The therapeutic potential of yoga in prediabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v78.115762Keywords:
Body mass index, fasting blood glucose, glycated haemoglobin, postprandial blood glucose, prediabetes, yogaAbstract
Introduction: Prediabetes, characterized by elevated blood glucose, increases the risk of type II diabetes. Accessible interventions like yoga offer a holistic approach to improve metabolic health and delay disease onset.
Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated yoga’s effects on primary outcomes; fasting blood glucose, postprandial blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin, and secondary outcome: body mass index in individuals with prediabetes.
Methods: Following PRISMA guidelines and PROSPERO registration (CRD420251017200), a search (2013–2023) identified five randomized control trail. Fasting blood glucose, postprandial blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin, and body mass index were analyzed using mean differences. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses assessed robustness. Certainty of evidence was evaluated via GRADE.
Results: Five randomized controlled trials involving 501 participants were included. The meta-analysis showed no significant effect of yoga on fasting blood glucose, with considerable heterogeneity and very low certainty evidence. No significant effects were observed for postprandial blood glucose or glycated hemoglobin, with negligible heterogeneity and low-certainty evidence. Effects on body mass index in individuals with prediabetes were non-significant with low-certainty evidence.
Discussion: Yoga did not have any clinical significance regarding Fasting blood glucose, postprandial blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin, and body mass index in individuals with prediabetes. Limited trial, small sample size, and low to very low certainty of evidence reduced confidence. Sensitivity analyses and subgroup analyses further strengthen the robustness of the findings.
Conclusion: Yoga interventions did not significantly improve primary outcomes: fasting blood glucose, postprandial blood glucose, and glycated hemoglobin, and secondary outcome body mass index.
References
Chattopadhyay, K., Mishra, P., Singh, K., Harris, T., Hamer, M., Greenfield, S. M., Lewis, S. A., Manjunath, N. K., Nair, R., Mukherjee, S., Harper, D. R., Tandon, N., Kinra, S., & Prabhakaran, D. (2020). Yoga programme for type-2 diabetes prevention (YOGA-DP) among high risk people in India: A mul-ticentre feasibility randomised controlled trial protocol. BMJ Open, 10(9). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-036277
Chattopadhyay, K., Mishra, P., Singh, K., Singh, K., Harris, T., Hamer, M., Greenfield, S. M., Manjunath, N. K., Nair, R., Mukherjee, S., Tandon, N., Lewis, S. A., Kinra, S., & Prabhakaran, D. (2023). Yoga Pro-gramme for Type 2 Diabetes Prevention (YOGA-DP) Among High-Risk People in India: A Multi-center Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial. Diabetes Therapy, 14(7). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13300-023-01395-4
Formagini, T., Brooks, J. V., Roberts, A., Bullard, K. M. K., Zhang, Y., Saelee, R., & O’Brien, M. J. (2023). Prediabetes prevalence and awareness by race, ethnicity, and educational attainment among U.S. adults. Frontiers in Public Health, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1277657
Gong, Q. H., Kang, J. F., Ying, Y. Y., Li, H., Zhang, X. H., Wu, Y. H., & Xu, G. Z. (2015). Lifestyle interventions for adults with impaired glucose tolerance: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the ef-fects on glycemic control. Internal Medicine, 54(3), 303–310. https://doi.org/10.2169/internalmedicine.54.2745
Hegde, S. V., Adhikari, P., Shetty, S., Manjrekar, P., & D’Souza, V. (2013). Effect of community-based yo-ga intervention on oxidative stress and glycemic parameters in prediabetes: A randomized con-trolled trial. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 21(6). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2013.08.013
Higgins, J. P. T., Thomas, J., Chandler, J., Cumpston, M., Li, T., Page, M. J., & Welch, V. A. (Eds.). (2024). Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of interventions (Version 6.5, updated August 2024). Cochrane. https://www.cochrane.org
Jyotsna, V. P. (2014). Prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus: Evidence for effect of yoga. Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, 18(6). https://doi.org/10.4103/2230-8210.141318
Kacker, S., Saboo, N., Sharma, S., & Sorout, J. (2019). Quasi prospective comparative study on effect of yoga among prediabetics on progression of cardiovascular risk factors. International Journal of Yoga, 12(2). https://doi.org/10.4103/ijoy.ijoy_49_18
