An interesting paper came out recently in Nature talking
about a newly discovered link between the brain and
metabolism in type II diabetes. I thought the paper was
interesting, not just for the new data, but because it
supports the underlying concept of Brain Fitness - and more
specifically, in this case, physical intelligence, which I
have defined before as your brains ability to control your
body.
Type II Diabetes in the Body
Type II diabetes is a condition where your body is unable
to regulate blood sugar appropriately. Typically, when you
eat and your blood sugar goes up from the sugars in the
food, your pancreas senses a rise in blood sugar and
releases insulin into your bloodstream. The insulin then
goes around knocking on the doors of all your cells and
tells them to take their share of sugar out of the blood
and use it to make energy.
In type II diabetes, both of these things go wrong. First,
your pancreas loses its ability to sense blood sugar and
release insulin appropriately. Second, the insulin that is
released (or injected) doesn't work as well because the
cells in your body begin to ignore it - or become insulin
resistant.
Type II Diabetes in the Brain?
We also know that there are cells in the brain that sense
blood sugar levels (called glucose-sensing neurons). Their
job is to instruct different parts of your metabolism to
respond appropriately - for example, make energy with the
sugar, convert some of it to fat for later use, burn some
for heat, and a bunch of other things. A fit brain that is
working properly will keep a close watch on the nutrients
floating around in the bloodstream and send out the
appropriate instructions to the body.
The new research shows that in type II diabetics, at least
some of the neurons that are supposed to sense rises in
blood sugar aren't doing their job and that this may be a
part of the disease that we didn't previously appreciate.
Many physicians think of type II diabetes as solely a
disease of the body, but we may need to start thinking
about it as a disease of the brain as well. In fact, it may
be that the brain loses its ability to monitor blood sugar
first, and contributes to the progression of the disease -
that is yet to be determined.
This all plays back to the general concept of Brain Fitness
and that the choices you make on a daily basis affect how
well your brain works and how well it is able to control
everything, including your metabolism. Choosing to eat high
sugar foods on a regular basis will eventually cause cells
in your body and your brain to lose their sensitivity to
blood sugar and wreak havoc on your metabolism.
Fight Back
The good news is that you can improve your sensitivity to
blood sugar (glucose) through eating well and exercising.
Both of these things contribute to bringing your brain and
your body back in tune so that everything will operate more
smoothly. Unfortunately, many people don't make this a
priority until their brains and bodies are so far out of
tune that recovery is extremely difficult.
The body is an amazing thing and has an incredible
tolerance for us mistreating it. This was great for our
survival over hundreds of thousands of years of lack of
food and shelter and a constant threat from out environment
- but today it almost works against us. Because our
metabolism is so good at tolerating us mistreating
ourselves, we often don't know we have a problem until the
problem is out of control. This is why people wait so long
before they become proactive in controlling their own
health.
I encourage everyone to give your brain and your body the
best chance to serve you well. Don't wait until you or your
kids need the medication to try to fix the problem.
----------------------------------------------------
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