Biology class. Books.

Got nine of those Batman books at the library today- but I'd already gotten the "How to be Batman" book, so the joke has failed.

Got to be wide awake and fully absorbed in reading that "How to be Batman" book, it's by a neuroscienist and kinesiologist out in Victoria B.C., read almost half of it last night/this morning. My sleep schedule is pretty messed up right now, I'm thinking my reading then may have been the equivalent of spending lunch to dinner time on a book. I'm still a couple chapters away from the section looking on the effects of such a nocturnal existence. Either way, I'm trying to fix it back up. Going out for social engagements at 8pm as the earliest isn't helping.

And the birthday party tonight doesn't start until 10.

Anyway, the book is very interesting, the first part brings me back to high school biology, which is a great refresher if nothing else. ATP- adenosine triphosphate as the most basic energy our bodies use- man that takes me back.

The book managed to illustrate something about diabetes that had always confused me- from everything that I'd understood, I didn't really get how it was any different from how the body normally acts after, say, physical activity. And both of my parents were diagnosed with diabetes, so I should really be up on this.

It turns out my problem was pretty simple to address: I didn't realize there was a catabolic hormone that acts in balance with the anabolic insulin. So while there is less insulin processing blood sugar into stored reserves, there is no such decrease in the numbers of insulin catabolic counterpart (yeah, I forget its name) that is constantly using blood sugar. THAT explains the corresponding need to continually consume regulatory fuels.

Sheesh, one little piece of the puzzle and it would have gotten it years ago.

It's like when my brother is explaining the story for Kingdom Hearts (videogame)- to be fair it's a storyline that the creator intentionally left plot holes in, so he could sit back, watch his fans try to figure it out, and then fix some of them in the next installment while creating many more inconsistancies. Quite a racket.

Anyways, he'll explain something to me, I'll be confused, he'll say something that sounds crazier, and I'll go, frustrated "whoah wait wait. so is blah blah blah, blah blah bla?" and he'll go "Yes."

So then why didn't you just say "blah blah"

"Oh, yeah, that's a really good way to explain it."

Obviously in the actual conversation we didn't say 'blah' over and over.

I also learned about the bones osteoblasts, osteocytes, and osteoclasts- um, lets see, I guess I'll call them cells for now. The way I understand it is the 'blasts are what build up a bone, the clasts are what break down a bone (essentially both sides of the necessary balance- like the ana-bone to the others cata-bone) with the osteocytes serving as the more solid structure everything would revolve around.

I'm actually less sure about the osteocytes, in fact I had to re-look up what it was called, because they weren't talked about in much detail in the book. More focus was definitely on the 'blasts and 'clasts.

One interesting thing to note was that apparently researchers have found an interesting trend wherein the bones in athletes that have been toughened up by their individual sports in particular areas, say stronger pressure resistance in a runners femur, will be correspondingly weaker in other areas. A theory is that the body may have a net bone density/mass and if some bones get tougher it's by using materials that other bones would have otherwise used.

I'm not sure I hold to that, assuming the athletes are consuming a correspondingly higher diet for the materials needed for their bones (and muscles and everything)- the materials are there!

More likely the weaker bone mass was found in the more specialized athletes that just neglect other areas, perhaps they train those areas in such a way as to overtrain and those bones don't get the necessary recovery time to build up. It seems incredible that athletes who know how to train, who have trainers, wouldn't REALLY know how to train, would make that kind of mistake... but I'm not talking about people that train for overall fitness, I'm talking about people who train TO WIN and that's regardless of the cost.

Anyway, just a quick theory.