Brief Recap – The Challenge (feel free to skip this section if coming directly from Part 1)
Our modern human population is in a rather horrendous state of health – one that is driven, largely, by the same underlying behavioral factors:
- poor diet
- sedentary behavior
- chronic stress
This is something we can all understand, but how, exactly, these behaviors drive poor health and disease progression and all that it leads to is something that is lost on the population.
The main reason for this, I believe, is because there is a disconnect between our simple, reductionist mindset traditionally used to address challenges and the reality that is the great complexity of human health.
That is, human health is a product of many different complex systems, each made up of far more variables than the human mind can comprehend, making any coherent understanding of everything at play an impossible goal.
Yet, when we face a particular health challenge, we look at it through a simple, reductionist lens, understanding a small number of variables at play while thinking that this means we understand the whole system.
To overcome this, what we can do is call upon systems approaches to understanding how a system functions as a network. This involves releasing the traditional mindset that involves a need to understand every mechanism at play within the system, instead looking at how the system functions in response to specific inputs (behaviors or other environmental factors).
For the purposes of our particular challenge that is overcoming health problems, we can look at how our behavior (what we eat, how we exercise, our stress load, etc.) acts as specific inputs to the biological systems supporting our health.
Instead of trying to understand every single mechanism at play within these systems, we put our attention on our behavior combined with how it impacts important measures of health (e.g., how we feel, a blood test, etc.)
The next question becomes, how can we understand it in such a way that is useful to us?
That’s what this post is focused on.
Note: For more on human health as a complex challenge, see Part 1
A Systems Approach
The human body is made up of numerous complex systems that serve diverse functions to keep us each healthy. To name a few:
- immune system
- inflammatory system
- endocrine system
- nervous system
- muskuloskeletal system
Moreover, each of these systems is made up of numerous sub-systems, including different combinations of biomolecules, cells, tissues, and organs.
One problem we face as humans who just want to live our lives as healthy individuals is that we do not have the time to understand the functioning of each of these systems. It is not reasonable to ask that all of us understand all of the underlying physiology to be able to make informed decisions.
Even more, for those who are interested in understanding the deeper science, it is actually an impossible task to understand every mechanism and pathway that links a specific behavior to various health outcomes. The fault is not lack of time nor intelligence of the individual, but instead is an inherent property of complex systems.
In complex systems, it is impossible to break down the system into individual pieces without losing the greater meaning of the system as a whole.
–
However, when we call upon this whole systems’ way of thinking, we immediately run into a problem: How can we make health-conscious decisions if we aren’t working to piece apart the workings of the system?
After all, as we’ve been taught, breaking systems down into pieces to understand individual pathways and mechanisms is the way to understand how something works.
The answer:
Using a systems approach to understanding how your behavior drives your state of health begins by looking at the functioning of entire systems. We do this, broadly speaking, by thinking about how actions (inputs) lead to changes in important measures of health (e.g., your general sense of how you feel, your energy levels, and pains or other debilitating symptoms, and general clinical tests). Given this information, we can form ideas of how that system functions in response to specific actions.
Once we have a good understanding of the larger functioning at play, we then have the option to mindfully and strategically piece apart the underlying workings of the systems – but we do this only if we detect a clear need to better understand a specific sub-system; and, we do this with a clear understanding that as we break sub-systems down into individual mechanisms and pathways, that these individual pieces are only a small part of the greater whole.
That defines the process for our systems approach.
Ready to get started?
A Starting Place
To begin, what we need is a framework from which we can understand how the body functions to stay healthy, along with how the body loses this healthy functioning, leading to the arising of poor health and disease.
Fortunately, I have found that there is such a lens through which we can view our health.
Note that this particular lens does not begin by providing all the answers that each of us may need as we move through each of our own health journeys. Yet, it does serve as a lens through which we can understand our health in such a way that we can make powerful decisions that lead to significant improvements in health, overall.
Once this framework is understood, any individual can build upon it to better understand specific health challenges that he or she may be facing.
This means that we can greatly simplify our decision-making while we make great steps forward towards avoiding disease. Meanwhile, we work towards living out each day with greater energy and mental clarity, as well as an enhanced physical ability to take on our own challenges.
*see footnote for more detail*
Metabolic Health as a Framework for Understanding Most Health Challenges
This one special way I have found useful to help understand the many complex workings at play that determine an individuals’ health is through the lens of metabolic health.
