA1c in type 2 diabetes about as much as other regular exercise, eases insulin resistance, and cuts the number of people with prediabetes who go on to diabetes. Breathing practice and mindfulness help too. Most of these studies tested yoga in general, of many styles. Why the difference matters.

Type 2 diabetes: the reviews

• Yoga lowered HbA1c by 0.64 points and fasting blood sugar by 1.36 mmol/L against usual care, with the biggest gains in people whose blood sugar was highest to start with. Li 2026, a review of 28 randomised trials and 2,241 adults. Most trials were from India. Read the study.
• Yoga lowered HbA1c by 0.45 points, about as much as other regular exercise, with no clear winner among high-intensity intervals, combined aerobic and weights, yoga and steady aerobic exercise. Liang 2024, a network review of 85 randomised trials and 5,535 people. This was yoga in general. Read the study.
• Yoga improved HbA1c, fasting and after-meal blood sugar, blood fats, blood pressure, BMI, waist-to-hip ratio and cortisol. Thind 2017, a review of 23 studies and 2,473 adults, at least 8 weeks of yoga. Read the study.
• Yoga improved blood sugar control, blood fats and body composition, with signs of better mood, sleep, quality of life and lower medicine use. Innes and Selfe 2016, a review of 25 controlled trials and 2,170 people. Read the study.
• Yoga added to usual care lowered fasting blood sugar, after-meal blood sugar and HbA1c. Kumar 2016, a review of 17 randomised trials of yoga poses and practice. Read the study.
• Yoga lowered fasting blood sugar, HbA1c, after-meal blood sugar, total and LDL cholesterol, and raised the good HDL cholesterol. Cui 2017, a review of 12 randomised trials and 864 people. Read the study.
• Three months of yoga lowered HbA1c, fasting and after-meal blood sugar, with no harms reported. Vijay 2025, a review of 14 randomised trials and 1,876 people. Read the study.
• Yoga for 12 weeks or more lowered HbA1c and improved cholesterol; shorter programmes did not clearly lower HbA1c. Mahajan 2026, a review of 22 randomised trials and 1,720 people in Asia. Read the study.
• Yoga with usual care improved fasting and after-meal blood sugar, HbA1c and insulin resistance, and lowered a marker of cell damage. Javed 2026, a review of 14 randomised trials and 1,629 people with or at risk of type 2 diabetes. Read the study.
• Yoga lowered HbA1c as much as high-intensity interval training, and both beat the comparison groups. Thu 2026, a small network review of 6 randomised trials and 511 people. Read the study.

Type 2 diabetes: single trials

• Fasting blood sugar fell by 29% with yoga over six months, as much as with a conventional exercise programme, and markers of cell damage fell too. Gordon 2008, a randomised trial of 231 people with type 2 diabetes: yoga, conventional exercise or a control group. Read the study.
• Three months of yoga added to usual care lowered BMI and improved blood sugar control, and lowered a marker of cell damage while raising the body’s protective antioxidants. Hegde 2011, a controlled trial of 123 people, with and without complications of diabetes. Read the study.
• People with type 2 diabetes who added yoga were about 8 times more likely to reach all their heart-health targets together, and about twice as likely to reach their HbA1c target. Arumugam 2020, records of 146 people in rural South India, yoga plus usual care against usual care. Read the study.

Iyengar yoga studies

This trial tested Iyengar yoga taught by trained Iyengar teachers: classes were run by certified Iyengar yoga instructors, with props.

• Iyengar yoga lowered blood sugar more than supervised walking, treadmill and cycling: at six months, HbA1c was 1.25 points lower in the yoga group among people whose sugar started high. Yoga also brought better diet, foot care and quality of life, less diabetes distress, and more mindfulness. Bock 2019, a pilot randomised trial of 48 adults with type 2 diabetes in the US: Iyengar yoga twice a week for 12 weeks against matched supervised exercise. 82% of yoga classes were attended. Read the study.

The researchers note that Iyengar yoga, with its props, can take in people who are heavier or have sore joints, people the gym-based comparison had to turn away. This is the only trial we know of that tested Iyengar yoga on its own against exercise for blood sugar, and Iyengar yoga came out ahead.

Prediabetes and insulin resistance

• A yoga programme cut the chance of moving from prediabetes to diabetes by about two thirds (64%) compared with standard advice, and helped more people get back to normal blood sugar, especially those aged 40 or under. Raghuram 2021, the national Indian NMB trial: 3,380 adults with prediabetes followed up, 9 days of training then daily home and weekly supervised practice for 3 months. Read the study.
• Three months of a yoga programme lowered after-meal blood sugar, LDL cholesterol and waist size in people at high risk of diabetes. Kaur 2021, a randomised trial of 184 adults in Chandigarh, part of the same national trial. Read the study.
• Eight weeks of yoga lowered insulin resistance, improved the glucose tolerance test and moved the nervous system towards calm, while the comparison group did not change. Patil 2019, a randomised trial of 64 young adults without diabetes whose parents had type 2 diabetes. Read the study.

