In Brief The Roseto Effect — the observation that a close-knit Italian-American community in Pennsylvania had dramatically lower cardiovascular disease rates despite a diet high in saturated fat — represents one of the most significant natural experiments in social epidemiology, demonstrating that social cohesion can override conventional risk factors for heart disease. The Roseto findings […]
The Spleen System and Why Modern Sedentary Life Impairs It: A Korean Medicine Perspective
In Brief The spleen in Korean medicine governs the upward movement of Qi and nutrients — it is the system that “lifts” what the body has absorbed from the digestive process upward to nourish the head, clear the sensory organs, and maintain the structural integrity of internal organs. Sedentary, gravity-unopposed modern life progressively impairs spleen […]
Menopause and Lethargy: Understanding Causes and Management
Understanding Menopause Beyond Hormones When discussing menopause, most people attribute its symptoms to hormonal changes. However, rather than being the root cause, hormones are often the result of deeper physiological changes. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) provides a broader perspective on menopause by viewing it through the lens of the Five Elements (Wu Xing). The Five […]
Natural Healing and Cancer Coexistence: A Paradigm Shift in Treatment
When a cancer diagnosis arrives, most patients and families instinctively look outward — to hospitals, imaging machines, chemotherapy protocols, and surgical suites. This response is rational. Modern oncology has achieved extraordinary things. But as a professor of Korean Medicine at Dongguk University specializing in pathology and oncology, I have spent decades watching what happens after […]
Why Getting Mildly Sick Is Good for You: The Immunological Case for Minor Illness
In Brief People who experience frequent minor illnesses tend to live longer than those who rarely get sick — a counterintuitive finding that reflects the immunological advantage of a regularly exercised immune system over one that remains dormant. Minor acute illness — a mild cold, a brief gastrointestinal upset — represents active immune exercise: the […]
Why You Are Getting More Sensitive: Progressive Threshold Lowering and Constitutional Depletion
In Brief Increased sensitivity — to foods, chemicals, environmental stimuli, electromagnetic fields, and social situations — is not primarily a psychological phenomenon but a physiological state of threshold lowering that occurs when constitutional reserves are chronically depleted. The progressive accumulation of sensitivities over a lifetime is a reliable clinical indicator of deepening constitutional depletion: each […]
The High-Dose Supplement Problem: When More Is Not Better and Can Be Harmful
In Brief High-dose nutritional supplements operate on the assumption that more of a beneficial compound is always better — a pharmacological fallacy that ignores the homeostatic regulation that governs nutrient metabolism at physiological concentrations. Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) and several minerals accumulate in tissue when supplemented above physiological need; toxicity from chronic high-dose […]
Why Autumn Is the Season for Tonic Herbs: The Korean Medicine Logic of Seasonal Tonification
In Brief The Korean medicine principle that tonic herbs are most effectively taken in autumn — not spring or summer — is grounded in the body’s seasonal energy cycle: autumn is when the body naturally shifts from expenditure to consolidation, making it the optimal window for building constitutional reserves. Summer tonic use is contraindicated in […]
Why Cold Drinks Make You Worse in Summer: The Korean Medicine Logic of Heat Tolerance
In Brief The Korean medicine approach to summer heat management is counterintuitive: cooling the body with cold foods and drinks worsens heat tolerance by impairing the digestive fire that the body depends on to convert food into the energy needed to manage heat. The classical principle of “fighting fire with fire” — using warm, acrid […]
Black Beans and Hair: The Classical Korean Medicine Rationale and Modern Evidence
In Brief Black beans (흑두, Semen Sojae Nigrum) have been used in Korean and Chinese medicine for hair support for over a millennium — not as a folk remedy but as a clinically specific intervention for the kidney-blood pattern that underlies the most common forms of hair thinning and premature graying. The traditional use is […]