Coming soon, Nutrition In a Nutshell – Quarterly Newsletter

     Summer 2021, Nature’s Hearth Nutrition In a Nutshell Newsletter will launch with the publication of Volume I, Issue 1. The Newsletter will be sent quarterly thereafter, via email to Nature’s Hearth members.  Upcoming sustainable lifestyle and natural health events will be posted in the Newsletter.  Below is a sample section of the first issue of the Newsletter.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

Volume I, Issue 1

“No therapy or drug known to modern medical science can rebuild tissue that

 has been damaged by disease or trauma. Food alone can accomplish this feat”

– Dr. Bernard Jensen

Physiology of Human Health

The discipline of physiology was once dedicated to understanding how the parts of the body work together to maintain health. Jean Francois Fernel coined the term in 1542, defining physiology as the study of the functions of the healthy body. Unlike in the 16th century, present day definitions of physiology rarely mention health. On March 3, 2020, George E. Billman, founder and Field Chief Editor of the journal, Frontiers in Physiology, published an article, titled, “Homeostasis: The Underappreciated and Far Too Often Ignored Central Organizing Principle of Physiology.” In his article, Billman emphasized the original meaning of physiology and encouraged researchers to advance our understanding of human health (Billman, 2020, p. 2). 

The dependence on reductionists approaches, Billman explained, remains the most serious unmet challenge facing physiology today. Current physiological investigations largely focus on micro scales of molecules and genes rather than on how the interrelated systems of the body act in concert to maintain homeostasis. Billman offered this analogy, “It is no more possible to appreciate the beauty of d[a] Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” or Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” by removing and analyzing each individual dab of paint than we can understand how the various organ systems work together to maintain health by examining single genes or molecules. Just as when viewing a painting, the body can only be fully appreciated in its entirety” (Billman, 2020, p. 2).      

In all vertebrate species, homeostatic processes involve positive and negative feedback at multiple scales throughout the body. The endocannabinoid system (ECS) coordinates the systems of the body overall. Operating at a micro scale, Stephen C. Woods describes how “. . . in essence, our bodies have a network of lock-and-key chemical receptors that respond to the signals of cannabinoids'' (Wood, 2007). Cannabinoids and receptors exist throughout, for example, in the brain, central nervous system, organs, connective tissues, glands, and immune cells. At a broad scale, the ECS orchestrates how the body’s interconnected internal systems operate in unison, including the functions of the skeletal, muscular, integumentary, nervous, lymphatic, respiratory, cardiovascular, digestive, excretory, endocrine, and reproductive systems. The ECS manages the physiologic pathways of our body holistically to maintain and restore our health. 

References

Billman, G.E. (2020). Homeostasis: the underappreciated and far too often ignored central organizing principle of physiology. Frontiers in Physiology, 11(200), 1 – 12. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University.

Woods S.C. (2007). The endocannabinoid system: mechanisms behind metabolic homeostasis and imbalance. American Journal of Medicine; 120: S9-S17.