You Are NOT a Soul. You Are Your Metabolism.

Image credits belong to: mohamed_hassan | Pixabay

Have you ever heard the statement that your soul "is the core of your being" or that your soul is "the essence of who you are"? You can find these claims in various forms on Google. Search it. 

If the soul exists (I doubt it), what does it mean to be with a soul? Personal quests about identity often involve discussions about the soul, but I often find those discussions to be ill-defined. Throughout the centuries, the idea of a "core self" or "true self" has been conflated with the idea of a soul. 

To open this discussion about identity and who we are, I want to discuss our natural and physical core characteristics: growth, reproduction, cellular repair, and response to environmental stimuli. 

The Fundamentals of Life

Who would you be if you could not grow? You would not be able to attain the adulthood which everyone finds praiseworthy. 

Who would you be if you could not reproduce? Life might feel lonely, barren, and directionless without children and family. 

What if you could not mend your ravaged cells and tissues? Your agonizing body would wither and decay. 

Who would you be if you could not excogitate (or carefully study and fully comprehend) your responses to things happening around you? Your ability to respond to environmental stimuli is not something to be taken for granted. You realize its importance to your identity when you think about the lamentable condition of unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, wherein a patient is unable to show reflex movements on command while being awake from a coma.   

I think these qualities or features of life define us far better than a soul can define us. 

Every lifeform's chief ambition is to make undamaged progeny despite internal and external attacks on DNA. Life has evolved protective responses that cover a wide array of cellular events and diseases.   

Metabolism is a Core Part

If the soul is the core of your existence, how does it control or guide your existence? Since growth, reproduction, damage-repair, and response to environmental stimuli are crucial to your existence, would that mean the soul controls those biological events? 

Science already can answer what controls those things. It is called metabolism, which includes your chemical reactions that consume and generate energy within cells. Metabolism has pathways that occur in stepwise fashion: 1) anabolism builds polymers (i.e., large molecules with repeating subunits) from smaller components via the input of energy, and 2) catabolism breaks down the polymers into their smaller pieces called monomers, thereby releasing energy. Enzymes must oil the wheels of the metabolic machine and catalyze the protein molecules each step of the way.

Think about it: it would be more believable to say that your enzymes are core to who you are or at least indispensable pieces that make up your core. Enzymes are indispensable because the cell's critical reactions would happen too slowly, and life would be impossible without enzymes binding to substrate molecules to break and form chemical bonds. An important enzymatic goal is to reduce the minimum amount of energy necessary for activating molecules. Enzymatic functions are best determined by salt concentration, temperature, and your water content's acidic levels (i.e., amount of free hydrogen ions) versus basic levels (i.e., free hydroxyl ions). You may recognize the acidic-basic water levels as pH. Extreme temperature, pH, and salt concentration can denature or alter the 3-dimensional structure of your enzymes. 

Extreme temperatures and the wrong pH levels can cause a specific type of enzymatic denaturation that unsettles your homeostasis or inner balance. You certainly will feel unsettled after becoming internally unbalanced. You might feel it in your "core."  

Particular non-protein assistants are needed to optimize many enzymes. In some circumstances, your enzymes are also governed by cofactors (i.e., inorganic ions found in iron and magnesium) and coenzymes (i.e., organic assistant molecules composed of carbon and hydrogen). Vitamin C is a great example of a coenzyme participating in the construction of connective tissue called collagen.

That is how enzymes live in your core being. Billions upon billions of other relevant core stuff are happening too. Who you are may be subjective, but that subjective self cannot be felt without biochemical reactions. 

  Anabolism

The classic anabolic hormones are another example of things that do better than the soul at defining who you are.

Your growth cannot take place without hormones made by the pituitary gland. Your cells could not employ your glucose sugar without insulin hormones from the pancreas. The strength of a man's muscles, deep voice, and facial hair that are important to his masculine identity would not be possible without testosterone. Breasts and strengthened bone mass that are important to a woman's identity would be impossible without estrogen. 

