Doves, Diplomats, and Diabetes

Notable for its coherent explanation of the diversity of processes as much as for its exposure of the gaps in our knowledge, this volume outlines a new paradigm for understanding diabetes based on Darwinian medical precepts of the disease's evolution.

Darwinian medicine looks at the ecological and evolutionary roots of disease. A disease is an interaction between a genome and its biotic or abiotic environment and therefore a disease is essentially an ecological process. Good understanding of ecology and a Darwinian way of thinking can give us novel and useful perspectives on health and disease. If we understand the disease process better, we can certainly prevent, control as well as treat diseases in a better way. Although the thought that the origins of obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) might lie in our hunter gatherer adaptations is not new, research over the last decade makes us rethink many of the classical concepts. Brain and behavior is increasingly being recognized as central to all the endocrine, metabolic and immunological changes that earmark type 2 diabetes and other metabolic syndrome disorders. A major change in paradigm appears to be on the horizon and the proposed book intends to speed up the paradigm shift by raising important questions, pointing out flaws and inadequacies in the prevalent paradigm and stimulating radical rethinking which would redirect and refine the line of research as well as bring some fundamental changes in drug discovery and clinical practice.

Exposes the gaps in our understanding and suggest alternative ways of thinking about diabetes Explains the diversity of processes in a coherent manner Forms a new and more robust skeleton around which the body of future research can be built ? Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Klappentext

Type 2 diabetes, obesity and other lifestyle disorders are a growing health concern in the modern world. Despite decades of research and worldwide efforts, there are no signs of curbing the growing epidemic. It is time to rethink whether there is something fundamentally wrong in our understanding of the origins and the etiology of these disorders.

A probe into evolutionary origins of the disorders is likely to give us new insights into the basic biology behind them. Reviewing prior hypotheses of the evolutionary origins of type 2 diabetes, Dr. Milind Watve takes several important steps toward a radically different perspective. Based on an extensive compilation and reinterpretation of research over the last two decades, Doves, Diplomats, and Diabetes challenges some of the prevalent theories, including whether obesity is central to insulin resistance, whether insulin resistance is central to type 2 diabetes and whether raised blood sugar is the real cause of the diabetic complications.

What emerges is an alternative interpretation of type 2 diabetes and related disorders. Behavior is proposed to be an important driver of endocrine and metabolic state. This book illustrates specific links between behavior and metabolism and demonstrates how the deficiency of certain stone-age behaviors is leading to modern health problems. It demonstrates how brain and behavior regulate glucose dynamics in the body. The concept of behavioral deficiency disorders is a potential paradigm shift that would stimulate research is a new direction. The central arguments in the book are based on substantial backing from epidemiological and experimental evidence, systems-level analysis and mathematical models. In spite of the inherent complexity of the subject the book is written with a style that makes it readable to any reader interested in basic biology, evolution, medicine or health.

Inhalt

1. A Darwinian Way of Thinking.- 2. Diabetes in a Textbook.- 3. Diabetes in an Undergraduate Class.- 4. The Rise and Fall of Thrift.- 5. Of Hawks and Doves.- 6. Of Soldiers and Diplomats.- 7. The Physiology of Aggression.- 8. Deploying the Immunological Garrison.- 9. Why Population Density Matters.- 10. Time to Give up Stress.- 11. Fat: Beyond Energy Storage.- 12. Why Blood Sugar Goes up.- 13. Beating Around the 'Wrong' Bush?.- 14. Behavioral Deficiencies and Behavioral Supplementation:.- 15. Where do we Go From Here?.- Appendix I. Genes/molecules that are associated with aggression and also associated with some component of metabolic syndrome.- Appendix II. Network model of type 2 diabetes.- Appendix III. Model for the Effect of population density on aggression.- Appendix IV. Glucose homeostasis model.