Ayurveda’s meaning is the study of life and is known to take a natural approach in health and well-being. When thinking about diseases, there are a lot that are caused within the brain. Some might not necessarily be diseases, but they are classified as mental illnesses, such as anxiety, depression, attention deficit disorder, and bipolar disorder. Mental health disorders are scientifically classified as chemical imbalances in the brain, and in turn can have an impact on your physical health. Take attention deficit disorder into consideration, this is a mental health disorder that makes it hard to focus on tasks, forgetfulness in multiple forms, distractibility at any given time, as well as tiredness and restlessness. This disorder can disrupt your day to day tasks, such as forgetting to eat or drink water, not being able to sleep or fall asleep, which can cause your physical body to not function correctly. Forgetting to eat can cause you to feel fatigued, irritable, and make it so that you’re confused and not understanding basic functions. Being fatigued, confused, or irritable can disrupt your surroundings and environment in different ways. One that comes to mind would be when an individual is driving. This requires your full attention at all times due to the change in the surroundings that an individual might experience while driving and all the aspects that are needed for an individual's attention at a singular time.
Ayurveda is something that connects the mind, body, and the spirit which we have come to learn over the years. There are many different aspects to prove this, especially with medicine and science. While researching Ayurveda it talks about how different pent up emotions can take on your physical body, and which organs can be harmed due to those pent up emotions. There are physical signs that show when the spirit, or the mind are having a hard time connecting. I know that personally when I get really tired, or I’m angry I have a tendency to cry very easily. This is the spirit and the body communicating together to show that there are unresolved issues, even if we don’t know exactly what the issues are yet. Relating back to immunology we learn that there are many different connections within the body and how we are able to function on a day to day basis. If there is even one thing wrong with how your body or mind receives information, there are many different diseases that can arise to which you are not able to fight off any diseases in the correct and timely way.
When thinking of the microbiome, you typically think of the gut first since that is where most of the good bacteria is located. There are many different ways to help strengthen your microbiome, but there are some ways that can do more harm than good when trying to strengthen your microbiome health. According to the article “Twenty Things About Your Microbiome”, the microbiome is defined as all the bacteria, viruses, fungi, archaea, and eukaryotes that inhabit the human body. We usually refer to the microbiome as the ‘second human genome’, according to new research, the microbiome in particular is now being considered a separate ‘organ’ with distinct metabolic and immune activity. We typically only think about the gut microbiome but there are other microbiome sites within the human body as well, the other sites include skin, oral, and vaginal. One thing I came across that I found interesting was that the gut microbiota can differ in obese individuals versus lean individuals. When I looked this up online it states, “An obese person typically has a gut microbiome with a lower density of bacteria, a higher ratio of Firmicutes (gram-positive bacteria that play a key role in host’s metabolism through short-chain fatty acid synthesis) to Bacteroidetes (gram-negative bacteria that ferment polysaccharides and otherwise indigestible carbohydrates and produce short-chain fatty acids that have many beneficial effects in the gut), and a higher abundance of certain bacteria associated with energy extraction from food, potentially contributing to increased calorie absorption and weight gain. Whereas lean individuals tend to have a more diverse microbiome with a higher portion of Bacteroidetes which are better at breaking down complex carbohydrates and fibers.”. The microbiome is classified as ‘ecological community of commensal, symbiotic and pathogenic microorganisms within a body space or other environment’. Within the gut microbiome alone there are more than 1000 bacterial species, and individuals have more than 160 species, with 124 of those species having been studied. Within all microbiomes in the human body there are many different types of bacteria that fall into the fall categories: Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, and Fusobacteria. An individual’s microbiome is always developing, starting during pregnancy, developing throughout childhood, and still developing during adulthood. During infancy they received most of the food for their microbiome from their mothers milk, and it takes about 1-2 years for the microbiome to stabilize and continue developing.
When thinking of the bacteria living within your microbiome, we usually lean towards thinking the bacteria is bad, but there are many different types of good bacteria that reside within your gut microbiome and provide a mutualistic relationship between the host and the microbes, which is beneficial to both organisms. Some of the mutualistic relationships between the host and the microbes include: complete absence bacteria in the gut, immune balance with the host, as well as specific functions for the microbiota which include: seal body spaces, mitigate intestinal pathogens, maintain tissue homeostasis, facilitate fermentation of dietary fiber, critical energy yield, metabolic end products and therapeutic drug processing, signaling among cells and organ systems. According to the Microbiome and Development powerpoint the importance of host microbiome alignment, “microbiome may cause disease, directly or indirectly, when delicate balance is perturbed.”. There are many diseases that can stem from having a dysregulated gut microbiome such as: diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, stress, anxiety, heart disease, allergic disorders, IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), and cancer. Ways to improve your microbiome can include changing your diet, which acts like a restart button and can help bring back a lot of the good bacteria needed to develop a healthier microbiome in individuals.
