Connecting Ayurveda, Metabolism, Diabetes, and the Microbiome
When I first researched Ayurveda, I learned that it is a traditional medical system from India that looks at the body, mind, lifestyle, and environment as connected. Health, according to Ayurveda, is dependent on the balance of three doshas, which include Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, whereas health disorders result from an imbalance of the above doshas. Nonetheless, I found there was little scientific proof to demonstrate that the three doshas were responsible for causing diseases. Therefore, I concluded that all elements of Ayurveda could not be scientifically accepted as a whole.
My first draft on Ayurveda made use of stress as an example. Apart from affecting one's mental state, stress can affect other bodily functions such as sleep and digestion. Diet, exercise, sleep, and environment were mentioned to play a role in determining a person's health status as well. This is one of the reasons why I think there is scientific validity in the broader concept of Ayurveda. I came up with a hypothesis where stressed individuals will have more issues concerning their sleep and digestive function than non-stressed individuals.
At that point, I mostly understood the idea of balance in a very general way. After learning about metabolism and diabetes, I started to understand balance in the body in a more specific way. One of the key things that made me rethink my previous ideas was the discovery that metabolism goes beyond burning of calories. Metabolism is a series of chemical reactions that facilitate the body in using nutrients to produce energy and maintain homeostasis. The concepts of glycolysis, Krebs cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, and gluconeogenesis were also introduced to us.
One part that caught my attention the most is the regulation of blood glucose levels. Insulin and glucagon have opposing effects, but together they regulate the level of glucose in the blood. Insulin reduces blood glucose levels through decreasing the formation of glucose in the liver and taking up the glucose from the blood by muscles and fats. Glucagon increases blood glucose levels when the body requires additional energy. Diabetes develops when the regulation of glucose levels starts failing. When there is insufficient insulin production, or the cells do not react to it properly, the glucose does not go inside the cells as it should and remains in the bloodstream, resulting in hyperglycemia. At the same time, glucagon will release glucose in the blood, causing even bigger imbalance. One point that I found very interesting is that the blood could be full of glucose and at the same time the cells could not utilize it.
The study of diabetes also made me view diseases in general differently. Before this module, my view of diabetes was mainly focused on the elevated blood glucose level. However, after further understanding, I realized that diabetes does not only have impacts on the blood glucose level but can affect various organs including the liver, muscles, fats, kidneys, the brain, the immune system, the stomach and the gut microbiome. Diabetes also causes oxidative stress as a result of the long period of hyperglycemia.
The next component that helped me develop my ideas was an explanation of diabetes from a sociological perspective. The information provided in “Diabetes: Beyond Biology” talked about low income, unemployment, low education level, and bad living conditions. This information may influence one’s access to proper nutrition, physical activity, and healthcare services. For this reason, I wrote that it is far too simplistic to assume that type 2 diabetes is solely associated with unhealthy decisions made by the individual. Diet and exercise are important, but so is the environment.
Considering this idea in hindsight, I believe that it ties in with an earlier idea of mine that I had on Ayurveda. When writing my paper on Ayurveda, I believed that one’s lifestyle and surroundings influence his or her state of health. This idea was later developed in a more concrete manner when I was reading about diabetes. An individual might be aware of the importance of proper nutrition, exercise, and medical care, yet factors such as income level, occupation, education, and other living conditions may influence the accessibility of these necessities. However, this does not prove my earlier hypothesis regarding Ayurveda; rather, it helped me see the connection between the two papers.
This was emphasized by the economics of the disease. According to the Economic Costs of Diabetes in the U.S. in 2022 paper, the cost of diagnosed diabetes in the United States was estimated at approximately $412.9 billion in 2022. Direct medical costs amounted to $306.6 billion, while indirect costs were valued at $106.3 billion. Individuals with diagnosed diabetes had annual medical expenditures of approximately $19,736, while the medical expenditure was 2.6 times higher compared to those who did not have diabetes. Approximately $12,022 was attributed to diabetes per person annually.
