Is Metformin a Drug or a Buffer and why is this Significant? Further Evidence that the Brain Regulates the Autonomic Nervous System, in Particular Prevailing Levels of Intercellular pH

Abstract

This paper builds upon a body of research which illustrates that the main function of the brain is to modulate the coherent function of the organ networks more commonly known as physiological systems and hence ensure our optimum physiological stability and function. The aim of this article is to further develop this hypothesis and illustrate examples which support it. Moreover the existence of the neurological paradigm i.e. the mechanism by which the brain regulates the coherent function of the physiological systems, by comparison to the contemporary biological paradigm, illustrates fundamental conceptual limitations of biomedicine and, in particular, of the most widely used diabetes drug metformin; in particular that at normal dosage metformin does not appear to function as a drug but instead as a biological buffer which regulates plasma pH at indicatively 6.9–7.1 thereby adversely changing plasma pH to a level which, for many, ensures that their diabetes persists for as long as they are taking this medication and which for the obese may defer the progression of more severe diabetic comorbidities. Such an observation requires a fundamental rethink of what exactly is diabetes and has significant implications re what is diabetes, how it should be measured, and how it should be treated i.e. by dealing with the neurological origins of the condition or by treating the biomedical consequences, or by a combination of both approaches.