Meditation and mindfulness exercises relieve diabetes

New treatments could help many patients with type 1 diabetes
Many people with type 1 diabetes develop more health problems as a result of their illness. Here, medical professionals are looking for new ways and means to treat diabetes. However, techniques such as meditation or mindfulness-based cognitive therapies can reliably help those affected to better manage their condition?

Researchers from the University of Aberdeen are currently trying to find out if meditating on type 1 diabetes can help control the disease better. The scientists found that techniques such as meditation actually help those affected to better manage the disease and reduce anxiety and depression, the University of Aberdeen reports in a press release on the ongoing study.

Through meditation body and mind relax, you treat your body a break and forget the problems of everyday life. Now, it seems that meditation and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy can also help people with type 1 diabetes manage their illness. (Image: Sergey Nivens / fotolia.com)

Fears and depression make it difficult to treat diabetes
Meditation can help people with Type 1 diabetes to better manage their illness and related anxieties and worries. Such techniques increase the emotional well-being of sufferers, explain the experts. In the new study, the researchers sought to identify whether meditation techniques can improve mindfulness and reduce anxiety and depression. Some sufferers find it very difficult to come to terms with the disease. They find it problematic to measure and regulate their blood sugar levels several times a day, explain the experts. Improved mindfulness would therefore be helpful in optimizing blood sugar levels.

About a third of all adults with diabetes experience significant levels of anxiety and depression, which makes it difficult to properly manage and effectively manage the condition, the authors report. Such people release a high level of stress hormones. These include, for example, adrenaline and cortisol. These cause glucose to be released into our bloodstream. The process increases the level of glucose in the blood. Depression is usually characterized by tiredness and low motivation. With these effects, sufferers find it hard to spend the time and energy to manage complex, long-term illnesses such as diabetes, the researchers explain.

Helping sufferers with anxiety and depression
According to the researchers, people with type 1 diabetes always have to balance three key factors in their lives: Carbohydrates in the diet drive up the blood glucose level, while the level of sugar is lowered by performing activities or injecting insulin. Different foods contain different amounts of glucose. Some insulins work in different ways, and some activities burn glucose at faster rates. Thus, diabetes disease forms an endless, complex balancing act. This is difficult to manage for sufferers who already suffer from anxiety or depression.

People with anxiety and depression often worry about past failures or future disasters that are unlikely to ever happen, say the experts. A mindfulness-based therapy and meditation help focus on the "here and now" Keen from the University of Aberdeen. It makes it easier for sufferers to address their real problems and focus on the disease instead of burdening themselves with worries and past events, Keen adds. A specially developed mindfulness-based cognitive therapy reduces anxiety and depression in people with diabetes. The ongoing pilot study will determine the exact effect of this treatment in adults with type 1 diabetes, the researchers say. The investigation will run for a period of 2 years. (As)