Abstract

Background: Adolescents and young adults (AYA) with diabetes experience significant biopsychosocial burden linked to hormonal shifts, HPA‑axis dysregulation, autonomic imbalance, metainflammation, and socio‑emotional stress, with heightened challenges among marginalized populations and those with “double diabetes.” This pilot evaluated the feasibility of an eight‑week integrative, chakra‑informed yoga program for AYA with type 1 or type 2 diabetes and included caregiver assessments to explore preliminary multidomain outcomes.

Objective: To assess feasibility and explore preliminary psychological, physiological, relational, and biomarker changes following a developmentally attuned Kundalini yoga program for AYA with diabetes and their caregivers.

Methods: A prospective, single‑arm pilot delivered weekly 90‑minute sessions integrating chakra‑aligned movement, breathwork, mantra, mudras, meditation, journaling, and peer dialogue. Psychological indicators, stress‑regulation markers, relational measures, inflammatory and cardiometabolic biomarkers, glycemic indices, and anthropometrics were collected pre‑intervention, post‑intervention, and three‑month follow‑up. Within‑subject changes were assessed using Wilcoxon signed‑rank tests and Friedman tests.

Results: Thirteen AYA (mean age 17.9 ± 1.8 years; 77% Black/African American; 92% type 1 diabetes) and 12 caregivers completed all assessments. Feasibility was high (attendance 84%; retention 100%). Adolescent diabetes distress decreased pre‑to‑post (p < 0.05); caregiver distress decreased pre‑to‑post and at follow‑up (p < 0.01). Adolescent perceived stress (p = 0.03) and serum cortisol (p = 0.02) declined across timepoints. Total cholesterol (p = 0.01) and LDL (p = 0.01) also decreased.

Conclusions: This single‑group pilot supports feasibility and was associated with improvements in psychological distress, stress‑regulation markers, and cardiometabolic indices. Larger controlled trials are warranted to evaluate potential additive benefits alongside standard diabetes care.

Description

Shelly Nawfel is a DAISY foundation award recipient of the 2024, Health Equity Grant for Research and EBP, Addressing Social Determinants of Health

Notes

Open Access Details:

This is an open access article originally published under the terms of a Creative Commons License, which permits the Sigma Repository to post a copy in its collections. The license is attached to this item record; please click on the license for further details.

Original Article Citation:

Lekach, A. M., Guss, D., Chua, J., & Gannon, R. B. (2026). A pilot study of an 8-week, group-based, chakra-informed Kundalini Yoga intervention for adolescents and young adults with diabetes: Feasibility, youth outcomes, and caregiver distress. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 98, 103355. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2026.103355 

No changes have been made to this article.

Author Details

Ashley M. Lekach, MSN, FNP-BC, CDCES, RYT-500 is a Family Nurse Practitioner in Pediatric Endocrinology at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital and a research scholar in Nursing Innovation & Research. Her work centers on metabolic and hormonal alignment through an integrative and functional medicine lens, emphasizing proactive, personalized, and community-centered care. Ashley bridges advances in conventional medicine with Eastern philosophy and lifestyle practices, incorporating trauma-informed yoga, mind-body interventions, and therapeutic lifestyle strategies into clinical care models to support whole-person healing. Her research focuses on innovative integrative wellness interventions for adolescents with diabetes and their caregivers, linking psychosocial and physiological outcomes to advance health equity and develop more holistic, sustainable approaches to chronic disease management.

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Sigma Membership

Non-member

Lead Author Affiliation

New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Hospital, Brooklyn, New York, USA

Type

Article

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Other

Research Approach

Pilot/Exploratory Study

Keywords:

Adolescent, Diabetes Distress, Integrative, Kundalini Yoga, Stress Physiology, Caregiver Distress, Burden of Care, Teenagers, Young Adults, Type 1 Diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes, Diabetes

Publisher

Elsevier

Version

Publisher's Version

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All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

External Review: Previously Published Material

Acquisition

Indexed Previously Published Material (Per Creative Commons License)

Date of Issue

2026-10-06

Full Text of Presentation

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Funder

The DAISY Foundation

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