Asymmetry Within The Human Body And Why Its A Good Thing

Over the past couple of years, I realize that the more I look at the body, the more I realize how truly complex the system is. The human body is a beautiful confounding array of principles that builds upon a certain balance of systems. This balance looks like it rests upon what appears to look symmetrical on the outside but is organized chaos on the inside. Symmetry is derived from Latin meaning “of like of measure”. It involves measuring things in proportions to other things and being able to quantify it. Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man is the best example of the concept of symmetry since Leonardo was inspired by architects measurements for the ideal house and applied that to drawing what he thought the most ideal man would look like. His work was also a grand analogy of how man is a microcosm of the universe. Besides the beautiful analogy of how within each man is the universe, the Vitruvian Man was an art of how there was a precise relationship between all the body components of man.

In Walter Isaacson’s book, Leonardo Da Vinci,  Leonardo describes an aspect of the ideal man’s proportions saying “The distance from his chin to the top of his forehead should be one-tenth of his whole height and the length of the foot is one sixth of the height of the body and one fourth of the breast”. Each limb was symmetrical in its ideal size, shape, position, and proportion to another body part. The combined proportions had their place in relation to another which made the whole of the man.

The emphasis of symmetry as a concept inspired Leonardo’s and other Renaissance artists to strive for symmetry and exemplify it in their life. Symmetry would now be the ultimate measure of what is balanced and perfect. And who can blame them! It makes sense as usually the most symmetrical things are the most beautiful things. Even science shows that symmetrical faces are viewed as beautiful because it is a supposed marker of health. I will say symmetry is pleasing to the eye.

Symmetry has been inundated all through out our lives starting when we where young. In school, symmetry is a principle that was evident in math class. For instance when we learn algebra we are taught in solving an equation “What you do to one side you also do it to the other side”. It exists because in order to balance something out, one side has to mirror the other side so it doesn’t get all the glory and is kept in checked. Symmetry is what keeps things in line so they can appear neat, orderly, and makes life easier to solve (Sometimes). Plus it looks nice and you won’t get asked whether you live here or a monkey tripping on acid dropped in. Some of us bias more emphasis on symmetry than others and if things aren’t  in the right place then some fun stuff happens where that person will almost go out of their way to want to fix it.

 

 

Is your itch kicking in yet?

Symmetry is cool but to over-extend symmetry in to almost everything in our lives might not be the best thing to do. We all probably at one point have wished we could change or alter something so it could appear beautiful or be ideal but is the concept of everything to be symmetrical the fix? Is it really the best measure of something balanced and perfect? If it is, then why are so many things that are imperfect still beautiful and just as cool? A even more radical thought, what if symmetry is not the golden goalpost that exemplifies that something is beautiful or whole? While I’m not going down the rabbit hole of what is considered beautiful, since that could be subjective to each person, I am curious about “If symmetry isn’t the right model to always strive for. What if there is a purpose to asymmetry and in some ways is more useful than our historical romantic notion of symmetry”. I think the best place to explore the notion of asymmetry and how its useful and plays a big part of us is looking at our own body.

Life is complex and only looking at something with one lens may limit us. There is an irony to us as humans because we appear on the outside symmetrical but inside we are far from it. Learning from the Postural Restoration Institute, our body exemplifies a confounding ironic asymmetrical nature. Our asymmetry as humans is not proportional from a neurological, respiratory, circulatory, muscular and even from a visual standpoint. Whats even more, is that the left and right sides of our body do not function the same in their terms of responsibilities, function, position, and demands. But in our appreciation of our asymmetry, one might ask how are we to be whole if we asymmetrical. Here’s the thing. We are already whole through our asymmetry. Our asymmetry is what allows us to dominate as bipedal animals. It doesn’t matter the placement of organs, as confusing they may look, because at the end of the day our asymmetries are stacked on top of each other and are integrated in a way that makes us perfectly whole functioning human beings. The human body is balanced through the integration of system imbalances. We are balanced through our natural asymmetries.

