title: Applying laws of biology to diabetes with emphasis on metabolic syndrome.
abstract: The listed laws of biology will be applied to diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome. (1) Biology must be consistent with the fundamental laws of physics and chemistry. (2) Life, as opposed to non-living, exhibits negative entropy (known as syntropy), capable of creating order out of chaos. (The energy to support negative entropy is yet to be defined.) (3) The cell is the fundamental unit of biology. (4) The cell must be in homeostasis with its environment. (This property enables the process of evolution. In other words, the environment changes life.) (5) There must be a distinction between self and the environment. (Immunity and inflammation are the defenses against invaders from the environment and responsible for repair of damaged and senile cells.) (6) Electromagnetic information transfer is necessary for development and regeneration. (Life and, more specifically, regeneration of tissue will not exist in a non-electromagnetic environment, denervation results in atrophy.) A new model of disease derived from these laws is that health exists when degeneration and regeneration are in balance. Inflammation is the fulcrum between the two, being both beneficial in repair and detrimental by promoting degeneration. This model leads to a number of hypotheses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Scott & White Healthcare, Temple, TX 76508, USA. phouck@sw.org
authors.forename: Philip D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Houck
authors.forename: Jose Mario F
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004735:Energy Transfer; D006706:Homeostasis; D006801:Humans; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008954:Models, Biological