Biopsychosocial-cultural-political processes
(NB this is an old version which need to become very much updated! – When this is done, this “NB” will be removed!)
Integration of diet, inflammation, Brain functioning and sociopolitical processes
Careful and dyslexia warnings – this text is very, very rough in way from be completed!
What is a possible explanation to a destructive development of a democratic processes as can be observed in today US?
As usual not one but a number complex possibilities in complex synergy enabling us to reveal such development in time and prevent it´s development. Socio-cultural-political knowledge development per se does not give much to rely on, as I see it.
Instead we need to look in a generalistic way, which increase a strict reductionistic science, where the opposites can be challenged also by just make fun of. I chose the latter risky discussion below
If we assume (knowledge probably on the way to be more consistent) the following quite complex ..
Hypothesis (working on the title above): In a complex integration between (a) biopsychosocial-cultural processes such as psychosocial stress in general but also internalization, mirror neurons behaviors and its elation to reconsideration and neurogenesis (“neuro” meaning “relating to nerves” and “genesis” meaning the formation of something, http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Neurogenesis.aspx) in particular and (b) psychophysiological processes such as in general diet and exercise and in particular e.g. postpradial effects on inflammation, -> together in a complex, at present now well understood way, influence and challenge basic systems in health development in general and more specifically neurological functioning including cognitive functioning as well as increase DNA methylation behaviors (and its proposed relation to human diseases) -> which over time are assumed to be biopsychosocial-cultural conditioned to habitual, non-conscious spatial behaviors which vary between and within individuals over time -> where possible consequences are more or less complex combinations of neurobiological, psychological/psychiatric and social-cultural individual expressions including some of the platform for the modified Postman quotation below – which can be one possible explanation for the beginning of the fall of democracy in the US – profits systematic infiltration in brain spatial, preferably not-conscious systems washing-out neocortex critical reasoning for “follow-the-leader” which suddenly turnout out to be … a low level Himalayan blunder ?
In short: Can (based partly on the above) gradually extreme increased profit manipulation (brainwash, not intended/realized) not direct physical violence individual brain functioning and intellectual critical reflection/decision processes?
Postman quotation: I think the below (not yet updated and time adjusted) is still very much to consider – or are we already there;
Neal Postman: “What Huxley teaches is that in the age of advanced technology, spiritual devastation is more likely to come from an enemy with a smiling face than from one whose countenance exudes suspicion and hate.
In the Huxleyan prophecy, Big Brother does not watch us, by his choice. We watch him, by ours. There is no need for wardens or gates or Ministries of Truth. When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility ” .. Who is prepared to take arms against a sea of amusements? To whom do we complain, and when, and in what tone of voice, when serious discourse dissolves into giggles? What is the antidote to a culture’s being drained by laughter? (Postman, 1985, p 155-156) ..
”What afflicted the people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking” (p. 170).
More in details
- Stress, food and inflammation: Psychoneuroimmunology and Nutrition at the Cutting Edge https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2868080/: about “Stress Influences Metabolic Responses To Food: Within an hour of eating a meal high in saturated fat, circulating triglycerides rise and can remain elevated for 5 to 8 hours (47). Postprandial lipemia (abnormally high lipids after a meal) is associated with type II diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, and enhanced cardiovascular risk (47). Furthermore, when high-fat meals flood the body with glucose and triglycerides, they provoke spikes in IL-6 and CRP while also enhancing oxidative stress and sympathetic hyperactivity; termed postprandial dysmetabolism, this cascade promotes endothelial dysfunction and thus atherogenesis (48). Postprandial lipemia can represent either higher post-meal peaks or delays in clearance, either of which can promote the accumulation of atherogenic-triglyceride-rich remnant lipoproteins (49). Importantly, stress both enhances post-meal peaks and delays clearance. For example, one study showed that hourly mental stress substantially augmented postprandial lipemia; the total triglycerol (TG) and very low-density-lipoprotein-TG areas under the curve were 50% or more higher during stress than under control conditions (50). In an elegant study from Stoney and colleagues, acute stress also slowed triglyceride clearance following an intravenously administered fat emulsion. Compared to the non-stress session, clearance of an exogenous fat load took 14% longer on average following a laboratory stressor (51).In fact, stress alters gastroduodenal motility, slows gastric emptying, and perturbs intestinal transit and colonic motility (52). Indeed, because the vagus nerve innervates tissues involved in the digestion, absorption, and metabolism of nutrients including the stomach, pancreas, and liver, vagal activation directly and profoundly influences metabolic responses to food (53). For example, vagal activation is important in the regulation of early and peak insulin responses that help to govern postprandial glucose levels (53); in turn, the glucose response to meals helps to determine postprandial inflammation (48). Both depression and stress have well-documented negative effects on vagal activation as indexed by heart rate variability (52, 54), providing another pathway through which negative emotions may influence postprandial inflammation. In short, the brain and the gut have a vigorous, ongoing dialogue.
- Inflammation and cognitive functioning is now more and more in focus, e.g. depression https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-breakthrough-depression-solution/201111/the-brain-fire-inflammation-and-depression – http://www.brainfacts.org/diseases-disorders/psychiatric-disorders/articles/2015/the-brain-inflamed/”
- More is coming …
On the prevention/positive side we can do a lot, e.g.
- Exercise (which e.g. is not easy for still sitting and overweight individuals), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4436444/
- But also at large use the biopsychosocial medicine toolbox (see “3” below)
- But – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3092901/ – but Turmeric will assumed not be enough – but still an important competent in the toolbox.
The above generate a number of questions to work on, e.g.;
- Does methylation play a role in re-consolidation and neurogenesis – explaining the varying variation between individuals difference concerning variation in rigidity and flexibility as well as intellectual development?
- Does biopsychosocial cultural stress (strain) psychophysiological documented in itself (independent of diet) influence substantially intestinal flora?
- Does individual adjusted (reasonable optimal) exercise, diet, sleeping, biological correct breathing, psychological and social functioning optimize an individuals health development? That is the biopsychosocial medicine toolbox?
To be further checked – TNF-alfa https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1389713/ + https://www.hindawi.com/journals/mi/2014/861231/