Kaur, N., Majumdar, V., Nagarathna, R., Malik, N., Anand, A., & Nagendra, H. R. (2021). Diabetic yoga pro-tocol improves glycemic, anthropometric and lipid levels in high-risk individuals for diabetes: a randomized controlled trial from Northern India. Diabetology and Metabolic Syndrome, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13098-021-00761-1
Keerthi, G. S., Pal, P., Pal, G. K., Sahoo, J. P., Sridhar, M. G., & Balachander, J. (2017). Effect of 12 weeks of yoga therapy on quality of life and indian diabetes risk score in normotensive Indian young adult prediabetics and diabetics: Randomized control trial. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research, 11(9). https://doi.org/10.7860/JCDR/2017/29307.10633
Kirthi, V., Nderitu, P., Alam, U., Evans, J. R., Nevitt, S., Malik, R. A., Hopkins, D., & Jackson, T. L. (2022). The prevalence of retinopathy in prediabetes: A systematic review. Survey of Ophthalmology, 67(5). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.survophthal.2022.04.002
Kurian, J., Mohanthy, S., & Nanjumdaiah, R. M. (2022). Mechanism of action of yoga on prevention and management of type 2 diabetes mellitus: Narrative review. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbmt.2021.10.003
Maniyara, K., & Kodali, P. B. (2025). Assessing type-2 diabetes risk based on the Indian diabetes risk score among adults aged 45 and above in India. Scientific Reports, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88460-z
Page, M. J., McKenzie, J. E., Bossuyt, P. M., Boutron, I., Hoffmann, T. C., Mulrow, C. D., Shamseer, L., Tetz-laff, J. M., Akl, E. A., Brennan, S. E., Chou, R., Glanville, J., Grimshaw, J. M., Hróbjartsson, A., Lalu, M. M., Li, T., Loder, E. W., Mayo-Wilson, E., McDonald, S., … Moher, D. (2021). The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ, 372, n71. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n71
Saboo, N., & Kacker, S. (2023). A Study to Assess and Correlate Metabolic Parameters with Carotid Inti-ma-Media Thickness after Combined Approach of Yoga Therapy Among Prediabetics. Advanced Biomedical Research, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.4103/abr.abr_146_22
Vicks, W. S., Lo, J. C., Guo, L., Rana, J. S., Zhang, S., Ramalingam, N. D., & Gordon, N. P. (2022). Prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes vary by ethnicity among U.S. Asian adults at healthy weight, over-weight, and obesity ranges: an electronic health record study. BMC Public Health, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14362-8
Vijayakumar, V., Mavathur, R., Raguram, N., Ranjani, H., Anjana, R. M., & Mohan, V. (2021). Potential Role of Yoga in Management of the Ominous Octet. Journal of Diabetology, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.4103/jod.jod_6_18
Yau, J. W., Thor, S. M., & Ramadas, A. (2020). Nutritional strategies in prediabetes: A scoping review of recent evidence. Nutrients, 12(10),1–24. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12102990
Zhu, X., Yang, Z., He, Z., Hu, J., Yin, T., Bai, H., Li, R., Cai, L., Guo, H., Li, M., Yan, T., Li, Y., Shen, C., Sun, K., Liu, Y., Sun, Z., & Wang, B. (2022). Factors correlated with targeted prevention for prediabetes classified by impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, and elevated HbA1c: A popu-lation-based longitudinal study. Frontiers in Endocrinology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.965890
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Gopal Chandra Saha, Smriti Mondal, Bekir Erhan Orhan, Subhashis Biswas, Prem Kumar Karak, Sourav Ganguly, Samaresh Jana, Mahendra Pratap Gaur

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and ensure the magazine the right to be the first publication of the work as licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of authorship of the work and the initial publication in this magazine.
- Authors can establish separate additional agreements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the journal (eg, to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Is allowed and authors are encouraged to disseminate their work electronically (eg, in institutional repositories or on their own website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as to a subpoena more Early and more of published work (See The Effect of Open Access) (in English).
This journal provides immediate open access to its content (BOAI, http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm#openaccess) on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The authors may download the papers from the journal website, or will be provided with the PDF version of the article via e-mail.