Beautifully Beneficial Causality Among
Homeostasis, We, Wellness & Wisdom
Scientific evidences maintain that ageing is 30 percent gene function and 70 percent lifestyle choices. Homeostasis decides it all. Anthropologists say, more than 100,000 years ago when hunting and gathering were the primary economic activities, humankind was in a homeostatic equilibrium with the natural environment. We have lost it way back.
Global researches confirm that the aggregate levels of happiness and well being are not appreciably higher now than they were at the end of World War II (1945), even though per capita income has increased by several hundred percent and in all aspects of life and living, we are now many times better off and comfortable.
It is not that these are stupid data or findings of a science lab, which we are not aware of. It surely looks like we all feel it but cannot say why? We all somehow promptly confirm, something is hugely amiss around us, but when it comes to pinpointing it, we have trouble. Be it our body, mind, family system, society at large, cultures, nations or global order, we all feel, things are not the way it needs to be and there is something small or big, which we are missing, which makes us uncomfortable, missing the desired wellness.
It is not that humanity is not doing anything about all this. There are researches going on. Lots of money and intellect are being invested to know exactly what and why. However, somehow, it is not such a complicated thing that an individual, busy in his or her life and living blues cannot understand and answer. It is indeed a simple common sense, which humanity, some thousands of years back could fathom and point out.
What we are about to discuss under the name Homeostasis is essentially a biological term but has utility and reference in all walks of life and living. We are simply talking of the balance, poise, equability, equilibrium, equanimity and what we have learnt since ages - The Golden Mean. In all our religious books, folklores, spiritual discourses, philosophies and societal wisdom talks, we can find the core concept of balance or poise in everything we perceive, accept and do. The poise and balance is surely not an external idea or a value that is alien to us. It is in fact what we have been designed for and is very much our central mechanism. We are endowed with it but seldom at it!
The key is however to understand this poise, which is the central design of our body and mind and also to seek to extend this idea to all aspects of life and living choices. This is important as we now stand at a juncture of evolution where we have lost this crucial and critical balance or poise since long and need to restore for not only the survival and excellence of the self, but the human race itself. The words below explain in detail the idea of this balance and the factors that we have in our immediate and surrounding environment as well as in our life and living choices that threaten and affect very badly this critical balance.From Wikibooks, open books for an open world
The explanation about the idea of homeostasis is scientific and it needs expert knowledge. That is why I accept that most things about the concept of homeostasis, I have taken from what experts have said. Even most of the words in the following paragraphs, about homeostasis are that of the experts, not truly mine. I surely cannot explain it in layman’s terms as it shall not be appropriate. What I am doing is trying to correlate the idea of scientific concept of homeostasis with the realism of loneliness. I am using the idea of homeostasis, as outlined by experts, with my own perspective of how loneliness is a positive and beneficial endowment for the attainment and perpetuation of this very crucial body-mind need of homeostasis.
Talking about homeostasis, the human organism consists of trillions of cells all working together for the maintenance of the entire organism. While cells may perform very different functions, all the cells are quite similar in their metabolic requirements. Maintaining a constant internal environment with all that the cells need to survive, like oxygen, glucose, mineral ions, waste removal, etc is necessary for the well-being of individual cells and the well-being of the entire body. The varied processes by which the body regulates its internal environment are collectively referred to as homeostasis.
Homeostasis in a general sense refers to stability, poise, balance or equilibrium. It is the body's attempt to maintain a constant internal environment. Maintaining a stable internal environment requires constant monitoring and adjustments as conditions change. This adjusting of physiological systems within the body is called homeostatic regulation. Because the internal and external environment of the body is constantly changing and adjustments must be made continuously to stay at or near the set point, homeostasis can be thought of as a synthetic equilibrium.
Homeostasis then is more than just balance, it is the combination of changing parts within the body that are constantly in different states, yet also constantly adapting to internal and external variables in their environment.
Science says, homeostasis allows the body to adapt to a wide variety of environments, both internally and externally. In order for the body to maintain healthy, it needs to remain in a state of balance, homeostasis. When the body is unable to maintain homeostasis, disease often ensues. A great many factors can affect the body in such a way as to throw off homeostasis. Stress is one of these many factors. As is commonly known, stress on the body can induce both physical and psychological changes in the body.
Science says, while the body is able to adjust to natural changes within the body, and generally without (temperature changes, etc), it cannot adjust to activities which we subject ourselves to. Smoking promotes changes within the body which homeostasis has no control over. It cannot defend against the harmful effects of smoking, drinking alcohol in excess, or depriving our bodies of necessary sleep and nutrients. Poor dietary habits can take a toll on the body for which homeostasis can do nothing to recover balance.