If you think that this asymmetry applies only to humans then you’re mistaken. Even in the animal word, animals are wired for asymmetry too. Some animals use a specific side to either catch prey or to see predators in a specific side or position in order to run away. Whatever this phenomenon of asymmetry is, it is inherent in many organisms and probably evolved for a reason.

Just like DNA twists in turns in order to form a helix, our organs are analogous in how they twist and turn to be in the specific position they are in and there is definitely some inherent wisdom behind it. Asymmetry speaks to us making its name known through our major organs and their placement.

The diaphragm or should I say diaphragms (because you got 2 of those bad boys) are probably the most asymmetrical part of our story. The right diaphragm sits on top of your liver and is bigger than the left.

The right attaches to more lumbar vertebrae (L1-3) and will have a better leverage of pull to orient us to the right side because of it.

Right Crural attachments are at L1-3 while left only L1-2

As your diaphragm works to pull air in, the lungs also have their own story from being far from perfect. The right lung has more lobes than the left and even your Vagus nerve on the right has a longer twists to it.

(Guess who sits in that concavity space of the left lung.

(Also couldn’t find a good left & right Vagus pic)

The heart biases more to the left as well as the stomach and spleen.

Our brain hemispheres are also shaped asymmetrically and differently. The right frontal lobes are more pronounced than the left and ironically the left occipital lobe is bigger than the right one.

Just like those eggs, Nacho knows the brain on the left is a lie.

In fact this study  quotes that the asymmetries existed in fetal  brains as early as 20 weeks of gestation. So anyone being born is already starting out in an asymmetrical fashion. COOL! If that doesn’t rock your socks off I don’t know what will! It’s also a myth that one region of the brain does something specific because both sides of the brain actually work together to create a picture and sense of what is around us. It may be shaped asymmetrical but the asymmetrical shape allows us to have a balance of the world and because its actually more efficient in terms of neural circuitry.

Efficiency. Now that is another concept by itself and this may bring us full circle back to why asymmetry exists. The wisdom of why our body is asymmetrical is that maybe because it is the most efficient way to function as a living thing. Ironically something that may be asymmetrical in shape may be the most economical and efficient for a specific purpose. Perhaps the misconception is that in order for things to be efficient they should be ideally proportional or take up the same exact space as something else.  Like each specific organ should be in a designated spot that does its job just as another organ is equally proportioned mirroring it above or below it. It sounds nice in theory and may be pleasing in thought but it may be economically expensive and inefficient. Our guts may be the easiest examples of efficiency through their asymmetrical nature that they take up space and how they are arranged. The constant folding, twisting, and turning from one side of the body to the other allows for the degrees of freedom needed to process food we eat and extract nutrients from it to fuel our body. We know the small intestine is super long in lengthv (something like 6 feet) and so from a motility standpoint, the tight packaged shape makes it easier for us to churn chyme (food inside of you) efficiently without taking so much space as it goes on its way to eventually be excreted. 

Also the way its oriented makes it easier to transmit forces evenly and makes it easier for our body to communicate to us without wasting any energy. Being symmetrical takes up a lot of space and each detail that must mirror the other side may be unnecessary and could interfere with the actual function of doing a task effectively. Its pleasing to the eye but displeasing in the result of getting things done.

Not only is asymmetry part of our body but its also part of our life whether we want to acknowledge it or not. We can’t always do everything or get everything we possibly want  and there are always trade-offs that come with certain choices. We all have different things going on and we value certain things that take higher priority than others. Not everything can be given the same amount of time, effort, or space and that is OK!

Its part of how our world works and something we shouldn’t deny. It can be something to be grateful for because its what allows us to be different, unique, and our differences can help impact the world in a way that someone else may not be able to.

Like make sweet guitar riffs. Asymmetry is good for sumthin.

 

References

The Master and His Emissary by Ian McGilchrist

PRI’s Postural Respiration & Myokinematic Restoration

Leonardo Da Vinici by Walter Isaacson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man

https://www.posturalrestoration.com/the-science/basic-concepts-of-the-postural-restoration-institute

https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1196/annals.1324.008

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10953/

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