To understand metabolic health, we can begin by thinking about how the body needs energy to perform any sort of function. Of course, cells throughout the body are always hard at work carrying out the innumerable complex functions required to keep each of us healthy.
Hard work. It all needs energy. And this energy needs to be controlled in a manner such that each cell receives the amount and type of energy it needs to maintain good health (homeostasis).
Now, think about what happens as the body loses its ability to manage the supply and demand of energy within each sub-system (e.g. cell, tissue, organ):
No, really, pause and think about it for yourself. Then continue.
–
I think about two key pathways being activated as the body loses its system-wide ability to regulate energy:
1. As each cell, tissue, and organ loses the ability to receive energy in the proper forms and amounts, these sub-systems lose their ability to perform important functions. This leads to dysfunction, and later on to disease, as these cells, tissues, and organs fail to perform important physiological functions (e.g. the pancreas releasing insulin; the kidneys filtering toxins; the muscle tissue utilizing fats as a fuel source; the adipose tissue safely storing away fat).
2. As the body loses its regulatory control over levels of different types of energy-containing molecules, damage is done on a system-wide basis. The vasculature is the best example of this one: as blood sugar becomes dysregulated, blood sugar concentration can elevate into toxic amounts, at which point damage is done to the blood vessel walls and other biomolecules that are also in circulation. On the flip side, blood sugar may drop dangerously low, leaving different tissues and organs lacking the energy that they need to keep functioning.
See how different types of dysfunction and disease can arise out of the same underlying pathophysiology?
What arises from this state of metabolic dysfunction is all sorts of health problems, ranging from mild and annoying symptoms (e.g. brain fog or fatigue) to serious and life-threatening illness (e.g. type II diabetes or cardiovascular disease).
I had been studying this progression of energy dysregulation, metabolic dysfunction, and progressive disease for many years when coronavirus started spreading.
And, what we saw was a clear message:
Those who are metabolically unhealthy (often marked by obesity and other “co-morbidities”) tend to suffer the worst from Covid-19. *see reference*
Using our new framework described above, this connection is simple to understand:
Just like any other system performing functions in the body, as the body’s metabolic system becomes dysregulated and dysfunctional, the immune system also loses its ability to function optimally.
The immune system arises from a complex network of biomolecules that act system-wide (i.e., throughout the whole body) to fend off potentially dangerous foreign invaders. What matters, of course, is that if an individual does not have a fully functional immune system, then when a virus enters the body, it is more likely to lead to severe symptoms that knock that individual off his or her feet, and possibly even threaten his/her life.
This could happen for any number of specific reasons which will vary depending on the individual’s case:
- perhaps the individual’s immune system becomes hyperactive, such that when a virus enters the body, the immune system over-reacts and causes excessive harm to the individual’s own tissues
- perhaps the individual’s immune system is under-active and is simply incapable of detecting and fighting off a virus
- perhaps neither extreme is necessarily the case, but an individual’s immune system has lost the ability to perform the intricate dance that is fending off foreign (and threatening) substances while keeping the body protected
The point, here, is not to get bogged down in the specific mechanisms. Rather, I ask this simple question:
See how each system within the body is all connected?
As we lose our metabolic health – which ties directly to the body’s ability to regulate energy across cells, tissues, and organs – then an overall state of dysfunction arises which can quickly turn into diseased states.
We can speak to specific mechanisms and pathways all we want – this is something that is interesting for many of us and something that I am happy to do!
However, when it comes to taking action – which is what matters most – we need to begin from a place of simple – yet accurate – understanding.
From this space of understanding we are able to move forward:
- taking the next healthiest course of action
- learning more information
- integrating that new information with our current understanding
- taking the next healthiest course of action
- and so on as the cycle continues
So many birds with one stone
Disease is often far more complex than we would tend the think. Unfortunately, most modern humans have the tendency to believe that they can become experts in any subject and find the one right answer that will solve their particular health challenge.
We can all laugh at how well that tends to work out.
Sometimes we do stumble across one precise solution to a complex health challenge, and when that’s the case, that’s wonderful.
But most of the time, what we need is not more people searching for precise solutions that even the experts haven’t uncovered.
Instead, what we need is more (many MANY more) individuals that will simply take action aligned with that which is already well-known to improve health outcomes.