We have gone a long distance on the wrong path since ages. The environment we live in is so much polluted, the food we eat is so unhealthy and lacking natural sanity, the lifestyle we lead is so full of excesses and extremities that together they all put us off this precious balance, miles apart. Most of modern degenerative diseases, also called lifestyle-diseases are the result of this affected homeostasis of human body, living choices and external environment.
What is important is to know that disease and cellular malfunction can be caused in two basic ways: either, deficiency (cells not getting all they need) or toxicity (cells being poisoned by things they do not need). Contemporary environment and lifestyle choices are doing both at the same time and that too very badly. In our fast-paced lives and peer-pressured race for unending marathon of instant-self-gratifications, we are not only depriving our bodies of the basic needs for survival but also adding hell lot of toxicity than our bodies could handle. Survival is all about homeostasis in nature as well as nurture domains. Tragically, we live in a cluttered milieu and annihilated nature as well as nurture.
Now, it is crucial to understand and accept, how in our drift and flux lives, we are actually killing our homeostasis, which in turn is creating havoc with our life-living wellness and personal excellence. It is so very important to understand and accept that in addition to the internal control mechanisms, there are external influences based primarily on lifestyle choices and environmental exposures that influence our body's ability to maintain cellular health. They are:
Nutrition: If your diet is lacking in a specific vitamin or mineral your cells will function poorly, possibly resulting in a disease condition. Usually people take overdose of macro nutrients like carbohydrate, protein and fat but seldom nourish their bodies with micronutrients like vitamins and very important minerals which are key to homeostasis and homoeostasis regulation. We need to understand, a deficiency of even a nondescript mineral called zinc could create havoc with body homeostasis. Equally crucial are potassium, calcium, phosphorus, etc. Balanced diet in today’s fast-paced life is most crucial requirement and this is what most people ignore. It needs to be reminded that in contemporary clutter culture, the mass media, pep psychologists, markets and celebrities are all spreading inappropriate and extrapolated information about not only right food and right diet but almost all aspects of life-living choices. That is why there is that overload of confusion about what is right and good for us. We need to stop and check things for our wellness.
Toxins: Any substance that interferes with cellular function, causing cellular malfunction are toxins. This is done through a variety of ways; chemical, plant, insecticides, and/or bites. A commonly seen example of this is drug overdoses. When a person takes too much of a drug their vital signs begin to waver; either increasing or decreasing, these vital signs can cause problems including coma, brain damage and even death. As per latest info, an average American has 12 prescriptions a year. All over the globe, average people too are taking far many medicines than necessary. In America, more people die of prescription drugs than any other single disease. Moreover, the toxins in the environment in major cities are major culprits of homeostasis. The air we breathe, especially in bigger cities is calamitous. The food we eat is so much laced with harmful chemicals, pesticides and adulteration that every day we are adding loads of toxins in our bodies. The toxicity has already penetrated to genes and dangerous mutations are devastating next generation.
Psychological: Your physical health and mental health are inseparable. Our thoughts and emotions cause chemical changes to take place either for better as with meditation, or worse as with stress. Our hormones, which are agents of homeostasis, get hugely affected by our mind state and lifestyle choices. The psychological factors are the most crucial ones in degrading homeostasis. It has been found that in modern living spaces, most diseases have psychological reasons which finally take the shape of psychosomatic diseases. They get listed in broad classification of lifestyle diseases, which are the largest killers and cripplers of humanity in contemporary clutter culture. It has been clearly stated that when in a mind state of chaos and confusion or state of extremities, the hormones of the body get very poorly affected. As homeostasis is largely a function of hormonal interplay in the body, volatility of hormones causes havoc with homeostatic balance. This calamity is cyclic.
Physical: Physical maintenance is essential for our cells and bodies. Adequate rest, sunlight, and exercise are examples of physical mechanisms for influencing homeostasis. Lack of sleep is related to a number of ailments such as irregular cardiac rhythms, fatigue, anxiety and headaches. It is the most common trouble of clutter culture. In a zeal to multitask, remain ever-connected and be in ever-happy mode, people are not only not sleeping enough hours but have also become victims of disturbed sleep. People generally believe that a walk in the evening or morning is sufficient. It is not. If you understand human evolution, you can easily understand how much physical labour is required for the maintenance of body balance. This natural body homeostasis was disturbed 10,000 years back when humans developed farming and started living a settled life. Consider what sort of life we lead. A good game of tennis, half an hour of swimming daily or some good running is the bare minimum we need. However, it also has to accept that rest and work go hand in hand. Either of the two is a recipe of disaster.
