Effect of aerobic exercise, slow deep breathing and mindfulness meditation on cortisol and glucose levels in women with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Background: Aerobic exercise combined with breathing exercise can be an integral part of diabetes mellitus treatment. This single-center, randomized, parallel-group study investigated the effect of the combination of aerobic exercise with slow deep breathing and mindfulness meditation on the glucose and cortisol levels of women with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).Materials and Methods: Fifty-eight middle-aged women with T2DM (mean age: 45.67 ± 2.92 years) were randomly assigned to either the aerobic training group (AT: n = 29; mean age [46.1 ± 2.7 years]) or the aerobic exercise combined with slow deep breathing and mindfulness meditation (AT + DMM: n = 29; mean age [45.24 ± 3.14 years]). Aerobic exercise was performed at 60%–75% of the maximum heart rate. The women in each group were asked to perform the training three times weekly over a 6-week period. The duration of each session was 40 min for the AT group and 60 min for the AT + DMM group. The two groups were asked to perform aerobic exercise at 60%–75% of the maximum heart rate. Their fasting blood glucose (FBG) and serum cortisol levels were measured at the baseline and after the 6 weeks.Results: Compared with the AT group, the group undertaking 6 weeks of aerobic training combined with slow, deep breathing exercises and mindfulness meditation showed significantly lower levels of FBG (p = 0.001) and cortisol levels (p = 0.01) than the AT group.Conclusion: The addition of slow deep breathing and mindfulness meditation to aerobic exercise can better control the glucose and cortisol levels of women with T2DM and thereby improve their outcomes and decrease their cardiometabolic risk.

The Effect of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction on Glycemic Control and Psychological Well-being of Diabetes Mellitus Patients: A Review of Experimental Studies

“…Other countries that have conducted studies on mindfulness are Australia (Pearson et al, 2018), Canada (Dreger et al, 2015)and the United States (DiNardo et al, 2022) (Xia et al, 2022) (Whitebird et al, 2018). In conducting mindfulness research, most researchers use two groups, namely a treatment group (mindfulness or a combination with other therapies) and a control group in the form of education, regular care or physical activity (Kian et al, 2018) (Hosseini et al, 2021) (Pearson et al, 2018) (Ravari et al, 2020) (DiNardo et al, 2022) (Obaya et al, 2023) (Guo et al, 2022). The research was conducted on type 2 DM patients with an average age of 45.24 – 63.7.…”

“…The research was conducted on type 2 DM patients with an average age of 45.24 – 63.7. The respondents involved in this research were mostly male and female except for research (Obaya et al, 2023) (Ravari et al, 2020) which only used women as respondents. The research was conducted on type 2 DM patients who had previously been screened for psychological problems (diabetes distress, stress) using a questionnaire with HbA1C levels > 7, suffering from diabetes for at least six months.…”

“…Apart from being assessed using instruments to evaluate psychological conditions, psychological effects are also assessed from the results of laboratory values, namely cortisol. In research (Obaya et al, 2023) it was found that mindfulness had a significant effect in controlling cortisol values in women.…”

“…Apart from being assessed using instruments to evaluate psychological conditions, psychological effects are also assessed from the results of laboratory values, namely cortisol. In research (Obaya et al, 2023) it was found that mindfulness had a significant effect in controlling cortisol values in women. In individuals with type II diabetes, the intervention dramatically lowers blood sugar (P<0.001), psychological wellbeing (P<0.001), and resilience (P<0.001).…”

“…Some of the midnfulness research was conducted in the Asian countries including Iran (Kian et al, 2018) (Hosseini et al, 2021) (Ravari et al, 2020), Saudi Arabia (Obaya et al, 2023) and China (Guo et al, 2022). Other countries that have conducted studies on mindfulness are Australia (Pearson et al, 2018), Canada (Dreger et al, 2015)and the United States (DiNardo et al, 2022) (Xia et al, 2022) (Whitebird et al, 2018).…”