These 3 S's will Show Your State of Health
What did Francis Bacon Mean by Tuning the Curious Harp of Man's Body to Harmony?
Did you know that many chronic diseases have no single cause (etiology) and at the root level result from a metabolic imbalance between our brain and our body? To explain and simplify the evolution of our brain’s primary circuits, in my book I refer to the four main functions of brains in vertebrates and mammals, what the evolutionary psychologists and neuroscientists humorously call the 4F’s (the acronym mnemonics) of survival: Food, Fight (including competition), Flight and F..k (reproductive mating). Our brain has evolved to manage the 4 F’s through the 4 P’s of risk reduction and the 4 B’s of metabolic balance, which I described in my earlier article “Learn the 4 F's, 4 P's and 4 B's of Balancing Your Body and Brain Health.” But when our brain and body fail to communicate properly, metabolic imbalance and disease ensue. But how do we know if our brain is in sync with our body or as Francis Bacon put it poetically, if our brain is “tuning the curious harp of man's body to harmony?” After all, being healthy feels like playing or listening to a nice piece of harmonious music. Sickness feels like the agonizing drudgery of hearing painful, non-harmonious music.
There are costly and elaborate metabolic panel and hormonal blood tests that can provide us with ‘some’ clues about our brain-body metabolic health if conducted over a long period of time. But there are easier “whole-body” indicators and biomarkers of metabolic balance and health. In this article, I will explain the 3 S’s of overall metabolic health, which are fairly easy to assess.
As a result of metabolic imbalances, a large number of people in the world are suffering from the 3 S’s of misery: Stool (constipation and digestive) issues, Sleep disorders and Sexual (intimacy) dysfunctions. This is because our stool (digestive), sleep and sexual functions are extremely sensitive and dependent on our body’s maintenance of a delicate balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic neurological (brain/cerebral) states. The following modified excerpt from Chapter 5 of my book explains this:
The functionality levels of individual body systems (digestive, reproductive, pulmonary, cardiac, etc.,) and organs (bladder, liver, lungs, heart, intestines, etc.) are determined by whether the body and brain have decided on a sympathetic (reactive and excitatory) or parasympathetic (passive and relaxed) reaction to the stimuli. For example, if certain stimuli trigger an excited, vigilant (sympathetic) response by the body-mind axis, our sympathetic reaction would temporarily:
(A) Dilate pupils in our eyes for maximum visual sensitivity, focus and vigilance,
(B) Dilate bronchi, constriction of blood vessels, and acceleration of heart rate to accelerate flow of oxygenated blood and nutrients such as glucose to tissues and the brain (for alertness),
(C) Inhibit digestive activities to ensure energy is directed towards limbs and extremities and not stomach and digestive tract,
(D) Activate adrenal gland and release of adrenaline and norepinephrine throughout the body,
(E) Activate liver and other tissues through adrenaline and cortisol to maximize release of glucose into the blood by burning fat and glycogens (and if needed, muscles),
(F) Stimulate alpha-adrenergic (adrenaline) receptors in the urinary tract (bladder, prostate and lower distal ureter areas) and rectum to induce continence. Water is preserved to maintain blood pressure. After all, a restroom break in the middle of an emergency (fight or flight) is neither possible nor helpful1!
(G) Activate sexual reproductive organs (genitalia). Explanation will follow.
Obviously, remaining in a parasympathetic state for a prolonged period leads to broken feedback loops, metabolic inefficiency and disease. The parasympathetic (relaxed, guards-down) mode is almost the exact opposite of the sympathetic response so in a natural setting, to remain homeostatic, an organism needs to balance the break down, build, bury and burnish cycles over intermittent sympathetic and parasympathetic episodes. The longer the parasympathetic periods are, the more we can relax and heal (burnish) and build. But how about the bury mode? When our distant ancestors consumed more calories in harvest or foraging seasons, their bodies turned into an anabolic mode (determined by such signals as the ratio of insulin to glucagon, as described previously) and buried (stored) some of that as fat to be burnt in colder, less abundant seasons. In modern lives, however, most humans consume sugary calorie-dense foods throughout the year so the body keeps burying that for the upcoming rainy day (season) that never comes! And the problem with fat, especially the white adipose tissue2 in our thighs, hips, and belly, is that it is a slow and dirty (not clean burning) fuel for the body to burn3.
Another serious metabolic imbalance arises from the prolonged state of sympathetic (vigilant, stressed) response because as we learned earlier, humans conflate prolonged conceptual stresses with real physical threats which are often fleeting.
When it comes to balancing sympathetic and parasympathetic states, our body’s bellwether of health may be our reproductive system and genitalia, which act in an unusual way during the different phases of intimacy. Initially, for genital arousal (erection in men) which is a pumping action, a parasympathetic state needs to dominate the body to ensure relaxation of blood vessels (and cavernosal smooth muscles inside penis). So a relaxed, low-stress state of mind is needed to achieve the arousal. Once genital arousal is achieved, a delicate and balanced coordination of neuronal circuits are essential to achieve the muscular and vascular events that lead to elongated rigid erections. But unlike erection, ejaculation is primarily a sympathetic phenomenon perhaps because in nature it is the climax of winning the competition in the reproductive race. Ejaculation is a highly coordinated muscular and neurological event that involves multiple sensory pathways: cerebral and spinal, integrative, autonomic, and somatic centers.
