The Human Body as a Dynamic Phenomenon

In this article I want to discuss the human body from a perspective of a complex dynamic system and outline what implications this has on how we should look at human biology and health.

The current paradigm in human health underemphasizes this complex dynamic system factor. It looks at the body as a consistent phenomenon that has stable behavioral patterns and always has the same reaction to the same input.

For example we say X is good for the body, Y is bad for the body. But for a complex dynamic system, the reaction to a given input depends on the current state of the system. And because the state itself is dynamic the reaction should also be dynamic.

Of course the human body has the “24 hour” dynamic oscillatory behavior. But it also has many larger period oscillations and also non-oscillatory drift phenomena.

Because the human body is a complex dynamic system, its evolution is likely path dependent.

Another aspect that the current paradigm in human biology does not emphasize enough is the concept of equilibrium states. It is likely that any individual human body has a finite number of stable, global equilibrium states.

And under the influence of outside factors, over a person’s lifetime, the body can arrive at any one of these stable states.

The human body is beautifully brilliant, as it can adopt so well to so many environmental factors.

For a complex dynamic system to remain in stability it has to find an equilibrium state that is in negative feedback to all inputs. Yet some states could be more energy efficient than others and hence are preferable for the body.

It is interesting to consider how often the body changes its equilibrium state throughout a person’s life and how much gradual drift occurs as well.

Still in progress…