Metabolic syndrome

The waist and heart-risk studies are set out in our weight and cortisol belly guide. In short:

• Yoga lowered HbA1c and insulin resistance, and reduced waist size, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood fats. Cramer 2014, a review of 44 trials and 3,168 people, against usual care. Read the study.
• In metabolic syndrome, yoga reduced waist size and the top blood pressure number more than usual care. Cramer 2016, a review of 7 trials and 794 people. Read the study.

Breathing practice (pranayama)

• Six months of slow belly breathing and relaxation, added to usual care, lowered HbA1c more than usual care alone, and lowered anxiety and depression. The more anxiety and stress fell, the more HbA1c fell. Yadav 2021, a randomised trial of 100 adults with type 2 diabetes in India. Read the study.
• Adding slow deep breathing and mindfulness meditation to aerobic exercise lowered fasting blood sugar and cortisol more than the exercise alone. Obaya 2023, a randomised trial of 58 women with type 2 diabetes, 6 weeks. Read the study.
• A breathing programme reduced waist size and a metabolic syndrome score, and improved heart rate variability, with no side effects. Sethi 2026, a trial of 72 adults with metabolic syndrome over 12 weeks. It tested a branded breathing method from another tradition, not Iyengar pranayama. Read the study.

“Breathwork” covers many different things, so it pays to look at what was actually taught. The pranayama we teach (staircase, ocean, alternate nostril, humming and a gentle shining skull breath) is slow, nasal and taught step by step, for calm. That is the kind of slow breathing these trials found helped. Why the kind of breathing matters.

Meditation and mindfulness

• Mindfulness programmes improved HbA1c and lowered stress, anxiety and depression in people with diabetes. Reangsing 2026, a review of 24 randomised trials and 1,987 people. Read the study.
• Mindfulness programmes lowered HbA1c by about 0.44 points against usual care, and reduced stress, depression and anxiety. Ee 2025, a Cochrane-based review of 31 randomised trials and 2,337 adults with type 2 diabetes, led from Western Sydney University. Read the study.

Type 1 diabetes

• Three months of yoga added to usual care improved HbA1c and average blood sugar, cut fear of low blood sugar, and improved quality of life, mood and activity in teenagers with type 1 diabetes. Maurya 2025, a randomised trial of 92 young people (mean age 13) in India; 46 completed it. Read the study.

Diabetes in pregnancy

• Mindful eating and yoga lowered fasting blood sugar, after-meal blood sugar and HbA1c in pregnant women with gestational diabetes. Youngwanichsetha 2014, a randomised trial of pregnant women in Thailand. Read the study.

“Suppleness does not count. The organic strength counts.”

How this comes together in a Flametree class

Everything above points the same way, and it is how we teach in Darwin and online. If you want to know how to lower blood sugar through yoga, this is where we start: steady practice, strong legs, a calm finish.

• Standing poses, every class: they work the biggest muscles in the body, with chairs, blocks and the wall so every body can do them, whatever its size or stiffness.
• Twists and forward bends: the heart of Mr Iyengar’s course for diabetes, taught with support so they are calm rather than a strain.
• Calm, every class: every class ends in rest, and our pranayama classes go further. Calm brings stress hormones down, and stress hormones push sugar up.
• Bare feet and attention: in the Iyengar trial, yoga improved foot care. Iyengar yoga asks you to notice exactly what your feet are doing, which is good news for people with diabetes.
• Classes adapted to the people in them. No one-size-fits-all. Tell your teacher if you have diabetes, take insulin, or have eye or foot problems, so they can adapt the poses.
• Gentle and restorative classes: our gentle yoga and restorative yoga classes are a good place to start.
• A community: the people in the room help you keep coming, and attendance is what the trials reward.

Read more on diabetes, blood sugar and yoga

• Yoga for type 2 diabetes: what the research says, and how to start safely
• Weight, stress eating and cortisol belly (metabolic syndrome and the waist)
• Neuropathy in feet: what helps numb or burning feet
• Nerve pain in the hands and feet (peripheral neuropathy): the full guide, including diabetic neuropathy
• How to quit sugar cravings: what actually worked for me
• Mindful eating: how Chris changed her sugar habit
• Bali health retreat detox: how I cut sugar
• Intermittent fasting and yoga and the science of fasting
• Yoga for frozen shoulder, which is more common with diabetes
• Dementia risk factors: diabetes is one of the 14 you can change
• Yoga for men
• Related guides: yoga for stress and burnout, brain health and memory, yoga for inflammation and menopause

“As the practice improves, the body dictates what food it needs.”

