Losing weight, Sleeping, Cybernetics

[Polska wersja]

Monosaccharides are the basic source of energy and the first of energetic compounds to be metabolised in human cells. Following breakdown they provide the body with large quantities of energy in short time. Glucose metabolism plays a crucial role in body processes, thus an efficient system of its control is necessary.  The control of glucose metabolism must account for lipogenesis reactions (creating fatty tissue) and lipolysis (breakdown of fatty tissue) taking place in cells.

When analysing the pathogenesis of glucose metabolism one must not pass over the role of the hunger signalling system. Disturbances at the initial phase of this system are of key effect on the overall sugar metabolism in the body.

APPETITE, signalling of hunger

It should be clearly pointed out that the feeling of hunger does not result from blood glucose concentration but is triggered by fast decrease in blood glucose level.

The feeling of hunger comes from the autonomous nervous system, which is informing us about shrinking reserves of easily accessible glucose in advance. Such a signal provides the body with more time to obtain and digest food and is to prevent loss of consciousness due to hypoglycaemia (too low concentration of glucose in blood).

Infection microbes that feed on sugar (e.g. Candida) - present in the cells of an ill organism - successfully confuse the system of signalling hunger which predicts hypoglycaemia.

Microbes using saccharides at exponential pace cause sudden decrease in blood glucose level and earlier feeling of hunger compared to a healthy person. The parasitic cells take saccharides from the host's body using passive transport - facilitated diffusion.

Forced by frequent appetite, resulting from the needs of the body and the parasite, the intake of high glycaemic index foods causes fast increase in blood sugar level. Glycaemia in people infected this way is maintained at higher levels than in healthy people. Such infection causes increased insulin secretion, intensive lipogenesis and putting on weight.

A different group of microbes (e.g. Fusarium), those that gain energy from protein breakdown, leads to the lysis (breakdown) of human cells. Glucose is the product of this kind of parasitism and it affects the system of hunger signalling,. The slower glycaemic decrease, resulting from the existence of two sources of administration of glucose to plasma, and the lysis of human cells result in the patient losing weight.

The two kinds of fungi mentioned above frequently occur simultaneously. Their influence on the system of hunger signalling is a function of their activity. In extreme cases the patient's weight may be constant, but the number and quality of his cells will be systematically decreasing. Appetite cannot be controlled with a restrictive diet, physical effort or willpower.

The scientific method of fighting with obesity based on counting calories and following the rule of "eating less and exercising more" cannot be effective because it's inconsistent with the "logic" of the infected human body. This ineffective method of fighting obesity destroys human cells and causes even more health problems. Sending patients who are pathologically losing weight to a psychologist or psychiatrist is a fundamental misunderstanding.

LIPOGENESIS - synthesis of fats from glucose.

The body has a limited capability to store saccharides in the liver and plasma. High concentration of glucose (above 30 mM) in the small intestine (this is a crucial 'in-advance-activity'- insulin is secreted even though glucose is still outside the human body) or high blood glucose level triggers pancreatic insulin secretion. Thanks to insulin, glucose passes into muscular and adipose cells with high intensity.

In skeletal muscles, glucose is converted into mechanical and thermal energy. In adipose cells, glucose gets transformed and stored in the form of triglycerides. Lipogenesis helps maintain blood glucose level, because every excess of glucose which is not used by the muscles and other tissues can be quickly stored in adipocytes (fatty tissue cells).

Insulin delivered endogenically or in injections, in amounts higher than appropriate for the intensity of physical activity of the body, causes earlier hunger, increased lipogenesis and weight gain.

Diabetic patients who take too low doses of insulin or are unaware of their sickness and do not take insulin at all, feel hunger less frequently and so they lose weight. The cells are not getting glucose and in turn become weaker. Hyperglycaemia (high concentration of glucose in blood) occurs in such situations and it activates thirst signalling system. Thirst and hunger cannot be ignored and defeated with willpower.

LIPOLYSIS – breakdown of lipids into glucose and fatty acids

Fats contain the highest amounts of energy. It gets however released slower from that stored in saccharides. Energy from glucose breakdown is needed in order to convert triglycerides into glycerol and fatty acids. When it is not there, the body can use saccharides obtained from amino acid breakdown.

Low concentration of glucose, resulting from insufficient supply of sugar from the liver and gastrointestinal tract, causes natural sleepiness. Sometimes, when stimulated by mental stress, the autonomous nervous system increases our activity and does not allow for sleep. Natural "boosters" are released into blood in such cases– catecholamines like adrenaline, noradrenaline and other. They may make us highly active - both physically and intellectually.

This is one of our defence mechanisms, reserved for cases of absolute necessity like protection of life. In such circumstances, during daytime activity we obtain additional energy from lipolysis triggered by catecholamines.

As a result of catecholamine activity, the fat from fatty tissue is converted into fatty acids and glycerol. Then they both get into blood plasma and constitute an immediately available source of energy. Glucose - produced in the liver out of glycerol - feeds the nervous system and, thanks to insulin, also gets into muscular cells.