For those of you who love having complete control of every single little detail, this path forward – it’s not necessarily exciting. It’s not necessarily sexy science that you can proudly proclaim to your gym friends or out at ladies night.
But it works.
That is, it leads to healthier outcomes, whether those outcomes involve:
- losing weight (in a healthy and sustainable fashion)
- improving your body’s immune system (in turn, becoming more capable of fending off viruses and other infectious agents)
- feeling better (more energized, having greater clarity, etc.) on a day-to-day basis
- decreasing risk of developing clinically-relevant symptoms (which we label as disease)
All the little details… those are nice to know. They make us feel more confident.
But the fact is, when it comes to the health of your body, it is an impossible task to understand everything at play.
That is why we begin from a space of a greater appreciation and understanding of the larger functioning at play, tailoring our behavior to best support this greater functioning.
Then, if you desire, as you move forward you can dig deeper into the science as you carefully unravel the mysterious black box that is your own body.
–
In summary, this framework for understanding poor metabolic health and its connection to most cases of modern disease leads to a simple solution: if we address our metabolic health, we become capable of warding off poor health and disease, whether it takes the form of an infectious virus or the slow progression of chronic disease.
All-the-while, we take care of how we feel day-to-day (more energy, greater mental clarity, and greater physical ability to take on each day!).
Now, keep in mind that when I say it’s simple, I mean that the solution can be quite simple, in theory (we’ll get to this solution momentarily).
However, the science is anything but simple. Rather, we are talking about one of the most complex networks that is studied by scientists today (i.e., the human body as a system, made up of numerous sub-systems that form diverse networks made up of biomolecules, cells, tissues, and organs). This means that we must be careful any time we try to sit down, reduce the science to individual pathways, and attempt to explain it all.
In complex systems, the solutions are found by taking a step back and thinking about the overall functioning of the whole. Important and useful information can be found by breaking apart the system to understand specific mechanisms and pathways, but when it comes to taking action, you’d be wise to act based on the functioning of the whole and not just isolated mechanisms.
“…when it comes to taking action, you’d be wise to act based on the functioning of the whole and not just isolated mechanisms.“
This statement is worth repeating. Your actions are what matter here, as they are what will determine your health. So, any time you make a health-conscious behavior, it is important to act based on your understanding of what supports the health of your whole body and not just one isolated pathway.
One more point worth noting: when I speak about metabolic health as one way to model everything that is happening, I don’t claim to say that acting systemically will address all of the potential problems at play. Scientists studying immunology will be able provide more precise answers to problems surrounding Covid and doctors will be able to deliver medical care treating symptoms of the disease. So please, don’t take any of this as a reason to disregard experts that can deliver more precise solutions for a serious health problem of yours (if one were to arise).
The point, here, is to begin taking steps towards better health by taking action that leads to system-wide benefit. Looking at the problem from this higher level, my suggestion is that we begin thinking about the functioning of the entire system and take action beginning from this space.
“take action beginning from this space.“
That’s the key here.
Down the road, we can dive into the sexy science, have some fun discussing the details, and perhaps even achieve some better health outcomes by taking action aligned with this heightened knowledge.
But that comes later. First, we take action aligned with the bigger picture.
And when we look that way, the data paints a clear picture: it is those with poor metabolic health that suffer the worst outcomes from this virus.
The question is, what do we actually do about it?
Ready to get started?
Sign up today for my new 8-week health coaching program! During this time, we will focus on how you can learn healthy behaviors that best support your own body in a way that aligns with the overall health of your body. And – you guessed it – we will be thinking about how you best support your metabolic health as a key framework for supporting your general health, overall.
Find out more and sign up here!
References
Arena, Ross et al. “Shelter from the cytokine storm: Healthy living is a vital preventative strategy in the COVID-19 era.” Progress in cardiovascular diseases, S0033-0620(21)00066-9. 18 Jun. 2021, doi:10.1016/j.pcad.2021.06.008
Notes
There are many different ways I could describe what I mean by “poor health,” but I prefer to use one concept to explain most cases: metabolic health. What I mean is, health problems can arise from many different underlying causes. Perhaps an individual is hit by acute trauma or has a rare genetic disorder that lead to specific symptoms. These cases happen and need to be addressed as specific cases.
However, if we take a look at the population and ask why most people are suffering from poor health and disease, there is an underlying set of root causes, collectively defined as metabolic syndrome.
It’s to this case of an unhealthy metabolism that my models examine.
