Curated Paper #1

  Throughout the topics we have covered, one idea that has continued to stand out to me is how interconnected the human body really is. Looking at the idea of Ayurveda was interesting to me because the body is made up of multiple systems working together to make one whole of who you are today. Ayurveda focuses on the idea that the mind and body need to be connected and balanced; otherwise, disease can occur. When looking at diseases scientifically, they can occur at a molecular level because of some type of imbalance or mutation. Although Ayurveda approaches health differently than modern medicine, the idea of maintaining balance throughout the body made more sense to me as we continued learning about metabolism, diabetes, and the microbiome.

When first reading about Ayurveda, I learned it originated in India about five thousand years ago and builds on primary therapies that focus heavily on detoxifying the body and consuming beneficial substances to keep the body in balance and maintain optimal health. It also emphasizes regular exercise, good sleep, stress management, and a balanced diet. What interested me the most was that Ayurveda does not necessarily look at one individual part of the body when considering health. Instead, it focuses on the mind, body, and spirit. One article I read described Ayurveda as a form of personalized medicine because the treatment is based on the individual. Another reading discussed cancer and inflammation and described cancer from an Ayurvedic perspective because of systemic imbalances and malfunctions rather than simply one distinct disease. The Ayurvedic approach focused more on healing the body, returning normal tissue function, and correcting metabolic defects. This introduced an idea that continued to appear throughout the other topics we covered: that sometimes understanding a disease requires looking beyond the disease itself.

This became especially clear when learning about metabolic diseases. Reading through the metabolic disorder’s material brought to my attention how many different metabolic diseases there actually are. Metabolic disorders can arise from things like inherited conditions, problems with metabolic pathways, or even obesity. One of the most well-known metabolic disorders is diabetes. Diabetes involves impaired glucose metabolism, which can result in high blood glucose levels and become dangerous if not properly managed. Another metabolic issue that I think can sometimes be overlooked is obesity. It is a growing health concern, and I think it is interesting to consider how closely metabolism is connected to conditions that we hear about and are around every day.

One of the biggest connections I made between metabolism and Ayurveda came from learning about Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes have different causes. With Type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas, causing high glucose levels in the bloodstream because there is not enough insulin available to allow glucose to properly enter the cells. Type 2 diabetes is different and can be influenced by factors such as physical inactivity, high body fat or weight, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. These factors immediately reminded me of Ayurveda. When looking back at Ayurveda, one of the major concepts was healing the body from the inside out. This included daily exercise, healthy eating habits, managing stress, and maintaining an overall balanced lifestyle. This does not mean that Ayurveda can prevent or cure every case of diabetes, but I think some of its lifestyle principles connect strongly with what we know about reducing risk factors associated with Type 2 diabetes.

This connection became even stronger when I read “Beyond Glucose-Rethinking prediabetes for Precision Prevention”. One of the main ideas I took from this article was that prediabetes should not be simply viewed as someone’s blood sugar being too high or low. Different people can have different underlying metabolic problems and risk factors. Prediabetes is typically measured using things such as glucose tolerance, but that does not tell us everything about a person’s health. The article discussed characteristics such as insulin sensitivity, insulin secretion, body fat, genetic risk, and glucose tolerance. This made me think again about the idea of personalized medicine that I had previously read about with Ayurveda. Ayurveda approaches individuals differently based on their own body and health, which this research suggests that modern prevention may also benefit from recognizing that individuals with prediabetes do not all have the same metabolic problems. Combining these two readings gave me the idea that personalized prevention may be just as important as personalized treatment. Instead of waiting until someone develops diabetes and treating the disease, identifying their individual risk factors earlier could potentially help prevent or delay future problems.

Another topic that changed the way I thought about metabolic health was the development or origins or metabolic diseases. Before reading about this, I mostly thought of metabolic disease as something they developed because of genetics or lifestyle during their own lifetime. However, I learned that a mother’s health and environment can influence the metabolic health of a fetus during development and potentially after birth. Factors such as maternal nutrition, obesity, poverty, and vitamin deficiencies may influence a child’s future risk of conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. This showed me that metabolic problems do not necessarily just arise out of nowhere. Some risks can begin before someone is even born and are influenced by a combination of biological and environmental factors.

The microbiome added another part to this connection. Before reading “20 Things About Your Microbiome”, I was already thinking about how the microbiome connects to Ayurveda. One of Ayurveda's major components is maintaining a healthy diet. Keeping a healthy diet and exercising can affect people more than just how someone looks or feels. These behaviors also affect internal and digestive health. The microbiome is made up of microorganisms living within the body, and different areas of the body contain different microbial communities. The microbiome can also be influenced very early in life and may be affected by factors surrounding birth, environment, diet, and antibiotic use.  

What I found especially interesting was the repeated connection between microbiome, obesity, and Type 2 diabetes. When reading about the microbiome, obesity was brought up multiple times. Looking back at the metabolic topics, type 2 diabetes is also closely connected with obesity and metabolic health. This created another connection for me between Ayurveda, the microbiome, and metabolism. Diet and lifestyle can influence microbiomes, while microbiomes can interact with metabolic health. At the same time, diet and physical activity are important factors in Type 2 diabetes risk, and major parts of Ayurveda. Instead of viewing these as three completely different topics, I started viewing them as different ways of looking at the interconnected system.

The microbiome also brought me back to Ayurveda, focusing on the connection between mind and body. One article previously read discussed microbiomes and insomnia. It talked about how an imbalanced microbiome may influence the brain through pathways involving the gut-brain axis, potentially contributing to problems with sleep. Everything in the body is interconnected, so it makes sense to me that if the microbiome is disrupted, effects may not remain limited to the digestive system. This also connects with the emphasis Ayurveda places on sleep, stress, diet, and mental health. After learning about microbiomes and metabolism, I can see more biological examples of how changes in one part of the body may be associated with effects somewhere else.

Mental health also appeared when learning about Type 1 diabetes. One study looked at depression, anxiety, disordered eating, and taking less insulin than directed among young people with T1D. What caught my attention the most was that some females reported taking less insulin as a weight control method. Young adults already deal with pressures surrounding weight, body image, depression, and anxiety, and having to manage blood sugar and insulin can add more stress and pressure. This made me realize that diabetes can affect someone beyond just their blood glucose level.

Another connection I noticed was that simply telling people to live a healthier lifestyle does not address every part of the problem. Diabetes can be extremely expensive to manage because of insulin, medical care, and even missed work. Similarly, maintaining a healthy diet for the microbiome sounds simple until considering the cost of food. Many college students choose cheaper and more convenient foods because healthier options can be more expensive. This makes it difficult to tell people to eat healthier without considering whether they can afford to do so.

Bringing these topics together has changed how I think about a “healthy lifestyle.” Ayurveda emphasizes diet, exercise, sleep, stress management, and balance, while the metabolism and microbiome readings showed how these factors can influence physical and mental health. However, genetics, fetal development, income, food availability, disease, and access to healthcare can also affect someone's ability to maintain that balance. Overall, these readings showed me that health cannot always be separated into individual parts. The body is made up of multiple systems working together, and understanding how lifestyle, environment, mental health, and biological systems connect may help us better prevent disease and maintain overall health.