We May Need To Re-Frame How We View Our Health.
It's not about doing something that's too little, too late - prevention is much better than cure!
It’s common for us as humans to live life as if nothing were wrong - which somehow justifies us leading less than satisfactory lifestyles. Even when those aspects of our lifestyles that we do neglect will inevitably result in our health going awry as we age.
In an episode of Futurama (an episode known as “Godfellas”), when Bender does meet God, he does get this quote from God:
When you do things right, people won’t be sure if you’ve done anything at all.
And that’s how it is with our health. When we’re doing things right, even we ourselves won’t be sure if we’ve done anything at all.
For instance, when we’re driving.
We make use of cars to get from point to point. Road trips are fun when a group of friends get into a car and go on a long distance tour of the region.
When the car is working fine, everybody’s happy. Nobody really cares how the car is functioning - just that they know it’s functioning.
However, when the fuel gauge drains down from Full towards Empty, we know that we will have to stop the car for refuelling soon, because it cannot run on fumes.
The car would otherwise stop running when its fuel tank is completely empty. But even when it’s 1/4 full or 1/2 full, we don’t feel any difference with its performance at all as we’re coasting down the highways.
Our body functions in a similar way.
We don’t really know exactly when we might (or might not at all) develop health issues such as Type 2 diabetes, hypertension or high blood cholesterol.
Because those things don’t really sound off any warning alarms in our body.
It’s not like developing a fever or spraining an ankle - those symptoms of pain and discomfort are very noticeable.
However, problems with blood sugar and cholesterol regulation usually tend to surface when we’re at the doctor’s for a routine medical checkup. We don’t feel anything until the doctor’s medical equipment tells us that yes, there is some problem with our body.
Our health is linked to how well the cells in our body are functioning.
There’s a massive network of biochemical signalling processes in our body. Healthy Cell A manufactures a certain biochemical that can stimulate healthy Cell B to produce something else, which then directs Cell C to perform some necessary function in our body. However, unhealthy Cell D may produce some biochemical that ends up directing Cell C to do something else.
The Biological Signalling That Chemicals Can Do To The Cells In Our Body
The sequence of events that is occurring is a tricky sequence to decipher as we try to burrow our way to the root cause of the problem.
In blood glucose regulation, for instance, the beta cells in our pancreas secrete the insulin hormone after we have finished a meal, which directs the cells in our body to produce more GLUT4 transporter proteins on the cell’s surface, such that cells can take in glucose from our food to manufacture biochemical energy. That’s one way that our cells generate energy from our food.
However, if our immune cells were not able to regulate a good balance between the pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory biochemical signals that they were generating, there’d be an issue with a person’s body becoming chronically inflamed.
And these pro-inflammatory biochemicals (or cytokines) will affect the GLUT4 protein expression on the cell’s surface - there’d be less of the GLUT4s to deal with the glucose in the blood after a meal, which would eventually lead to an accumulation of glucose in the blood.
But we don’t feel anything. It’s too mild to feel anything.
Only when we do a blood glucose test will we know what our fasting blood glucose levels are like, and we’d be considered to have Type 2 diabetes if they’re consistently high.
We’re not looking at how to control it or cure it when we’ve got it - because the efforts that we undertake then might be too little, too late.
Why can’t we do something beforehand, such as make a conscious effort to eat less processed carbohydrates, for instance? Vigorous, intense exercise may also help to alleviate issues with insulin resistance.
But how many people out there are eating right and exercising right? Not everyone, hence Type 2 diabetes cases are always on the rise.
As it is said, prevention is better than cure. When we’re driving long distances, we keep an eye out on the fuel gauge to see when we do need to refuel - this helps us to maintain continuity in our movement when we’re out and about without having to call for roadside assistance.
Unfortunately, we don’t have these gauges and indicators built into our body.
But we definitely can tell if we’re on the way there. Obesity, for instance, contributes to insulin resistance. The excess layers of fat cells do help to pump out even more pro-inflammatory cytokines into the blood, which will then affect the expression of the GLUT4 protein transporters.
Inflammaging is yet another factor that is observed. As we age, our immune system’s regulation of the inflammatory response is bound to get worse (and even abetted by obesity), and that can be accompanied by signs and symptoms of premature aging.
Especially if we’re stressed and we can’t sleep well. Which ties back into a busy lifestyle, whether we’re working hard and climbing the corporate ladder or just having to take care of many children.
We know that the indicators for Type 2 diabetes are out there. As well as for many other metabolic diseases too. These are signs that we can actually see but pay no heed to because it doesn’t appear to be affecting us at the moment. We may therefore get lulled into that false sense of security that everything’s going on fine when it may not actually be so.
And then it pops up at the most inopportune of times and we’re left grasping at straws for answers. We do have to do things right from the get go, even if we don’t see any tangible results. That’s the best way to live our lives healthy. That means keeping our cells healthy so that they can be expressing whatever biochemicals are necessary to maintain a healthy signalling cascade.
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