Take it further

• Classes, in Darwin or LIVE online: new, or away 3 months or more? 2 free classes, then 10 at half price. Already practising yoga? See the non-beginner half price pass. See every class time.
• Masterclasses: the calming practices that bring stress, and so blood sugar, down run through our 2027 Sunday Arvo Masterclasses with Chris Lalor, Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher and certified Yoga Therapist, especially the masterclass on anxiety, upsets and anger, and the one on sleep and energy. Come for the poses, the sequences and the pranayama that put this into action.
• Retreats: a week of daily yoga and pranayama in Bali, with fresh food and time to reset your habits. See the retreats.

Other conditions are in our encyclopaedia of yoga for health conditions.

Blood sugar, prediabetes and yoga: questions people ask

What is the difference between insulin resistance, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome?

Insulin resistance is when the cells stop responding well to insulin, the hormone that moves sugar out of the blood. Prediabetes is blood sugar above normal but below the diabetes range, an HbA1c of 5.7 to 6.4%. Type 2 diabetes is blood sugar that stays high, an HbA1c of 6.5% or more. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of a large waist, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and unhealthy blood fats. Yoga has been studied at every stage and helped at each.

Can yoga help prediabetes?

Yes. In a national trial in India of 3,380 adults with prediabetes, a yoga programme cut the chance of moving on to diabetes over three months by about two thirds compared with standard advice, and helped more people return to normal blood sugar. A smaller trial in the same programme lowered after-meal blood sugar, LDL cholesterol and waist size.

Can yoga help insulin resistance?

Yes. In young adults whose parents had type 2 diabetes, eight weeks of yoga lowered insulin resistance and improved the glucose tolerance test, while the comparison group did not change. A 2026 review of 14 trials also found yoga with usual care improved insulin resistance. Calmer stress hormones, working muscles and a smaller waist all play a part.

How long does yoga take to lower blood sugar?

Plan on 12 weeks or more. A 2026 review of 22 trials found programmes of 12 weeks or longer lowered HbA1c, while shorter ones did not clearly do so. HbA1c is a three-month average, so it takes that long to show. Harvard’s report found the biggest falls with an hour of yoga three or four times a week for 24 weeks.

Does breathing practice or meditation help blood sugar?

Yes. In a six-month trial of 100 adults with type 2 diabetes, slow belly breathing and relaxation added to usual care lowered HbA1c more than usual care alone. Adding slow deep breathing and mindfulness to exercise lowered fasting blood sugar and cortisol more than exercise alone. A review of 31 trials found mindfulness programmes lowered HbA1c by about 0.44 points.

What did Mr BKS Iyengar teach about diabetes?

Mr Iyengar gives diabetes its own entry in Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health, in the section on the hormonal system. His approach is a steady, moderate course of reclining poses, forward bends, twists and supported inversions, calmer than his course for obesity. He stressed that poses must suit the person, and that healing can take time.

Is yoga suitable for type 1 diabetes?

Yes, with your teacher knowing about it. In a trial of teenagers with type 1 diabetes, three months of yoga added to usual care improved HbA1c and average blood sugar, reduced fear of low blood sugar, and improved quality of life and mood. Always follow the directions of any doctor you are consulting.

Can yoga help with diabetes in pregnancy?

A trial of pregnant women with gestational diabetes found mindful eating and yoga lowered fasting blood sugar, after-meal blood sugar and HbA1c. Tell your teacher you are pregnant. In pregnancy we leave out fast bellows breathing, uneven breath ratios and long breath holds.

Where this comes from: BKS Iyengar, Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health (Dorling Kindersley), diabetes, p. 304, and pp. 259 to 263 and 302; Light on Yoga, Appendix II, p. 420; Yoga Rahasya; Light on Life; Astadala Yogamala. Teachers’ notes from the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, Pune (approach only; no sequences reproduced). Geeta S Iyengar, women’s class questions in Sydney, 1996. Timothy McCall MD, Yoga as Medicine (Bantam, 2007), chapters on diabetes and on overweight and obesity, and the afterword, and his June 2019 list of health conditions helped by yoga. Krishna Raman MD and S. Suresh MD, Yoga and Medical Science: FAQ, questions 326, 350, 351, 355, 431 and 474. J. T. Shah MD, Therapeutic Yoga. Mary Flaherty, Does Yoga Work?, chapter 5. Harvard Medical School, An Introduction to Yoga. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Waist Circumference and BMI, 2022. Penman and others, Yoga in Australia, 2012 (study). Bredella 2017 (study) and Lee 2025 (study) on where men and women carry fat. Studies as linked above, checked on PubMed. Everything else is summarised in our own words.

This page is general information, not medical advice. Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and LIVE online.