Genetic/Reproductive: Inheriting strengths and weaknesses can be part of our genetic makeup. Genes are sometimes turned off or on due to external factors which we can have some control over, but at other times little can be done to correct or improve genetic diseases.
Medical: Because of genetic differences some bodies need help in gaining or maintaining homeostasis. Through modern medicine our bodies can be given different props, but the potential for harmful effects is present. Most drugs have side effects and inappropriate drug administration is commonplace. Whether by infections, or wrong dosage of medication, homeostasis can be altered by that which is trying to fix it. Trial and error with medications can cause potential harmful reactions and possibly death, if not caught soon enough.
The factors listed above all have their effects at the cellular level, whether harmful or beneficial. It also has to be understood that the homeostasis imbalance in one system out of many body systems alone can cause other systems under stress as all systems are linked. We need to understand various body systems, which are related with each other for well-being. So, if our digestive system is in poor homeostasis, other systems like respiratory system or circulatory system also becomes stressed.
This however is not all about this very crucial realism of homeostasis. Homeostasis is not only about biological or physiological; it has wider manifestations. There are a growing number of economists, psychologists and other social scientists that have become interested in research on the determinants of wellness and happiness. It has been found after years of rigorous researches that individuals achieve a higher state of well being and happiness when they are in a homeostatic equilibrium, in larger sense of the term. This equilibrium state has physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual and environmental dimensions. Behaviour adjusts to restore the individual to homeostatic equilibrium through a combination of physical, emotional, behavioural and psychological adjustments. This behavioural readjustment is known as Allostasis.
It is now beyond doubt that when people are in a nurturing and free environment where there is trust, stability, good health, a satisfactory work environment, companionship with friends and family, people are generally happy and have a strong sense of well being. This represents the attainment of a homeostatic equilibrium at the environmental social, emotional and psychological levels.
However, overall homeostatic poise is not a permanent realism. Throughout their lives, people experience excitations to this equilibrium. Some of these excitations may be positive – a better job, promotion, birth of a child, marriage, movement to a better and more desirable living environment, greater security and trust, development of a more well integrated social life, exercise and more robust health, enjoyment of hobbies, friends and family, and so on. This would lead to a higher level of well being as the individual moves to a new homeostatic equilibrium. On the other hand, a downward displacement from a homeostatic equilibrium would lead to a lower level of well being.
Experts say, it is interesting that at a more fundamental level, the underlying model and motivations that drive behaviour in a model of homeostatic and allostatic adjustment are different from the maximizing calculus (instant-self-gratification) of microeconomic theory. Rather than decision being motivated by purely cognitive factors, the adjustment mechanism that drives behaviours in the case of homeostasis, involves a combination of cognitive as well as emotional imperatives.
This is interesting. Researches maintain that incomes do matter; comfort has a role in wellness but only till a stage. As wellness is a function of wider homeostasis, which includes factors, which are not only cognitive but also emotional, a person is in complete wellness when there is a balance between the cognitive factors such as income, wealth, comfort, leisure and health as well as emotional factors such as trust, security, integration with family-friends-colleagues, connectivity, stability, sense of desirability and spiritual purpose, etc.
Research confirmed that across geographies and ethnicity, people have shown the general tendency to move towards restoration of this homeostasis in case of a major shift away from it. This clearly suggests, like our biological system, homeostasis is our natural and desirable state of being, in all aspects of our life and living choices and there is a natural and instinctive urge to restore it. We are designed to act and behave in a way to return to set point of poise.
However, what is very important to understand and accept here is that even as most behaviour and actions of average people are aimed at attaining or restoring this crucial overall homeostasis, the actual choices depend mostly on how an individual subjectively perceives his or her life situation and what emotions shape or guide his or her choices. For example, a man, even in poor health, may opt for working more hours in office, instead of taking proper rest, if he perceives that he needs more money for better education of his kids. This leads us to this very important topic of how we all do risky behaviours, even when we are all wired to seek our overall homeostasis equilibrium.
We have explained earlier that you are in your perspective and your perspective is in you. This means, what and how an individual perceives his or her actual and real life situation can be very subjective. This hints at what we have earlier talked about loneliness. We are as lonely as we think we are. Similar is the realism with our perception about all things and life situations. This subjectivism of cognition is what we are talking about as we delve into this crucial subject as why people do loads of risky behaviour, which we see all around in contemporary clutter culture.
