Ayurveda, Diabetes, and Addiction

Ashley Garcia
September 23, 2018

            The central idea for this course is Ayurveda, and when this word was presented to us in class most of us, if not all of us, had never heard of this word. So, what is Ayurveda? The word Ayurveda can be broken up into two parts; “Ayur” meaning life or sacred and “Veda” meaning science or knowledge. So, Ayurveda roughly translates to “the science of longevity” or “the sacred knowledge of life”. From our initial discussion, there seemed like there are few slightly different views on Ayurveda, but in the end, the class concluded that Ayurveda is the balance of mind, body, and spirit. It’s important that each element have balance and be in balance with the other elements.  In class, we discussed how imbalances in our body can lead to disease. For example, the balance needed to maintain the cell cycle. The cell cycle is a highly regulated process that has specific ques to start, to enter the next phase of mitosis, and to stop. When those checkpoint in cell division are not properly regulated and monitored you end up with a cancerous cell.
            After our initial discussion of Ayurveda, I felt like I didn’t understand what Ayurveda meant, so I decided to do some research. On Wikipedia, I found that Ayurveda is a system of medicine with its roots in India; which we’ve briefly discussed in class. I visited a few sites on Ayurveda and I saw that most of them talked about Ayurveda as a medical system. But one of the sites I found expanded on that idea and stated that Ayurveda is a unique approach to health care in the form of self-discovery.  I personally liked this take on Ayurveda because they emphasized the importance of self, and I feel like modern medicine is looking to involve patients more with their healthcare. This website went on to say that Ayurveda can help everyone sync up with our truest nature, honor and develop our strengths, hone in on our challenge areas, redirect detrimental tendencies, and maintain balance in the face of adversity. I like this way of thinking of Ayurveda a lot more. To me it seems like many might see Ayurveda as just another pseudo-medical practice, but, Ayurveda is more than herbs and pseudo-medicine it’s a lifestyle.
            Another example of how balance is important to health is diabetes. Diabetes is a disease that involves problems with the hormone insulin and caused an imbalance in blood sugar levels. During our discussion of diabetes, I learned some new things. First off, I learned that there are three types of diabetes Type 1 usually occurs early on in life due to an immune response, such as inflammation. And in molecular biology and biochemistry, I learned that chemical pathways aren’t isolated. Rather they are networks that affect one another. Type 1 diabetes can be caused by an inflammatory reaction. And when the chemical information isn’t relayed properly it causes immune cells to attach β cells which make insulin. Type two occurs later in life and is closely associated with being overweight. And type 3 is an insulin resistance in the brain that is linked to Alzheimer’s disease. I’m thinking about going into geriatrics, so I enjoy learning more about Alzheimer’s and its pathogenesis. I was surprised to learn that there’s a link between the two diseases.
            Our first assignment for class was to read an article on diabetes. It was interesting the article started out by stating that diabetes isn’t an epidemic that only affects the United States, it’s an epidemic affecting the whole world, especially more technologically developed nations. I was also surprised to learn that November 14^th is World Diabetes Day. But the most important point the article discussed was the prevention of type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is influenced by genetics and lifestyle. And while genetics can’t be altered, people can actively affect the development of type 2 diabetes by changing their lifestyle. This article brought up four studies that investigated the effect a lifestyle change had on the risk of developing diabetes. All four studies showed by eating healthier and increasing their physical activity participants were able to greatly reduce their risk of diabetes. These studies showed that when there’s a balance between daily life, diet, and exercise a person can lower their risk of developing a disease which connects perfectly to the class’s central topic, Ayurveda.
            The second assignment we had for class was reading a study on the economics of diabetes. The results of the study estimated an increase of 25% in cost associated with diabetes between 2012 and 2017 and that most of the increase is due to an increase in healthcare costs. And this reminded me of a conversation I had in another class I’m taking this semester, biomedical ethics. The other day we were talking about biomedical issues that we decided to write about for an assignment, and one of the subjects that came up was the insulin and how there are only a few companies that make insulin. And since there are only a few suppliers they can hike up the prices to the point that some people can’t afford to buy the life-saving medications they need. I think pharmaceutics is unbalanced; the open market favors pharmaceutical companies more than the patients that need the medicine. This may be weird since we have only applied Ayurveda to humans, but this got me thinking that the concept of Ayurveda could be used to fix other problem, like our insurance and medical companies. To work properly any system, living or non-living, needs balance.
            As part of this course, we are supposed to write a group proposal on anything that connects to the class and Ayurveda. My group chose to write about addiction. Addition is a broad topic, so we narrowed our idea a bit, and are focusing on drug addiction, food addiction, and social-media/internet addiction. I’m specifically researching drug addiction. I wanted to do look at drug addiction because of the opioid problem we have here in Utah. I didn’t really know anyone that has or had a drug addiction until this year. Which is kind of interesting because according to one statistic Utah has the seventh highest drug overdose rate in the U.S. And I believe there are several reasons why the opioid addiction in Utah isn’t as visible. One reason is that most of the people addicted to opioids, at least in Utah, aren’t using heroin rather they are using prescription drugs. This is the scariest part of the epidemic. Prescription drugs are and legal, to get a hold of. So often opioid addicts start out with a simple prescription for an injury or pain and they become physically dependent which often leads to addiction without them realizing it. Another reason the opioid epidemic isn’t as visible in Utah is because of the of the prominent culture in Utah, where is it seems like talking about drugs and drug addicts is taboo.
            As I was doing my research and came upon an article that suggested that viewing addition through the brain disease model is flawed and that additions should be viewed through the lens of development. I found this concept to be interesting because not too long-ago society thought of addiction as a choice. We blamed addicts for their addictions and basically told them they just needed to quit. But know we understand that addiction isn’t more complicated than that and that an addict’s brain is different. So now addiction is accepted as a brain disease. Which explains why it’s so hard to for people to abstain from their addiction. And since addiction is thought of as a brain disorder there are more treatments options available. And in Utah lawmakers and doctors are making a big effort in trying to manage the opioid addiction in Utah and trying to give people the best possible treatment.
            During my research on drug addiction, I became curious to see if there were any articles on an Ayurvedic approach to addiction rehabilitation, and I was surprised to find a that were in fact articles on this. In Ayurveda, humans are composed of both mind and body, and ideal health is attended when there is a balance between mind, body, and soul. So, the mental attitude of a person plays an important role in treating physical problems and mental disorders. It’s believed that addiction is a symptom of another underlying problem. Addict use drugs and other substances to fill something that is missing in their lives. So, a common approach to treating addiction is using replacement. Just quitting isn’t going to be enough for someone to recover from addiction so it’s important that a healthy replacement to replace the habit of addiction. It’s interesting that there are many views on addiction and I think that each view of addiction provides important insight into how we can address treating addiction. It’s also important to address that people become addicted for different reasons so I believe that treatment should be individualized.