Ayurveda, Metabolism, and Diabetes

Ayurveda is a natural, holistic, and spiritual approach to treating disease. It is centered around the idea that body, mind, and spirit are all linked. Imbalances in one of these areas can cause problems in the others. Ayurveda treatments involve herbal remedies, lifestyle changes, diet changes, etc. (John Hopkins Medicine). I find Ayurveda to be very interesting, especially considering that a lot of it can’t be directly/scientifically proven yet many find Ayurveda practices to work. I do agree that all parts of the body are interconnected with each other. Take the lungs for (a drastic) example. If the lungs were functioning deficiently, every organ, all the way down to the cellular level, would suffer because everything in the body needs oxygen. Changes in one system will usually have some effect on one or more other systems. I like that Ayurveda treats the patient as a whole instead of only focusing on one specific system. Ayurveda practices begin by assessing the individual, then working down to the system level, and when needed the organ level. Modern medical practices favor focusing on specific organs or systems instead of the body as a whole. 

I also think that there is a connection between mind and body, but only to an extent. I immediately thought of the placebo effect and how it is occasionally used by modern doctors to treat symptoms of disease. Ted Kaptchuk, professor and placebo researcher at Harvard Medical School, explained, “The placebo effect is more than positive thinking — believing a treatment or procedure will work. It's about creating a stronger connection between the brain and body and how they work together” (Harvard Health Publishing, 2021). Under the right conditions, patients have been given placebo treatments and the body was able to manage the symptoms simply because the mind believed changes were occurring. I believe the mind influences the brain and the brain influences the body. However, I do not think that the mind has an extensive influence over disease. No matter how hard my grandma wills her diabetes to go away, it won’t. Hence, the mind and body are connected only to a certain extent. 

I also discovered that in traditional Ayurveda practice, attempting to define Ayurveda in scientific terminology would be degrading to the practices. This makes me think that Ayurveda is intended to be more of a spiritual practice and not necessarily a medical one. I wonder how much spirituality can affect health. I tend to be a logical person, and I seek to understand how things work. I found that I had a harder time trying to understand Ayurveda because it isn’t based on ideas that can be directly proven. 

In relation to balance, one characteristic that all cells have in common is metabolism. Metabolism is defined as all of the chemical reactions that take place inside of one cell to maintain proper function. It is a very complex process. Because of this complexity, it has to be tightly regulated to maintain proper function and balance of not just the cell, but the organism as a whole. I connected this to genetics, more specifically the process of DNA replication. DNA replication is so tightly regulated with separate processes in place to fix any errors. Any genetic mistakes that make it through replication to the new cell can kill the cell or cause a variety of other issues (ex. cancer). DNA replication is just one process that takes place inside a cell. It is amazing that so many reactions take place inside each cell on a regular basis and it is done so successfully. This also gives an understanding as to why diseases occur. So many processes have to consistently work properly, and if even one process or reaction goes wrong issues begin to arise. 

Diabetes mellitus is an example of a metabolic disease that throws off the balance of many systems within the body. Diabetes involves issues with the pancreas, which in turn affects blood sugar levels. Blood sugar is regulated by glucagon and insulin which are both produced by pancreatic beta cells. Glycogen and glucose are interconverted by the liver. High blood sugar stimulates the pancreas to release insulin. Insulin will stimulate tissues and cells via insulin receptors to absorb glucose from the blood to lower blood sugar. Insulin also stimulates the liver to convert glucose to glycogen (a storable form of glucose). Both lower blood sugar. Low blood sugar stimulates the pancreas to release glucagon. Glucagon breaks down glycogen back into glucose. The glucose will enter the blood, raising the blood sugar. There are two common types of diabetes. Type I diabetes occurs when the pancreas can’t release insulin because the beta cells are damaged. Without insulin, cells can’t absorb glucose and they “starve in the midst of plenty of sugars”. With type II diabetes, the insulin receptors have been over stimulated, building resistance to insulin. In both cases, glucose isn’t absorbed from the blood and hyperglycemia occurs.  Hyperglycemia leads to many issues in different systems/organs. To name a few, there is greater risk for stroke, heart disease, reduced blood flow in the legs/feet which can lead to gangrene, nephropathy, neuropathy, retinopathy, cataracts, and glaucoma. Diabetes does not just cause issues with the pancreas and liver, it can cause issues in many organs. This example shows that body systems are interconnected with each other. 

