Arteries

(This is a work in progress.  When I'm done, I'll remove this paragraph.)

My wife has asked some very interesting questions over time.  Think of the following topics as being preceded by "If the reduced blood flow theory is correct, that how do you account for..."

Growth
As a child grows to become an adult, he or she increases size.  His or her chest expands.  Why don't all children, then, get diabetes?  Wouldn't this normal expansion of the chest cause the same problem that visceral fat expanding the chest causes in the chest?  --  Well visceral fat may actually press on arteries as well, but if we just go with the stomach yanked to one side and duodenum yanked to the other, this is a valid question.  The answer, I propose, is that the arteries in children also grow, but that the adult body loses the ability to grow.  Therefore, an increase in chest diameter for an adult is a big problem, but it is not for a child.

• I'd like to propose a possible explanation for juvenile onset diabetes.  In rare cases, a child experiences a growth spurt and suddenly gets diabetes.  Perhaps the arteries of such children have been forced into adult, non-growing mode before the rest of their bodies are forced into that mode, and they suffer reduced blood flow to the pancreas as a result.  (It could also have something to do with congenitally short ligament of treitz.)  -- This is just a theory, folks.  

How Does Blood Get To Fat Cells?

Turns out that stem cells still exist in the body and that new miniature arteries needed to feed fat cells can grow even in adults.  It's just the larger, preexisting arteries that can no longer grow.

How Can Arteries Work After Being Nearly Collapsed?

If you tie a string to a small tree's top, and pull the string over to the side, the tree will bend.  If you leave the tree like that for long enough, when you remove the string, the tree will stay bent.  This is one of the techniques of bonsai.  So why don't arteries stay tweaked if they are being pulled on, even if the pressure is released?  There are two answers:  First, those arteries don't grow into position.  They're done growing.

So why don't arteries just stay collapsed, as a pipe stays collapsed if you dent it?  Arteries have muscle cell walls.  That's why you get a pulse, because the muscle cells fire off and help the blood flow.  These muscle cells are resilient.  There is something called the "elastic limit."  If you do not force a piece of metal to its elastic limit, you can bend it many times and it will spring back to where it was.  Metal that is used in such a manner is, in fact, called a spring.  There are leaf springs and coiled springs.  I propose that the arteries leading to the B cells in the pancreas are forced out of shape, but they are not stressed to their elastic limits, and therefore they spring back to where they need to be when the pressure is released.