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 "Our study suggests that MBSR could be a useful tool for preventing
or treating diabetes in patients with overweight or obesity,” lead
author Dr. Nazia Raja-Khan from Penn State College of Medicine in
Hershey, Pennsylvania, said by email.
MBSR, an intensive instructor-led training program, incorporates
meditation, body awareness and other anxiety-reducing techniques. It
was originally developed decades ago at the University of
Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester to help patients manage
pain and stress while being treated for cancer and other serious
illnesses, but the course is now offered in a wide variety of
settings nationwide.
MBSR training has been shown to reduce stress and therefore might
reduce the risk of heart disease in overweight or obese individuals,
though this has yet to be proven, Raja Khan’s team writes in the
journal Obesity.
The researchers assigned 86 women to eight weeks of either MBSR
training or a health education program focusing on diet and
exercise. They told both groups that the main focus of the study was
stress reduction.
After eight weeks and again after 16 weeks, they compared changes in
stress levels, mood, quality-of-life, sleep quality, blood pressure,
blood sugar, weight and other measures.
Not surprisingly, after eight weeks, the MSBR group had a greater
improvement in mindfulness and a greater decrease in feelings of
stress, compared with the health education group. Perceived stress
remained lower in the MBSR group after 16 weeks.
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Women in the MBSR group also had lower blood sugar, by about 9
milligrams per deciliter of blood, after eight and 16 weeks compared
to before the training, while women in the health education group
had no change in blood sugar.
After MBSR or health education, both groups had less overall
psychological stress, less anxiety and better sleep, but neither
group had lost weight, lowered their inflammation or cholesterol
levels or improved their responses to insulin, the hormone that
controls blood sugar.
“Further studies are needed to determine more long-term benefits of
MBSR in overweight/obesity and to confirm the role of MBSR in
diabetes prevention and treatment,” Raja-Khan told Reuters Health.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2u1xPIe Obesity, online July 7, 2017.
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