A lot of research has been done on diabetes, and the statistics surrounding Type I vs Type II are very interesting. Most interestingly the statistic that for Type II diabetes, there's a 90% concordance for identical twins. Type II is gradual, mostly occurring in adults and tied to obesity. I wonder what accounts for such a high rate occurring in identical twins. Because they’re identical, I would assume that genetics is a major factor. I would imagine there would also be a social role, involving the parental care/upbringing and culture they were raised in. This would be an interesting topic to research more.

I was surprised to see that the majority of costs from diabetes comes from hospital inpatient medical care at 43%. I would’ve thought that the highest costs would be from prescription medications (which are the 2nd highest cost at 18%) because they are purchased on a regular basis. In 2012, 7% of the US population had diabetes which led to a cost of $176 billion in direct medical costs and $245 billion total, which is so shocking (American Diabetes Association, 2013). I would be very interested to see what the costs would be today considering that diabetes is more prevalent than it was 10 years ago.

Physical inactivity and obesity are also examples of interconnectedness. Physical inactivity is described as a pandemic and an epidemic. The google definitions for both are:

Pandemic: “(of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world.” Epidemic: “a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.” Some may think that these terms applied to inactivity/obesity are odd, but I do agree they are useful in describing them. I would be more specific and say long term physical inactivity leads to disease. Many life threatening diseases are directly tied to physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyles, heart disease being one of them and the leading cause of death in the US. Diabetes (moreso type II) is also tied to inactivity.

 I wonder how much of a role culture and society play in this large increase of inactivity/obesity/diabetes/etc. We live in a society that is improving inclusivity and acceptance towards groups that don’t fit the “norm”, which includes those who are inactive and those with the associated diseases. This has both pros and cons. I agree that society should be accepting of all, including those with diseases. Most people do not fit the societal beauty standard, so accepting all body types and conditions is beneficial to self esteem and self worth. On the flip side, people begin to neglect their bodies and become content, not caring to worry about future sicknesses that can arise. And now that so many pharmaceutical companies are finding treatments for symptoms, people can care less about their overall well being. I believe this is a major reason why so many affiliated diseases are on the rise worldwide.

I was surprised that in only 7 years, obesity in the US drastically increased. Comparing the self reported obesity diagrams, in 2011 only 12 states had 30%-35% obesity and the rest 25%-30% or 20%-25%. Jump ahead 7 years to 2018 and 9 states are 35% and above, 22 states in the 30%-35% range, the rest in the 25%-30% range (excluding HI, CO, and DC in the 20%-25% range). That is such a large increase in just 7 years. I would be interested to see how the country is now in 2022, especially considering the covid quarantine periods where even more people were physically inactive. I think we as a society should try to find a way to convince people to be more physically active and improve overall health. 

I believe that combining Ayurveda with modern medical practices would be beneficial in treating diseases. Imbalances can affect many areas of the body, so taking the Ayurveda approach to treatment would seem best. All parts of the body are interconnected, including the mind. It is important to take into account all factors when finding solutions to diseases. Although we know much about a lot of diseases, there is a lot of research still to be done. 

Works Cited

American Diabetes Association (2013). Economic Costs of Diabetes in the U.S. in 2012. Diabetes Care, Vol. 36, p. 1033-1046. 

Harvard Medical School (2021). The power of the placebo effect. Harvard Health Publishing.   Retrieved from health.harvard.edu

Johns Hopkins Medicine. What is Ayurveda? The Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved from hopkinsmedicine.org