Homeostasis: how the body finds its own balance
Whether you climb a hill in midsummer or shiver in midwinter, your core stays near 36.5 °C. Walter Cannon named this self-regulation homeostasis in 1932. The body holds dozens of numbers at once, from blood pressure to blood acidity, and a cut finger healing by itself is proof of it.
So why do diabetes and high blood pressure not heal the same way? Because, the author argues, chronic disease is the breakdown of homeostasis itself. With a broken thermostat sensor, what needs fixing is the sensor, not the room temperature.
Mitochondria and cancer: what a cell does when its power plant fails
In the 1920s Otto Warburg observed that cancer cells barely use their mitochondria even with oxygen available, relying instead on inefficient fermentation of glucose: the Warburg effect. He concluded that damaged metabolism lay at the root of cancer.
The author grants that the gene mutation view of cancer remains powerful and gave rise to targeted drugs, but points to gaps it leaves, citing Thomas Seyfried’s Cancer as a Metabolic Disease and the recognition of reprogrammed energy metabolism as a hallmark of cancer. He is explicit: claiming that fixing the power plant cures cancer would be dangerous, and the field is still actively debated.
Oxidative stress and antioxidant balance
Like a cut apple turning brown, our cells rust a little every day. The culprit is reactive oxygen species, the exhaust of mitochondrial energy production. They are not simply villains: immune cells use them as weapons and cells use them as signals.
Trouble starts when exhaust outpaces cleanup. Sunlight, smoke, alcohol, fine dust and oxidised cooking oils add to the load, while chronic stress and lost sleep tie the hands of cleaners such as glutathione. Damaged mitochondria then emit more exhaust, a loop the author links to ageing and deepening metabolic failure.
Type 3 diabetes: the brain gets metabolic disease too (cracks in the amyloid hypothesis)
For thirty years amyloid beta was the standard explanation of Alzheimer’s. The author lists three cracks: many cognitively healthy older people carry heavy amyloid, amyloid-clearing drugs failed to halt decline, and a landmark 2006 paper was retracted in 2024 after image manipulation came to light. He adds that this does not make amyloid irrelevant.
The alternative he describes is insulin resistance in the brain, along with research on an mTOR and amyloid loop and on brain microvessels failing before amyloid builds up. He states plainly that type 3 diabetes remains a contested hypothesis and a change of viewpoint, not a treatment.
Questions this chapter answers
What is type 3 diabetes?
A hypothesis that sees Alzheimer’s disease as insulin resistance in the brain, named by Brown Medical School researchers in 2008. The book notes it is not an official diagnosis and remains contested.
What is the Warburg effect?
Cancer cells relying on glucose fermentation instead of their mitochondria even when oxygen is plentiful, first observed by Otto Warburg in the 1920s.
Can cutting sugar cure cancer?
The book says it is not that simple: healthy cells need glucose too, cancer metabolism is complex, and cancer needs a multidisciplinary approach. Treatment decisions belong with your medical team.
Are free radicals always harmful?
No. Immune cells use them to kill bacteria and cells use them to signal. The problem is oxidative stress, when production outruns the body’s capacity to clear them.
See it in 3D on BAHI BODY
Read more on the blog
References from the book
- Cannon WB. The Wisdom of the Body. New York: W.W. Norton & Company; 1932.
- Warburg O. On the origin of cancer cells. Science. 1956;123(3191):309-314.
- Seyfried TN. Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer. Hoboken: Wiley; 2012.
- Hanahan D, Weinberg RA. Hallmarks of cancer: the next generation. Cell. 2011;144(5):646-674.
- Sies H. Oxidative stress: a concept in redox biology and medicine. Redox Biol. 2015;4:180-183.
- Aizenstein HJ, Nebes RD, Saxton JA, et al. Frequent amyloid deposition without significant cognitive impairment among the elderly. Arch Neurol. 2008;65(11):1509-1517.
- Panza F, Lozupone M, Logroscino G, Imbimbo BP. A critical appraisal of amyloid-β-targeting therapies for Alzheimer disease. Nat Rev Neurol. 2019;15(2):73-88.
- Piller C. Blots on a field? Science. 2022;377(6604):358-363. (해당 2006년 Nature 논문[Lesné 외]은 이미지 조작이 확인되어 2024년 철회됨)
- de la Monte SM, Wands JR. Alzheimer's disease is type 3 diabetes: evidence reviewed. J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2008;2(6):1101-1113.
- Caccamo A, Majumder S, Richardson A, Strong R, Oddo S. Molecular interplay between mTOR, amyloid-β, and tau: effects on cognitive impairments. J Biol Chem. 2010;285(17):13107-13120.
- Zlokovic BV. Neurovascular pathways to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease and other disorders. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2011;12(12):723-738.
