STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: Union Minister, Dr. Jitendra Singh, who is also a Professor of Medicine, a renowned Diabetologist and Life Patron of the “Research Society for Study of Diabetes in India” (RSSDI) , the world’s largest organisation of Diabetes researchers and practitioners, today released the landmark RSSDI study on “Yoga and Diabetes Prevention”.
A groundbreaking study on the prevention of Type-2 diabetes, titled “Yoga and Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes – The Indian Prevention of Diabetes Study”, was conducted by eminent members of the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI), including Prof. S.V. Madhu, Head of the Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism at University College of Medical Sciences, New Delhi; Prof. H.B. Chandalia, Former Head at Grant Medical College, Mumbai; and Dr. Arvind Gupta of Manilek Research Centre, Jaipur. Published by Elsevier Ltd., this study marks a milestone in diabetes prevention.
Dr. Jitendra highlighted the transformative potential of yoga in preventing Type-2 diabetes during a briefing on the study’s findings. He emphasized that the study’s results demonstrated how a daily 40-minute yoga routine, combining asanas and pranayama, could reduce the risk of developing diabetes by approximately 40% among individuals with prediabetes. This result surpasses the outcomes of existing diabetes prevention strategies, such as the Indian Diabetes Prevention Program (28% reduction) and other trials combining lifestyle changes with medication (32% reduction).
The study, conducted over three years at five centers in India with nearly 1,000 prediabetic participants, has demonstrated yoga’s superiority as a standalone preventive measure.
Dr. Singh described these findings as a “game changer” for India’s healthcare system, given the nation’s diabetes epidemic, with over 101 million people affected and another 136 million in the prediabetic stage.
He called for the integration of yoga into national diabetes prevention policies to achieve widespread health benefits, noting that this was the first long-term, well-designed trial to scientifically validate yoga’s effectiveness in diabetes prevention. The study’s publication in Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research and Reviews positions it as a key influence in shaping both national and global strategies for diabetes management.