Scientists say, risky behaviour supports the hypothesis that a failure to adapt to losses or to attain an expected gain, to restore the homeostatic equilibrium induces risk seeking. Most kinds of risk seeking behaviours can be interpreted as a desire to return to an equilibrium level of wealth or any other parameter. This motivation is particularly strong when losses are involved. It is because sense of loss has more emotional impact than the sense of gain. This suggests, emotional inputs have larger subjective impact on perceptions and choices. Therefore, after a gain, many gamblers may take greater risks, guided by the emotion of larger gain. However, some gamblers may take a bigger risk, even when they lose, as they may be led by desperation to win at any cost.
Scientists say, this aspect of the relationship between risks and the homeostatic equilibrium relates to behavior that has been dubbed risk homeostasis. This behavior implies that there is an optimum or equilibrium level of risk that people are generally comfortable with. If this is true, then efforts to decrease risk may be met by riskier behavior. For example, when highways are designed to be safer, drivers increase their speed and take more risks and the accident rate remain at previous levels when highways were not safer. So, the finality of all behaviors depends on subjective sense of perception of realism.
Scientists say, this interpretation is crucial to understanding the variety of and huge amount of risky behaviors that we all see around us in our modern living environment. All around us, there are people, of all age groups, taking far too many risks that seem quite contrary to the belief that people in general have this intuitive inclination to move back to homeostatic balance. But, it has to be understood that any cognitive factor of wellness is also subject to emotional interpretation. Like; income and wealth as a key cognitive factor for wellness is important but only up to a limit after which it rather has negative impact. But, what actually is the optimum level of income and wealth is a subjective and emotional decision, given also the fact that we all live in a modern environment where income and wealth disparities are huge. Only 5 percent of global population owns 95 percent of wealth. This contemporary clutter culture has loads of such chaos, conflict and confusion, which irrationally affect choices of behaviors.
In such an environment, decision-making is more tilted towards emotional rather than logical. Scientists confirm that this cognitive-conundrum is biological, part of our body-mind mechanism, which we have already stated. Science says, confusion and chaos makes one emotional in thinking and value-summation as limbic system is activated. So, emotions make the fine-line between optimum and maximum blurred. This prompts risky behavior, even though, the behavior is towards restoring the homeostatic equilibrium.
In modern environment, there is a sense of relative safety and stability. This also prompts people to take more risks in creating wellness. Then, people have their own levels of emotional value-summation. A person may react very deeply and heavily if divorced and start taking risky behaviors, another may move on. So, individual reaction to homeostasis requirements and allostatic corrections may vary.
Understanding the dynamics of homeostasis and its functional mechanisms give us great insight as we can understand our own internal design of things and external environmental factors that have the potential to disturb our balance and poise of life. Balance in modern environment is something so rare but this is what we all need to have. That’s why, understanding this poise in all aspects of life and living can help. It should.
This entire lengthy discussion on homeostasis was aimed at knowing and accepting the two core facts, which we have been talking in this book since the start. First scientific fact is – the contemporary clutter culture is a dysfunctional and debilitating realism as it makes most of us land in chaos, conflict and confusion. This in turn lands us in a charged up emotional state affecting our logical and appropriate decision-making, as it blurs our perceptions about actualism of realism. This is what we talked about. The clutter culture affects our consciousness negatively and this in turn affects our cognition. Naturally, affected consciousness and illogical cognitions throws us in the deep oceans of bad and calamitous causality.
Second core fact emanates out of the first. That is; when the crucial 3Cs – Consciousness, Cognition and Causality are hit by another 3Cs – Chaos, Conflict and Confusion, we begin to lose the sense of appropriateness of self-awareness, self-control and self-actualization. That is why we begin to perceive some good and right things as bad and wrong and the vice-versa. This perception about the worth and utility of loneliness as some bad and wrong thing comes out of that situation, which most of us find ourselves deep into.
That is why, at the very start, we emphasized this need to stop, opt for this golden freedom of choice to pull out of the clutter culture and start to take the road to this calming, endowed and beneficial space of loneliness. This shall trigger off a very meaningfully empowering causality. Loneliness readies us to the attainment of our overall homeostasis, which in turn makes us have a very well-shaped and logical 3Cs of consciousness, cognition and causality. We shall then be having an empowered consciousness, life-living wellness and personal excellence. Let us welcome loneliness as a brilliant causality of overall wellness.
I think, as we have accepted the utility of this notion of causality of overall homeostasis with wellness, I invite you to another very important and beneficial causality between wellness, success in love and homeostasis. It promises to be very interesting and highly useful causality to unravel the worth and utility of loneliness. We deal with it in next chapter.
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