So a healthy process of intimate sexual intercourse in humans starts with a relaxed state of mind and body, followed by a build up into an aroused state which uses the same aggressive circuits early human brains had evolved for competing over sex. Numerous animal studies have demonstrated that the amygdala is the pivotal structure in mediating both stress and sexual arousal (and behavior). This may explain why men who are overly competitive and aggressive, like financially or athletically successful men, or people who are anxious or paranoid, may experience premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction (ED). Their overactive amygdala pushes them into a quick sympathetic mode [a quick and aggressive win, because it’s all about winning in a short time (or meeting a deadline) to them]. This condition probably resembles when early humans had a small window to reproduce before a major threat or competition arrived. But in today’s world, overly competitive minds that are habituated to conceptual competitions have a hard time switching off the stressful fight or flight mode.
The health of the reproductive system and love-making experience will be introduced in Chapter 8 as one of the key indicators of the state of balance between our sympathetic and parasympathetic reactions and our overall homeostatic balance and health.
As hunter gatherers we evolved in almost clockwork fashion in order to stay in tune with our bodies’ metabolic needs. This is how we evolved our circadian rhythm as a prediction algorithm, based on the timing of the external (light) stimuli, the best time to crank up vigilance (cortisol release), and the best time to slow down to rest and heal….
Recent studies4 have provided evidence for the neuromodulatory effects of serotonergic, noradrenergic, and dopaminergic agents on neural substrates of erotic stimulus processing. In other words, a healthy balance of sympathetic and parasympathetic hormonal axes ensures proper functioning of the motivational, emotional, autonomic, and attentional components of the sexual response.
Interestingly, arousal mechanisms are similar in women and men, except women, as seen in the graph, could achieve a multiple-orgasm stage (under balanced sympathetic/parasympathetic conditions) or fail to reach any orgasm (in an imbalanced metabolic state) by gradually resolving the excited vasocongestive state through slow dissipation of energy (blood flow drainage away from genitalia without the ultimate sympathetic satisfaction).
So it looks like healthy intimate relationships are only possible with what Francis Bacon calls “Tuning the Curious Harp of Man's Body to Harmony!” In fact, it probably needs two souls to merge into harmonious states of body and mind.
Similar to our reproductive health, our digestive and sleep health are also sensitive functions of achieving a state of metabolic and neurological balance between our body, brain and the external environment. So many cases of constipation or sleep disorders could also be triggered by a state of neurological or metabolic imbalance. I explain these concepts in the book as well as how to regain our metabolic health and balance.
I did not have the support of Big House publishers so as an independent scientist/author, I feel proud when I receive great reviews by independent readers like you. The following is an introduction to the book on Amazon, ranked as Hot New Release:
Why do humans walk a tightrope between depression and addiction (habituation), anxiety and recklessness? Why is it so hard to kick bad habits? Who do several countries now have Ministries of Loneliness to keep the social fabrics from falling apart? Why are humans so prone to self-delusion, self-deception, and forming mobs and cults?
Most of us know more about sports, politics, games, apps, and our jobs than about how our own brain and body work or get burned out together. For less than the cost of a family dinner, this is one of the few books in the market that can help us understand in simple language the complex nature of body-brain feedback loops as the common denominator of disorders and diseases (such as diabetes, depression, hypertension, weight gain, dementia, sleep disorders, constipation, infertility), and discords (fights, divorces, lawsuits, riots, wars). The author has spent two years to ingeniously draw from the latest discoveries in a wide range of disciplines: Neuroscience, evolution, biochemistry, psychology, economics, physics, philosophy, nutrition, and even mysticism to help us understand the cerebral root of fatigue and imbalance that plague human lives, rich and poor alike. This book is an essential simplified scientific “user manual” for our brain and body.
The world’s largest battles are fought inside human minds and today most of us suffer from abuse not by others but by our own brain. In this book, we learn about the neurochemical soup that makes our "economic" brain prone to "metabolic" imbalance and leads us to pursue unfettered growth. "The sky is the limit" thinking has constructed a world of winners, losers and barely anyone in between.
In my book and my blogs (here and on Homo economicus), I connect our biology to our psychology and brain’s neurochemistry to show why our denatured evolutionary path has led to widespread imbalances both at the individual and social levels, which we respectively call disease and injustice.
In fact, drugs in the family of alpha blockers, such as Tamsulosin (Flomax brand) help with urine flow in prostate and kidney stone patients by biohacking the adrenergic physiology (blocking the action of adrenaline receptors) and relaxing the body and urinary tract.
Brown adipose tissue, on the other hand, found more in women and children, is rich in mitochondria and actually burns white fat and glucose to generate energy when we are stressed by cold weather or ketogenic (low carb, high fat) diet.
Lipid peroxidation impairs mitochondrial health.
Graf, Heiko, et al. “Serotonergic, Dopaminergic, and Noradrenergic Modulation of Erotic Stimulus Processing in the Male Human Brain.” Journal of Clinical Medicine, vol. 8, no. 3, 2019, p. 363
What an elegant way of describing a healthy person!