Your pituitary gland is a pea-sized part of the brain tied to general wellbeing because it coordinates with your hypothalamus in releasing and inhibiting the growth hormone that provides normal body structure, metabolism, and healthy glucose levels in the blood. An uncontrolled growth hormone that causes acromegaly (i.e., abnormal enlargement of the hands, feet, face, and organs) can make us realize its importance to who we are. No one wants to live with the high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease that accompany this condition caused by a benign tumor on the pituitary gland. Your symptoms may not define your whole being, but your symptoms can make it hard for you to think about and live with who you are. I think some people with acromegaly can attest to that struggle as they are reported to suffer from neurosis, uncertainty, asthenia (i.e., lack of energy or strength), and fears about bad unpredictable future events. 

Since insulin problems and blood sugar fluctuations are tied to fatigue, anxiety, depression, and difficulties with clear thinking, it is hard to avoid the premise that insulin is important to who we are. You are not your symptoms, but it is hard to realize your essential worth when you are depressed, anxious, fatigued, and struggling to think clearly. 

Estrogen and a Woman's Identity

As a man, I wish to tread softly in the territory of estrogen and women's identity. Estrogen is relevant here because it is a hormone of the anabolic category, and anabolism is a part of the metabolism that takes care of our energy.

I believe that proper estrogen is important to a woman's identity since it governs the menstrual cycle, childbearing potential, and the physical changes that transform a girl into a woman. 

With the ovaries as the main source, estrogen travels through the blood to control cholesterol, protect bone health, and impact a woman's mood, heart, skin, and other tissues. Low estrogen can cause annoying hot flashes, sleep difficulties, decreased sexual desire, mood swings, and dry skin. High estrogen can cause abnormal menstrual bleeding, fibrocystic lumpy breasts, fibroids or benign tumors in the uterus, and feelings of depression and anxiety. See source. 

Men also have estrogen though less than women. Excessive and deficient estrogen levels can also detrimentally affect men. 

Estrogen does not define everything about a woman, but it affects how she thinks and feels about herself. Who knows if she would ever say that she feels it in her "core." Again, estrogen is another key part of humans that defines us better than the soul could define us.  

Testosterone and a Man's Identity

Testosterone is the vital male sex hormone that develops the penis and testes. It deepens a man's voice during puberty, gives him facial and pubic hair, augments muscle size and strength, protects bone health, gives him a libido, and produces sperm. 

The pituitary gland tells the testes to secrete testosterone. The hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and testes work together in a "feedback loop" to prevent the overproduction of testosterone.   

A man's testosterone levels can significantly affect how he feels. Enormous testosterone levels can diminish fertility and the testicles, enlarge the prostate, damage the heart muscle, and make the legs and feet swell up with fluid. Enormous testosterone levels can cause liver disease, acne, weight gain, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, chronic sleeplessness, headaches, and mood swings. Enormous testosterone levels can make a man feel exhilarated, crotchety, or delusional. 

Although these symptoms do not ultimately or essentially define a man's entire identity or core, the symptoms definitely can impact how he values himself and what he values in his social life.    

Produced by the ovaries and adrenal glands, testosterone is one of several androgens (male sex hormones) in females and can affect female bone strength and sexual behavior. Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) can significantly increase testosterone levels in women, affecting 6% to 10% of premenopausal women. The symptoms can greatly impact how a woman values and interprets herself: changes in menstrual cycle lengths, diminished fertility, unwanted facial hair, unwanted hair loss, skin changes, weight gain, depression, anxiety, breast reduction, and deepening of the voice.   

Testosterone is said to become more deficient by approximately 1 - 2% as the male ages each year. Testosterone deficiency is a major concern, especially for more than a third of men over age 45. The symptoms of testosterone deficiency are: lessened hair, reduced muscle mass, decreased sex drive, difficulty getting an erection, small testicles, sperm underproduction, increased breast size, sudden feelings of warmth and flushing, grumpiness, difficulty concentrating, depression, and easily breakable bones.

Although these hormones, enzymes, and metabolic reactions do not holistically define who you are, they are the key observable characteristics that define who you are more clearly than an unobservable, unverifiable soul ever could. 

General Disclaimer: All sources are hyperlinked in this article. The author has made their best attempt to accurately interpret the sources used and preserve the source-author’s original argument while avoiding plagiarism. Should you discover any errors to that end, please email thecommoncaveat@gmail.com and we will review your request.

All information in this article is intended for educational/entertainment purposes only. This information should not be used as medical/therapeutic advice. Please seek a doctor/therapist for health advice.