The Human Machine – Part 1

Homo Sapiens are one thoroughly evolved species. Just think about it – We live amidst millions of other organisms and species, sometimes in hostile terrains, yet we thrive. We eat lot of stuff, mostly cooked, some uncooked, at home, at restaurants, and elsewhere. We drink water and other drinks from various sources. We inhale all sorts of air, fresh air, oxygen-rich, oxygen-depleted, polluted and otherwise. Yet, we are doing just fine, well most of the time! It always blows my mind when we “try” to study this amazing machine – its anatomy, purpose and role of different organs, and how they are in constant evolution.

Kanakadasa, the 16th century poet composer from Karnataka, India, was spot-on in his composition called Daasanaagu Visheshanaagu where he starts with “Esu kaayangala kaledu embhathnalku laksha jeeva rashiyannu daati bandha ee sharira”. This translates to “This human body has been formed after evolving through 84 lakh species of life“. It took a “while” to get this human form and we must truly appreciate it. There is an interesting story behind Kanakadasa and the other famous poet composer Purandara Dasa that I captured in my blog, do check it out later. Back to the main topic now.

Although engineered by nature with this continuous process of evolution, the human body resembles the machines built by humans. At the core, in simplicity, all machines need the right inputs, has to process these inputs well, and produce the right outputs. A combustion engine takes petrol, diesel or natural gas as input, converts into power to move the vehicle. A smartphone takes in audio, video, touch and other inputs to generate the expected output. Likewise, the human body needs a set of good inputs, to be able to process it into energy to sustain the body. In case of the body though, the process of cleanup and getting the toxic and other waste out is equally important. Having this triumvirate of input-process-output as a well-oiled machinery is critical for the long-term health of the human body.

We all like to enjoy a good meal – some like it spicy, some sweet, and others sour. What I read somewhere was that humans should eat a mix of all tastes – sweet, sour, spicy, bitter, salty, apparently body needs all kinds of flavors. We all know about the concept of balanced diet – right mix of carbs, proteins, vitamins, fibers, fats. Well, this talks about the source and contents of food, and considerably overrated, in my opinion. What is more important is the desire to eat and the hunger to enjoy a good meal. We all remember those days of sickness, where we are in no mood to eat anything – no hunger or desire.

Hunger and desire to eat well is a sign of a fit body. With all the right inputs (or occasional bad inputs), the capability of the body to generate this hunger and desire is an important indicator. However, we need to be careful about hunger. As we read from the “Comfort Crisis” book by Michael Easter (refer my review), there are two types of hunger – Real Hunger and Reward Hunger. We need to focus on the real hunger – that is when the body requires food to function – a physiological need. With the right inputs, considerable thought should be given to manage the hunger – Space out meals to let body generate real hunger and keep the reward hunger in check. Desire to eat is very important, but equal care should be given not to splurge on the junk food – yes, control those “cravings” please.

Now that we have taken the inputs, it’s time to process them. A computer system gets these inputs into its central processing unit, which has several processing components to process them into expected outputs. The processor these days are super powerful, multi-core with clock speeds in the north of 2.5Ghz. Although quite powerful, it isn’t designed to keep itself busy all the time, and it’s important to enter “sleep” mode, to minimize power consumption and ensure longevity. In case of the human body, the brain has kept evolving over several generations, and people say humans are getting smarter and smarter (well, this could be debatable!). Although we could keep ourselves busy all the time (yeah, I am talking about that smart thing in your pocket), it’s critical for the human system to enter “sleep” mode. And then there is actual processing of food, what we call the “digestive” system. These two components –Sleep and digestion are utmost essential in the human processing system, with long-term impact on its health.

Sleep is quite underrated – we have all gone through those sleepless nights and found ourselves completely disoriented and lost. A daily quota of sleep, be it 6, 7 or 8 hours, consistently timed, makes a world of difference to the human body. “Nature protects the young” they say – maybe it protects only the young. After clocking some years on this earth, we need to take care of ourselves even more, and it starts with consistent sleeping pattern. Eating at least 2 hours before sleep, staying away from electronics and those blue screens at least 1 hour before sleep, reading a book, any book – preferably something boring, or listening to slow music are all the tried and tested means to get a good night’s sleep. It definitely helps if you have had a good physical workout during the day. In case of human body, sleep has impacts beyond just resting – it kickstarts a process of repair and recovery for the body and brain. Depriving the human body of sleep is an open invitation to ill-health.

Digestive system is critical to health – we all know it. This set of complex nervous system containing an estimated 500 million neurons, stretching from your oesophagus to your anus, is often dubbed the second brain. And this is where the gut feel comes from! Although we take it for granted, digestion is a very complicated process, hence evolution bestowed us with a dedicated network of nerves to oversee it. It’s like a co-processor which offloads the entire digestion process from the main system. The neurons in the human “second” brain is about 5 times as many as in the brain of a rat. Let that sink in – our co-processor is 5 times powerful than the main processor in other animals, no wonder we are the dominant species on this planet. Eating the right food, in right amounts, and meals spaced rightly, to not load this co-processor is important to keep the digestive juices in right spirit. This co-processor protects the entire system from harmful substances by triggering vomiting or diarrhea or alert the main brain which can decide to initiate vomiting, or both.

Machines need to generate the expected output – a computer system displays something meaningful on the monitor/screen, an automobile system moves the vehicle smoothly, speaker systems play good audio, etc. If it doesn’t output as intended, we call the machine has “Gone Kaput” (Kaputt means “no longer working” in German). There is waste output too, for most machines it’s heat dissipation or unwanted noise and frequencies. In case of human body, we need the energy to stay active, to do the daily chores, just to be “alive”. During the process, however, the body generates significant waste products, like sweat, urine and poop. Nobody likes to talk about this but ask anyone who hasn’t been able to excrete for couple of days, they are going to tell how bad they are feeling in general. Drinking lots of water, eating a lot of fiber-based food and regular exercise to just sweat it out are crucial in getting the right output from the body.

The human body is an incredible machine – we are really lucky to have got a personal copy each. It’s our essential duty to keep this machine in order, by means of self-evaluation of the input, process and output parameters. Good input, process and output are the vital signs of good health. Ensuring these systems are in good shape is important for the long-term health of human body, and with it the homo Sapien species itself. I would like to end this blog with a brilliant quote by Jim Rohn, an American businessman and author:

Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.