The main aim of lipolysis caused by hormones is to obtain glucose from glycerol. Fast inflow of glucose into the cells provides the body with better chances for survival in cases of danger.

In diabetic patients, hyperglycaemic episodes which have no dietary grounds and are triggered only by high level of mental stress, suggest that in stressful circumstances the body obtains glucose via lipolysis. Defective in diabetic patients, insulin-based system of glycaemic regulation causes episodes of high hyperglycaemia, which result from correctly functioning supportive coupling: stress-catecholamines-lipolysis-glycaemia.

Low concentration of glucose in blood limits pancreatic secretion of insulin. This regulation of glycaemia provided by the insulin-glucagon system aims at preserving the residues of sugar in blood to ensure normal functioning of the brain, heart, kidneys and vision.

Muscular cells receive less sugar, so the mean speed of metabolism and body temperature decrease, heart action slows down, we become sleepy, to finally fall asleep.

Interestingly enough, during the last phase of sleep lipolysis gets induced in the human body. Lipolysis preceding waking up provides the body with energy necessary for obtaining food in the morning. This is how evolution has prepared humans for living in the natural environment, in which the availability of food was variable and high-protein food was scarce.

Episodes of hyperglycaemia, which occur in diabetic patients during the last phase of sleep and frequently last after waking up (also called the dawn phenomenon) result from intensive lipolysis and the insulin coupling damaged by the disease.

The intensity and other specific features of lipolysis occurring during sleep suggest that the substances taking part in this process go through cell membranes using facilitated diffusion. This type of transport through the cell membrane does not require energy from the outside and runs very intensively at only mild differences in substance concentration in the cell and in its surrounding.

Diffusion can only occur according to the gradient of concentrations of the transported substance. It is a primary form of transport and the only one in non-organized colonies of cells.
Human cells in the body have not lost these abilities. What is more, they have developed a way to efficiently control (block) the process of facilitated diffusion.

The presence of insulin and high concentrations of catecholamines, which are the driving force behind the active forms of transport through the cell membrane, can successfully block facilitated diffusion. Appropriate conditions for passive transport of triglycerides out of the adipose cell can occur during sleep, when low blood glucose level is blocking the insulin secretion and there are no stimuli inducing catecholamine secretion.
Such a solution allows for justified by malnutrition reduction of fat reserves only during sleep. During daytime free-of-stress activity, the body protects the adipose tissue and, by inducing hunger, forces the body to immediately satisfy appetite.

Diffusive release of a triglyceride micelle (a drop/vesicle of fat) from an adipose cell is only possible through an appropriate protein canal in cell membrane. The higher the concentration of plasmatic amino acids, the more intensive the fat release from adipose cells. Diabetic patients, who had high concentration of amino acids in blood plasma before going to sleep or had eaten a supper high in protein, suffer from the dawn phenomenon manifested in high hyperglycaemia. The dawn phenomenon is not experienced by diabetic patients whose amino acid plasma concentration during sleep was constantly low.
Low concentration of amino acids in blood plasma during the night phase of life significantly decreases the rate of lipolysis. This is one of the reasons for systemic, limited to the minimum amino acid intake by the muscular cells during daytime activity.

The body also needs to take care of the most exploited muscular tissue. These parts of muscular tissue need the biggest amount and diversity of amino acids. Therefore, during daytime activity, the passive transport of amino acids into the muscular cells is blocked. Forced by muscle contraction, increased flow of plasma provides the nearest surrounding with e.g. glucose and amino acids. Insulin allows for glucose diffusion to the cell and blocks amino acid transfer into it. Therefore, before sleep, in an intensively exploited muscular tissue the concentration of amino acids is higher than in other muscles.

During sleep, the concentration of glucose in the small intestine and tissues systematically decreases, because it is mainly taken by adipose cells. Low concentration of glucose in the intestine and low glycaemia limits insulin secretion. Low level of insulin stops blocking the canals of passive transport of amino acids into the muscular cells and the triglyceride micelles from the adipose cells into the plasma.

In a healthy person, this process intensifies the lipolysis in the adipose tissue located near the muscular tissue which is intensively exploited and causes faster development of the strained muscular tissue. Body-builders use insulin and increased muscular effort to provide a given group of muscles with more amino acids. Thus they affect the process of selective modelling of their figure.

If intensive training is not stopped in time, amino acids in the plasma get destroyed and the body gets intoxicated with urea. The process of amino acid breakdown into monosaccharides limits the ability of the body to regenerate proteins and additionally it unnecessarily strains the excretory system.

The blood glucose level of healthy people (affected only by few infections of microbes feeding on sugar) mainly depends on exertion (both physical and intellectual). For them higher demand for energy causes only a momentary increase in blood glucose level.

Persons infected with such microbes have a permanently increased blood glucose level.

This induces increased lipolysis in the adipose tissue located near the muscular tissue which is intensively exploited and often results in gaining weight in the area of both quadriceps muscles.

Muscular contractions increase the flow of blood within the muscle and the adjacent adipose tissue. Increased inflow of blood with increased glucose concentration into the adipose tissue adjacent to the muscle causes intensive deposition of fat in it during physical activity.