Indirect costs consisted of loss in productivity, disabilities, and early deaths. The statistics revealed to me that diabetes impacts more than the patient who is suffering from the disease. The disease may impact a person’s family members, workplace, and even the larger society. For this reason, prevention and early intervention became an important aspect for me. As noted in my journal, physical activities can help in preventing diabetes, although prevention also requires access to low-cost health care services, good nutrition, knowledge about diabetes, testing, and exercising grounds.
There was also an additional tie to the topic brought out in the journal on the microbiome. Prior to reading this journal article, while I was aware that bacteria existed in the gut, my association with them was only with digestion. The journal showed me how the microbiome is able to have connections with other parts of the body as well.
This immediately brought back Ayurveda to mind as Ayurveda stresses digestion, diet, lifestyle, and balancing of body. While writing about the microbiome in my microbiome journal, I did not want to claim that the study of microbiome validates Ayurveda, instead I noted that the study of microbiome indicates that diet impacts gut bacteria and some specific diets are linked to some specific types of gut bacteria. For me, this was yet another instance where something related to lifestyle also connects to biology of the body.
I also learned that a disruption in the microbiome may be harmful to health. Gut bacteria help with digestion, generates helpful compounds like short-chain fatty acids, and interacts with the immune system. In class, we also found out that an unbalanced or bad microbiome is linked to illnesses like obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, allergies, and IBD. The fact that we saw diabetes in the list of conditions related to a poor microbiome was fascinating for me because I had studied it previously as a metabolic condition.
Gut-brain axis was definitely the most shocking fact from the chapter on the microbiome. It was fascinating that the gut and the brain can exchange information using such mechanisms as the nervous system, hormones, and the immune system, and changes in gut bacteria influence stress and behavior. Moreover, this information brought back the topic of my research on Ayurveda. The example that I used in that paper was that long-term stress can influence both sleep and digestion. Then, with the help of the microbiome information, I got an additional perspective on the issue of stress and the gut. Nevertheless, I do not think that it proves Ayurveda to be scientifically correct, but it explained to me the reasons for my findings.
Combining all three of these journals helped me look at the term “balance” in a completely new light. At first, while researching Ayurveda, the concept of balance seemed very general and abstract. Metabolism taught me more about homeostasis through insulin, glucagon, and blood glucose regulation. Diabetes revealed what happens when such processes start breaking down, how they affect one’s body overall, and that one’s state of health depends on one’s social surroundings and resource availability. Finally, the microbiome provided me with yet another link between one’s diet, digestion, metabolism, immune system, and even brain function.
I do not think Ayurvedic balance and biological homeostasis are the same thing, and I still agree with what I wrote in my first paper: some parts of Ayurveda need more scientific evidence. I also wrote in my microbiome journal that there is still a lot we do not fully understand about what a “healthy” microbiome actually looks like. Because of this, I think it is important not to take similarities between these topics too far.
However, when reading these articles together, my perception of the field of health care changed somewhat. Previously, I considered individual diseases and body systems in isolation. Diabetes was a blood sugar problem; the microbiome was digestive; and Ayurveda was an entirely separate medical tradition. Now that I’ve reviewed these journals again, it makes more sense why the theme of interconnectedness kept popping up in all three.
In summary, the most significant concept which I have learned as a result of connecting these topics to each other is the fact that health is a product of interaction between many factors at once. Metabolism introduced me to the concepts of regulation within our bodies. Diabetes taught me how one metabolic problem may influence the whole body, as well as create social and economic issues. The topic of microbiome made me realize that digestion goes beyond our consumption of food. Ayurveda became the first topic which made me realize that the body, lifestyle, and environment should be viewed as interconnected entities, although I still think that not all of its concepts require any scientific proof.
Reference
Parker, E. D., et al. (2024). Economic costs of diabetes in the U.S. in 2022. Diabetes Care, 47, 26–43.
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