Something has always puzzled me about the model for the evolution of man. Our current best-guess model based on the fossils we’ve found shows that we got taller for a while, and then the neanderthals which likely co-existed with humans got a lot bigger, stronger, thicker bones, and smaller brains. The problem is that in terms of hunter-gatherer / predator type of animal kindgom the neanderthal with similar brain capacity (although less) should have been a little higher on the food chain due to size and strength. So, why did we evolve a big brain when a the brain requires a whole lot more sugar and nutrients. What kind of long string of punctuated equilibrium events arrived at us having a lot bigger brain when it is a metabolically inefficient organ?
Well there are lots and lots of thoughts and theories on this, all of them I’ve read sound pretty good, but I’ve never heard an entirely satisfactory answer since it is mostly based on conjecture (since well, no one wrote down what actually happened). And the fact remains that a good portion, a really good portion, of what we eat every day goes to powering our brain.
So, what does that have to do with me being sick…well, I’ll tell you.
My brain makes everything look all peachy and what not, but behind the scenes it is secretly devouring all my energy.
Case in point, I’m sick as all get out yesterday. I start to feel a little better during the day, I work on my webpage, start to feel worse towards bed time. But I sleep better, I feel almost like going to work this morning, but still have a fever. So I stay home to make sure I get enough rest and don’t relapse. I sleep in till about 10:30, get up, read LJ, post a little. Work some more on my website. Feel even better almost go to work at noon, fever is still there, decide to stay home in an effort to not get anyone else sick. 2:30ish coughing gets worse, headache increases, so does fever. Lauren gets worse, I get worse. I take a shower, hack up a lung and part of small intestine. I don’t feel safe driving, otherwise I would go out and get tougher cough medicine and some arbys (she has a craving, and no she isn’t pregnant).
So what has this got to do with anything. My brain is sucking up my energy, making me sicker, not letting me actually rest. The more I think “Gee it is easy to sit here and type, or to fix my web page” the more sick I get. But how do you stop it, I’m not tired enough to sleep…I tried that, you can’t just shut off your brain. And to make it worse, when I’m sleeping I have weird half feverish, half something entirely more concrete (boardline prophetic maybe). So my brain is still working…overtime.
I can’t make it stop, when I get feverish I write, read, and think faster. That is to a point…after that point I get delerious and slow, but that happens later. At either point with a fever I can’t talk or listen very fast, go figure.
And here I am writing again, watching that crazy Gilmore Girls DVD’s w/ my wife, both taxing. And I can’t make my brain stop working…and here I am sick, and not getting better cuz my brain is burning up all my sugars I’ve taken in today.
Crazy, just plain crazy…I need a new brain, or an immune system that knows how to shut down my brain to work its magic.
rschmit says
When you simplify the neanderthal/cro-magnon man argument to size, yes. But remember hunting for the neanderthal was a much more dangerous proposition than for the cro-magnon. Cro-magnon developed tools which made hunting more successful. Neanderthals were not tool users (at least not effectively), and also dealt with different climate conditions than later humans. Bigger brain = more brainpower = tools, fire, shelter, technology, innovation = survival and propagation of the species.
The brain uses only 20% of the energy produced by the body. It comes primarily in glucose, but also in ketone bodies which can be used as an alternate fuel (usually when suffocating, or sub-optimal levels of glucose). Thinking doesn’t make your brain suck up more energy. Your brain is running regardless of whether you’re thinking or not. Keep in mind your brain is constantly processing what you see, hear, taste, and smell; your sense of balance and kinesthesia; all of your peripheral sensory needs, like breathing and heartbeat.
So, in my book, the brain earns its keep. And thinking doesn’t make you sicker. What makes you sicker is not sleeping, not eating, not keeping fluids up, not taking medicine, and not seeing a doctor to get said medicine if necessary. So there. Sleep, drink water, take cold/flu meds, see a doctor if you aren’t feeling better by tomorrow.
BigCat says
I thought the neanderthal also used tools, and buried their dead with beads and crap. Now I’m pretty far removed from my basic anthropology class, so I reserve the right to be wrong of course.
Anyway, the point wasn’t anything about that…I was writing that mostly to be silly. The point is, my damned head hurts…I sleep all the time, I drink a shit-ton of stuff (not beer), I take whatever I can, and I can’t drive to see the doctors, and they are closed today.
20% of your sugars is a lot for an 8 lb organ in a 240 lb man, and I’m betting when you think harder your brain uses even more. I of course have nothing to back that up with other than my own desire for it to be true, but the point remains, I’m not resting all that well when I’m thinking, and no matter how much I sit around “resting” I’m still sick this morning, and my throat hurts today on top of all of it.