Life is such a paradox. On the one hand being selfless, being in service to others, is considered the greatest virtue. And yet, with the world being such a subjective experience, putting oneself before others is what comes naturally. We cannot be truly objective when the identity is threatened. After all ‘I’ am the most important person in ‘my world’ for without ‘me’ there is no ‘my world’! So, is my primary responsibility towards others or is it towards being ‘me’?
God has been my constant companion always. However, in recent times it is the voice of Science that whispers constantly both questioning and answering life experiences. He wasn’t about to be left out of this question! Here he comes…
Science: Your body gives you your first sense of identity. You are in essence first your body. And this name you so proudly identify yourself with, is for this body! The world experienced through this body is subjective! No body else can feel your headache! So your first responsibility is most certainly towards yourself!
I wasn’t convinced! An eye for an eye will make this world blind! Even if I need to take responsibility for myself, I do have to take care of my duties towards others. Liberty and responsibility go hand in hand!
Science: You didn’t let me finish! I do reiterate, your first responsibility is towards yourself, for life has been programmed to sustain itself. But you are also automatically programmed to interact with the outer world. Take your human body, for instance. Everything in your body works on compensations. Every cell has been programmed to keep you alive. There is a counter mechanism to help you sustain life under all odds. Do you know what happens when you eat sugar?
I quickly ran through the process in my mind. When sugar is eaten without the adequate amounts of quality fats, proteins, vitamins and enzymes, the blood sugar will get elevated. This triggers the body to release insulin. However, as the feedback to the brain takes time to stop insulin production, the blood sugar lowers below acceptable standards leading to a hypoglycaemic or low blood sugar state. Now again this is a threat and the body needs to respond immediately. Otherwise one could go into a state of coma. Now this stress causes the release of cortisol. Very often, people complicate this further by eating something sweet when the sugar level lowers, once again triggering insulin release. Meanwhile cortisol triggers the release of glycogen, the role of which is to elevate blood sugar levels. Now this causes blood sugar rise from the internal environment as well from the external food one ate to compensate the sudden low sugar levels. Now its like a roller coaster ride all day. Now the body is fatigued and becomes insensitive to insulin resulting in Syndrome X the first step towards diabetes.
Science: Now, you tell me… Food is eaten so that it can be converted into energy. After eating the stomach breaks carbohydrates down into sugar including glucose. Glucose enters the blood stream and stimulates the release of insulin from the pancreas. Insulin and glucose travel in the blood to all the body’s cells. Insulin allows the glucose to enter the cells and be used as fuel. Any excess glucose is stored in the liver. What will happen if the cells don’t absorb glucose properly? The glucose level in the blood will become elevated! This is what humanity calls diabetes. Either the body does not produce enough insulin (Type 1 diabetes) or the cells do not respond to the insulin resulting in insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. With insulin resistance the body makes excess insulin but the muscle, liver and fat cells do not use or respond properly to insulin.
Great! So I now know how sugar affects the human body! But this wasn’t my question! God! Time you pitched in! I really need some clarity…
God: As you yourself said, my child, without a ‘me’ there is no ‘my experience’! What Science is trying to say is that life is about balance. Glucose is the energy source for the entire cellular machinery. Though body cells can use fat for energy, brain cells and red blood cells rely almost completely on glucose for energy. But to enter the cells, glucose needs a key which is insulin. Now you saw what happens when blood sugar levels keep tossing between an increase and decrease. Insulin and glycogen keep flooding alternately the blood stream leading to exhaustion of the pancreas or as man calls it ‘pancreas burnout’. So ideally if the right balance is arrived on the correct amount of food, a constant flow of energy can be arrived without putting the body through this yo-yo of hypoglycaemia & hyperglycaemia.
Science: Exactly! I was trying to say the foods you eat are the external influences. It is converted into glucose by you internally. Automatically some glucose is stored as glycogen for use later. Insulin production is your response to it. Without insulin that glucose is wasted. Actually it causes nuisance as it elevates the blood sugar levels without control. So external influences that are not in tune with your nature but are ‘forced down your throat’ will only harm your equanimity. On the other hand when the external factor is processed with internal energy and acceptance in tune with your nature, the key for achieving has been released – insulin!
God: Like with type one diabetes, if the insulin production is low, namely your involvement is low, or like in type 2 diabetes there is insulin resistance, namely your involvement is divided with a lot of internal resistance, the glycogen will not be productive for you. The very food that has to give you energy has now become a potent poison tossing you into a diseased zone.
Science: Sugar is not the only example you have. Every thing actually works this way… Take for example the other dreaded human food of fat. Very often people misunderstand, misuse and ill treat fat. Do you know how important fat really is?
I picked the book “What your doctor doesn’t know about nutritional medicine may be killing you” by Dr.Ray D.Strand. “Cholesterol is not the culprit behind heart disease; the inflammation of blood vessels is. HDL cholesterol is actually good, and the higher our HDL cholesterol is the better. It is the LDL cholesterol that is bad. LDL cholesterol accumulates along the artery Walls forming plague and narrowing the arteries. The HDL cholesterol actually comes along and cleans up the artery.”
Science : My dear! Read on! LDL cholesterol is really not “bad”. God didn’t make a mistake when He created it. Native LDL cholesterol, the kind that the body originally makes, is good. In fact it is essential for building good cell membranes, other cell parts and many different hormones that our bodies need. We could not live without it. In fact if we don’t get enough from our diet, our bodies will actually make this form of cholesterol.
I could feel God smiling…
God: Man has to accept that he cannot better Mother Nature! LDL cholesterol is not by nature bad. The problem begins when free radicals change or oxidise the LDL cholesterol. Dr.Daniel Steinberg’s research has enthused the scientific world for he has postulated that adequate anti-oxidants can quell the oxidisation of LDL cholesterol.
I was still hearing Science’s voice “if we don’t get enough from our diet, our bodies will actually make this form of cholesterol”. Once again the implication to my question was there. The entire living process is an interaction between the outer world and inner world. No matter how much we try to isolate the two and treat them as independent entities, ultimately, they are part of the same. Just as how the human body has a way to deal with every interaction or lack of it with the external world, as a human being “I” process and deal in my own unique way every interaction or lack of it with others.
Science: Most importantly, as I said in the beginning, your first responsibility is towards yourself, as your identity begins with you. But you are never an isolated entity. You are a reflection of the responses you make to the external stimulators – giving the right amour of insulin and not resisting, Or for that matter giving the right amount of cholesterol and substantiating it with anti-oxidants as well!
It had been a very fruitful morning! I had learnt my answers. I could sense the smile on Science’s face. A secret look flashed between Science and God. Secret? Will they let me in on their secret?
My mobile rang. It was a new acquaintance calling to tell me he had visited my web site and liked all that I was doing. “But, hey, with all this, why don’t you also do some social service? I am sure it will be the right step forward for you…” I smiled. God and Science had let me in on their secret. When everything I do has social relevance, where is the need for a separate “social responsibility activity”? If my every interaction with the world is in tune with each other, where is the question of “I” or the “world”? In fact I realised, it is all about ‘me’.
Written by Gita Krishna Raj | Published in infinithoughts in August 2011
When Science met God… | Segment Four: The dance of a trillion cells
Chapter Thirteen: It’s all about ME
