title: Metabolic syndrome - A truly psychosomatic disorder? A global hypothesis.
abstract: Exact cause of the metabolic syndrome [MS], a global epidemic, is still unclear. Man has same fundamental needs to live as animals but modern man's life-style compels him to acquire certainty of resources for all his needs in a complex social network. Today money has become the sole life essential need. Contrarily none of the animals needs to earn money. Brain is also an organ of the human body with a unique thought process to define logical actions to achieve a person's goals. This way life is a flow of desires followed by logical actions. The person struggles to attain desired goals via the allostatic load but a perceived insurmountable threat can make his flow of life stalled to freeze him. Published data from varied branches of medical science indicates role of hormones in overall homeostasis. Particularly multifaceted role of serotonin is well documented. Adrenalin being the primary mediator of Cori cycle is also well known. From the integration of observations from published data with reference to common human's modern lifestyle, it is hypothesized that a perceived trapped situation in life creates acute chaos of thoughts in brain, which results in acute excess of stress hormones and concurrent depletion of resting hormones, which in turn triggers MS. In global terms, MS indicates an acute imbalance of a few hormones and implies psychosomatic roots of the disorder. This may pave a better way in deciding a personalized holistic protocol with combination of counter regulatory psychoactive medications.
authors.affiliation: CE & PD Division, National Chemical Laboratory, Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pune 411008, India. Electronic address: sm.ghike@ncl.res.in.
authors.forename: Shrikant Madhukar
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Ghike
mesh_terms: D000140:Acidosis, Lactic; D052636:Allostasis; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D002766:Cholecystokinin / Q000378:metabolism; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000378:metabolism; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications; D004032:Diet; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism; D004837:Epinephrine / Q000378:metabolism; D015444:Exercise; D006706:Homeostasis; D006728:Hormones / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications; D008019:Life Style; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D064307:Microbiota; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009042:Motivation; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000378:metabolism; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012701:Serotonin / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D006728:Hormones; D012701:Serotonin; D010121:Oxytocin; D002766:Cholecystokinin; D002784:Cholesterol; D004298:Dopamine; D004837:Epinephrine
keywords: Cardio vascular disease; Clinical psychiatry; Hyperglycaemia; Lactic acidosis; Metabolic syndrome; Type 2 diabetes mellitus