Ayurveda and Diabetes

Prior to this class I had never heard of the word ayurveda but was familiar with the concept of the connection between the body and mind. I definitely agree with the idea that a negative environment and/or mindset contributes to one’s health. The word ayurveda means the science or knowledge of life. Originating over 3,000 years ago in India, it is the idea that disease is linked to the mind/consciousness. Yoga, meditation and herbs are some of the therapies used to tackle disease by focusing the mind, body and spirit. An imbalance of one is what leads to a sickness of the others. While considered a pseudoscience, I believe that there is some truth to it. I think that ayurveda helps improve quality of life but I do not think that it can cure cancer, as is my belief when it comes to all holistic medicine. Herbs and tea will help soothe a cold but I don’t think they have the ability to cure serious illness. On the other hand, I imagine it is difficult to treat a disease of the body if the mind is not all there. The main example I think of in my life is how around finals/midterms everyone seems to get some sort of sickness and because their mind is elsewhere they cannot get better quite as fast. I do agree that there is a connection between our bodies and the environment that we inhabit. Our bodies seem to reflect the environment that we are in, which the finals example also applies to. The environment of finals is the furthest thing from balanced and harmonious, everyone around you is worried and stressed which creates a far from ideal environment. This reflects in our health and how we feel in general. Whether that’s fake it til you make it or balancing the connection between mind, body and spirit, when you feel good mentally you do good physically. Our physical health is a reflection of our mind and environment. 

Learning the metabolic pathways is in my opinion one of the most complicated things to learn as a student pursuing a degree in biology. I have relearned and forgotten them several times throughout college. They are the interactions between metabolites which connect together to keep us alive. The diagram you showed makes a good case of why that is, it's a huge confusing maze with a million reactants and products. Yet somehow our bodies manage to make sense of the maze and keep us functioning. However for some people this may not be the case. An example of a hiccup in a metabolic pathway is seen with diabetes and how detrimental it is to the body when the metabolic pathways aren’t strictly followed. 

Diabetes is a condition which results from the body’s improper production/usage of insulin. As a result, the bloodstream contains too much blood sugar which is damaging to one's health. Complications include heart and kidney disease as well as loss of vision. Diabetes does not have a cure but can be managed through lifestyle changes and monitoring blood sugar. There are three types of diabetes: type 1, type 2 and gestational. Type 1 is the result of reaction which causes the body to stop producing insulin, 5-10% of people who have diabetes have this type. Causes include viruses/infections, autoimmune disease, damage/removal of pancreas, environmental factors, drugs/chemical toxins, endocrine diseases and hereditary predisposition. It has a sudden onset and is usually diagnosed early in life. Type 2 is the most common type and is more commonly diagnosed later in adulthood. This can be caused by obesity, genetics, insulin resistance, etc. Risk factors which you can control are high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high body fat/weight and physical inactivity. However there are risk factors that you cannot change such as family history, race/ethnicity, age and having had gestational diabetes in the past. Gestational diabetes occurs in pregnant women and is a result of increased hormones in the body. 

The health issues that result from diabetes are caused by its change to the metabolic pathways. One of insulin's functions is to signal glucose uptake in cells. When the body doesn’t have sufficient insulin, glucose isn’t uptaken and metabolized which starves the cells.  Looking at the harmful effects of hyperglycemia slide looks neverending. Looking at the 2011 map its interesting to see that the states which seem to have the most hiking attractions have the lower obesity rates. Montana, Utah and Colorado are known for their hiking, not sure if this has any correlation. I wonder what happened in those 7 years that led to such an increase in obesity. The most common complication that I think most people know of with diabetes is damage to the extremities such as gangrene. I had no idea how detrimental diabetes was to the body and goes to show just how connected the metabolic pathways are. Deteriorating kidney function, increased risk of stroke, coronary heart disease and gangrene just to name a few. Of course diabetes course of destruction doesn’t just stop at the body. 

Describing diabetes as a pandemic puts its cost in perspective considering how damaging the covid pandemic was which affected everyone’s life. I have seriously underestimated how serious diabetes is seeing it at the seventh place for leading causes of death in the U.S.. I honestly never knew before reading this that diabetes can cause death, always thought of it as more of an inconvenience. Granted that is the attitude that any diabetic person I have met looks at it with, an annoyance rather than a ticket to premature death. Physical inactivity is linked to a third of the causes on that list. I have always known that it was important to be active but no idea that it was a life or death sort of thing. It would be interesting to see if the numbers are different for people who have pet dogs. There have been times where the only physical activity I get for the day is walking my dog.

I looked up the US budget for 2007 and the cost of diabetes is almost triple the cost of education and over half of Medicare. I would have never guessed that having diabetes would be so expensive with complications ranging in cost from ~$3-72 thousand. Seeing as so much of the management of this disease is focused around lifestyle changes, it's no wonder that there is a connection between people who struggle financially and diabetes. 

Interesting to read that “Participants who had lower glucose levels stuck more pins into the voodoo doll and blasted their spouse with louder and longer noise blasts” (Low glucose relates to greater aggression in married couples). I was surprised to learn that one act of self control results in less self control in the future, I would have thought that it would increase. In my mind an act of self control should set you up for success rather than reducing future self control.  The increased aggression is due to a lack of energy to self control as a result of low glucose levels. I will have to keep in mind to stay away from people with low glucose levels. 

According to GoodRX, those who have insurance still pay over $4,800 per year to manage the disease. These figures are from 2020, I couldn’t find any from this year. Costs include doctors visits, medications and ER visits. Testing blood glucose levels seems to take up the majority of these costs. With additional chronic complications, these costs continue to rise to almost $700 a year. https://assets.ctfassets.net/4f3rgqwzdznj/6Q5qUjkrhppOzC9nM23vhW/867883e7208f529a8f24f1e7da67993e/Diabetes-Cost-White-Paper.pdf

Fortunately, I do not have diabetes but I have known people throughout my life who have the disease. 2 of those people experienced stunted growth as a result of type 1 diabetes. Of these few people I can say that I agree with the studies which discuss the link between diabetes and a lack of self control. I also think that this works as an example of ayurveda, a person with diabetes experiences a deficiency in their physical health and the same may be said about their mental health. The additional financial complications that arise from diabetes certainly contribute to a poor mental state, somewhat setting diabetics up for failure. The never ending side effects and complications of diabetes make me wonder why it is not talked about more and what sort of resources are out there for them. These studies you listed paint somewhat of a love triangle between depression, diabetes and physical inactivity. This really shows how everything in the body and environment is connected and why it's important to solve any imbalances. I can think of several people in my life who had poor health whether that’s mental, physical or their environment and it led to all three of those being affected. Ayurveda is such a simple concept with never ending examples of the importance of harmony.