An intelligent systems explanation of type 2 diabetes and a narrative to promote lifestyle change

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes is an error in the glycemic control system caused by insulin resistance. Self-organizing control systems use artificial intelligence to monitor and correct how they function and are used in modern applications of robotics. The development of type 2 diabetes is gradual and reversible through lifestyle changes, and this is consistent with insulin resistance being formed through a self-organizing or intelligent control system rather than the traditional control system on which current biomedical control systems are modelled. Lifestyles that induce high levels of glycemic variation would, in an intelligent control system, be detected as excessive oscillation, and an intelligent system can reduce oscillation by reducing the amplification. Insulin resistance represents low amplification in the glycemic control system. Intelligent control system functioning requires a network architecture, so if the glycemic control system is self- organizing, then it should be part of a network system that provides intelligent functioning for other control systems, and error in the glycemic control system would contribute to errors in other control systems and to a state of general network dysregulation. Intelligent systems theory explains how the comorbidities of type 2 diabetes and obesity would form through the dysregulation of a network of metabolic, immune, endocrine, and neurological pathways. The theory predicts that medical and lifestyle interventions for type 2 diabetes could improve comorbidities, but that comorbidities would reduce the effectiveness of those interventions. Studies are proposed to test this new theory that provides a non-blaming narrative for patients and could form a prequel to patient education.

Keywords

homeostatic dysregulation / artificial intelligence / networks / lifestyle / comorbidity / adherence

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