Nicholas Davis - Curated Paper 1

Ayurveda is a system of traditional holistic medicine that originated in India. This system looks at the relationship between body, mind, and spirit. This is an official system of medicine in many places that supports a more modern medicine system. I think the interconnectedness of our body and all its processes is fascinating. I think that it makes a lot of sense that the concept of ayurveda has existed for so long.

Most diseases are due to some kind of imbalance in the body, whether that’s among the different levels of substances in your body or between your body and another organism. Microbes, for example, are an essential part of our bodies. The number of microbes in our body outnumbers our own cells by a significant amount. Some people call the relationship between our genome, epigenetics, and the microbiome the hologenome. The microbiome is an essential part of large organisms and is often required for an individual to survive. There are more than 160 different species of bacteria in any given individual. Populations of microbes differ based on location in the body and shift based on different conditions like diet or other factors. Even the placenta is exposed somewhat to bacteria and other microbes, but exposure to most bacteria will occur at birth and after. As we’ve learned more about the balances between our body and other organisms, we understand more about why disease occurs and we could consider it to be a kind of modern ayurveda. This knowledge gives us a more holistic approach to disease treatment.

Another example of this, and one that is especially interesting, is the connection between your gut microbiome and your mental health. They’ve found that various mental health issues can be improved somewhat on the basis of improving gut microbiome health. The microbiome can affect brain function via signal promotion or interference. The population in your gut can contribute to things like depression, anxiety, and even possibly something like Parkinson’s if it becomes unbalanced. 

The microbiome can produce byproducts that can interfere with other signals in the body and create problems like insulin resistance, chronic inflammation, and a lack of satiety. Antibiotics are an example of something besides diet that can completely change the makeup of your microbiome. Some people can see improvements in certain problems with their microbiota when using antibiotics. Genetics can also play a part in diseases relating to the microbiome of the gut. The immune system maintains a homeostasis with the gut microbiome and when the immune system reacts improperly, it can lead to gastrointestinal diseases. 

As development continues from birth, the body can grow with different microbes that can have very different effects. The body uses various signals, chemicals, and conditions to select for microbes normally found in the microbiome. One example is that the intestinal lining uses a lot of oxygen which makes an anoxic environment, which is one of the ideal conditions for normal gut bacteria. The milk of a mother is essential for the development of a baby’s microbiome and immune system. If the microbiome doesn’t develop properly, it can lead to things like malnutrition and disease. Probiotics can help to restore normal function to your microbiome when it’s been put off balance. 

The microbiome has major impacts on many different systems in the body. They have found that obesity can be caused by the microbiome. They took mice that were obese and performed a fecal transplant on mice that didn’t have a microbiome and those mice became obese. Diet is a major determinant for the composition of your microbiome. Certain diets can promote the growth of bacteria that can contribute to many different diseases like atherosclerosis, obesity, and others.

Another major factor in diseases like obesity is metabolism, which is where imbalances within our own body come in. Metabolism is the conversion of energy from ingested material into a usable form for the body. This energy and other molecules associated with the process of metabolism are used to maintain homeostasis and allow for growth and survival of the body. This is accomplished through a combination of catabolic and anabolic processes. Metabolic diseases most commonly have to do with molecules that tend to be less essential for survival, since organisms with metabolic diseases that affect the main processes typically don’t live for very long if they live at all.

Metabolic diseases can arise in three primary ways, genetics, acquired, or dysfunction. One of the most well known metabolic diseases is diabetes, which can be either from genetics, type 1, or acquired, type 2. Treatments for metabolic diseases include dietary restrictions, enzyme replacement therapy, and there are gene therapies emerging that can even cure certain metabolic diseases. Examples other than diabetes of metabolic diseases are galactosemia, phenylketonuria, and Gaucher disease.

Metabolic diseases are all about a loss of balance in the body. Thinking about them through the lens of ayurveda is interesting here because it is the loss of balance caused by whatever metabolic deficiency that causes disease. Metabolism is all about maintaining homeostasis in the body, so when there is a process that doesn’t work like it should, like being unable to properly metabolize phenylalanine for example, then it can throw off the balance the body typically maintains and it causes bad side effects that lead to disease. Diabetes is another great example of a balance of things that are all supposed to be there being thrown off and causing disease.

My sister has had type 1 diabetes since she was around 3 or 4 years old and one of the biggest things I’ve noticed is how inconvenient it is. She had to get used to needles when she was very little because she had it before they had any good insulin pumps, so injections were the only way for her. It’s become much more convenient for her since she can now use a pump, but there are still expenses tied with that. One thing I haven’t noticed, at least lately, is her being unable to do something because she has diabetes, which is good.

My dad and one of my other sisters have prediabetes, which would become type 2 diabetes without management. Their situation is not as inconvenient, but they do use medication to help manage their blood sugar levels. My dad has successfully implemented lifestyle changes that have helped effectively manage his prediabetes as well as some other issues like kidney stones. I’m not sure if his kidney stone issue is a metabolic one, but I do know that he makes two different kinds of kidney stones that each come with their own dietary restrictions to manage them.

Society is often a big contributor to the risk of people in a population developing a metabolic disease like diabetes. Things like city planning, economic status, and other factors of accessibility to healthy lifestyles. Diabetes also has a significant impact on society, especially in terms of cost. Well managed diabetes is very costly to individuals due to insulin costs and a healthy lifestyle is often more expensive for many people. Poorly managed diabetes is even more costly for individuals as well as society itself. 

Diabetes can result in major health issues including complications that can lead to loss of eyesight and amputation of limbs. This is expensive for the person going through it, but it also costs society a lot in things like loss of productivity and payments for the disabilities that result from these conditions. Social determinants tend to lock people into cycles of unhealthy lifestyles that can be very difficult to break. It can be difficult for these patients as well due to stigmas surrounding things like obesity.

Looking at recent figures on the cost of diabetes, diabetes accounts for about 1 in every 4 dollars spent on health care. People with diabetes spend around 4,000 dollars a year out of pocket just for this condition. Numbers tied with diabetes can get somewhat messy as well because of the number of other conditions it can cause. Adding complications like kidney disease, hypertension, and other conditions resulting from diabetes makes those medical bills stack up quickly.

An article called Economic Costs of Diabetes in the U.S. in 2022 from Diabetes Care gives some crazy statistics for just how big of a deal diabetes is on an economic level. Diabetes costs an estimated $412.9 billion with $306.6 billion being direct costs. Indirect costs come from loss of productivity due to disability and premature deaths along with other factors that come with diabetes. On average, people with diabetes pay 2.6 times more money on medical expenses than someone without the disease. They conclude that the cost is an incredible burden on society as a whole. This is a big reason why more effective treatments for diabetes are sought after and why it’s worth spending money to try to fix the problem.

Diabetes has some really interesting and terrible effects on the body. Diabetes can lead to a decrease in flexibility in the walls of arteries and veins, which leads to higher blood pressure because the heart has to work harder to do its job. It can also cause impairment to the immune system’s ability for phagocytosis, which makes fighting diseases more difficult. Proteins can become glucosylated, which can change the shape of the protein and impair its normal function. Blood clotting is more likely to occur, which can lead to deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, stroke, or heart attack.

These issues and imbalances are just a couple examples among many about why the core idea of ayurveda is so important in health. There are many options that people can take advantage of to improve their health, many of them being lifestyle changes that have proven to be sustainable for those who participate. Focusing on proper diet and physical activity can do a lot to reduce the likelihood of throwing off the many delicate balances your body maintains. My family has benefited from some of these lifestyle changes in their health struggles and the science shows that anyone can.