We know that ayurveda is known for bringing the mind, body, and spirit as one, and being connected in regards to how an individual responds to different exposures in life and how we heal from diseases and infections. When I looked up on the internet how ayurveda and the microbiome relate to one another, some of the ways it mentioned is with, “diet and digestion, gut health, probiotics, as well as gut brain connection.”. When researching more into why these two relate to each other, the microbiome and ayurveda are important to each other because the microbiome is a key factor in health and disease, and ayurveda has a long focus on diet and digestion. As previously stated the gut microbiome helps with digestion, controls the immune system, and destroys harmful bacteria due to the microbiome being a collection of microorganisms that live within the body. Taking into account being sick, there are ways that your body gives cues in order to let you know that you’re ill or you’re getting ill. Even though the most common symptoms can correspond to a lot of different infections diseases, there are subtle cues to show you which illness or disease you’re being infected with. Even the smallest infection can take a major toll on an individual’s body, their mind, and even their soul. When you’re infected with an illness or disease your body takes a big hit compared to the mind and soul, but the mind is the next thing to take a hit. When you’re sick it’s harder to concentrate, you’re not able to think clearly and roll out basic day to day functions without over exerting yourself. The soul is the last thing to take a hit in my opinion, due to the soul really only being affected after a bit of time fighting off the infection. When you’re sick for long periods of time, you start to feel a little lonely, feel down or anxious, and almost claustrophobic at times. Whenever I get sick I try to limit contact with others as much as possible, due to not wanting to get others sick, but sometimes you have to be around others due to schedules, but I try not to be around others for a long period of time. When I get sick I tend to just sleep and have a hard time staying awake for longer than an hour, which is your body telling you to rest to help fight off the infection and make your body stronger. Taking into account the body, mind, soul, and your microbiome, they all work together and correspond to one another in regards to fighting off infections since they both focus on the same immune systems and work together rather than work as one and misalign and clash with one another.
When thinking about metabolism there is a big threat that surrounds it and that is mainly with the concern of diabetes. Diabetes is something that a lot of people struggle with, and once you find out you have diabetes, type 1 or type 2, this is something that you’re going to have to deal with the rest of your life, with medication, treatments, among other things. There are a lot of misconceptions that surround diabetes as well, and the main thing is that people who have been diagnosed with diabetes are overweight and older individuals. In some cases, that is true, it does play a part in it for sure, but that isn’t the main reason that causes someone to have diabetes. There are cases of kids who develop type 1 or type 2 diabetes, but they are healthy, active kids who are now needing to change some lifestyle habits to now fit their new normal parts of their lives.
The cost of treatment medications (insulin) is slowly increasing due to the amount of money it takes to make insulin, and distribute it in the right doses for each individual that is needing it. Insulin is used to control a person’s blood sugar levels, due to people with diabetes not being able to control and regulate their own blood sugar because they are not able to produce their own insulin. Someone with diabetes is always needing to regulate their blood sugar, monitoring it so that they are able to continue with their daily lives, without being in danger of passing out, or contracting diseases that diabetes can cause in an individual. Like I mentioned above there are two different types of diabetes that a person can be contracted with during their lives. There is type 1 diabetes that can appear in a sudden onset at any age, then there is type 2 diabetes that appears gradually and occurs mostly in adults. There are many different hormones and organs that work together to maintain the required glucose levels that are found within an individual’s bloodstream. Diabetes has many different effects on the body that can show up in individuals differently than other individual’s.
According to the powerpoint Overview of Diabetes, there are major complications that come with diabetes and it can be either microvascular, or macrovascular. Microvascular can affect the eyes, kidneys, and neuropathy, whereas macrovascular can affect the brain, heart, and extremities. The most common symptom people come across when finding out they have been diagnosed with diabetes is most commonly swollen parts of their limbs. I know diabetes runs in my family and my grandparents are both diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and a symptom they deal with is swollen feet and ankles. This was one thing that had the most dramatic change that I noticed before they told me they had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. According to google, high blood sugar can damage the blood vessels and nerves in the eyes, and can damage the blood vessels in the kidneys. High blood sugar and kidney damage can lead to diabetic neuropathy, which in shorter terms is known as nerve damage. This is something that is a little more common in older diabetic patients, they typically can’t feel things as well as they used to with their hands and feet. My grandpa has told me in the past that he has a harder time feeling things with his feet and they typically do look more swollen, and sometimes more purple in color when he hasn’t been walking and active throughout the day. When dealing with the macrovascular symptoms they are a lot more dangerous and have a more serious way of expressing themselves. According to google diabetes can affect the brain, heart and extremities in a number of different ways but here are the main ways they can be affected. High blood sugar can damage the blood vessels that supply oxygen to the heart, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke. High blood sugar can damage the blood vessels in the brain, which can lead to a stroke. High blood sugar can damage the nerves in the extremities, which can cause numbness, tingling, or pain (which is also linked to neuropathy). One of my closest friends Mom was diagnosed a few years ago which I was unaware of until I was at their home. As we were sitting around playing a game, her pump was going off and she asked me to hand her a piece of candy. It was then that I noticed they had put more candy bowls around their house but at the time I didn’t think much of it since I noticed it around the holiday’s. I noticed that everyone in the family was a little concerned and wanted to make sure that she got all the sugar she needed. After that I started to put the pieces together and realized that she had been diagnosed with diabetes. She spoke to me later about it and I became more aware and wanted to make sure that she was ok. It caused me to carry more snacks around in my purse, especially when we were out of the house just in case she didn’t have anything, which I also started to do when I found out my grandpa had been diagnosed as well. One thing I always wondered was why they used little pieces of candy when their blood sugar is low and I found out it’s a fast acting sugar. It’s something that will get their blood sugar up very quickly until they are able to get their blood sugar levels up in other ways or inject insulin into their bodies.
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