★★★★★The Inflammatory Aging Bible, a compilation of global trends in aging science.
★★★★★The Reality of Inflammation and the 4-Step Recovery Program Focused on by Stanford

Weakness, fatigue, and aging are signs of accumulated blood inflammation.
“When your blood is purified, you become young again.”

Dr. Park Byeong-sun, a doctor who tells patients who come to the hospital with skin concerns, “Let’s start with a blood test,” finds the answer to aging in the blood, not the skin.
After studying regenerative medicine and treating patients for over 20 years, he became convinced.
Aging begins not on the outside, but inside the body, when the functions of blood and immune cells break down.
As inflammation spreads, fatigue sets in, serotonin is depleted, and depression and anxiety take over the brain.
Immune cells become powerless and cellular energy stops.
The result is skin aging, organ aging, and emotional burnout.
But this trend can be reversed.
By purifying the blood, activating immune cells, and reactivating mitochondria, the body can become young again.
"Inflammation Aging" guides you through the most scientific detoxification methods to stop fatigue and aging.

When you visit a hospital, they usually do a blood test.
When you look at the test results, they are usually within the normal range or some values ​​are slightly off.
If the test results come back normal, your doctor will advise you.
“That’s usually the case at that age,” or “It looks like you need to manage your stress.”
Eventually, you feel the aging process with your whole body, but you spend each day without finding a clear solution.
Of course, if the numbers are outside the normal range, the situation is a little different.
If your blood pressure is high, you take antihypertensive medication. If your cholesterol level is high, you take statins (a specialized drug used to treat hyperlipidemia by inhibiting cholesterol synthesis in the body).
So, are patients more satisfied after taking the medication? Unfortunately, no.
Even if the numbers stabilize, the symptoms that were actually uncomfortable, such as fatigue, frequent pain, and insomnia, do not improve significantly.
There is an easily overlooked pitfall here.
In the medical community, the term 'WNL Within Normal Limits' is used when test results are within the normal range.
However, some medical professionals interpret this critically as 'We Never Looked'.
This is to warn of the dangers of judging a patient's condition based solely on simple numbers.
In fact, health cannot be defined by simple numbers.
While numbers can be objective indicators, true health is determined by more complex factors that lie beyond the charts.

--- p.17~18, from “The Doctor Didn’t Look Properly”

A woman in her early 20s came to the hospital seeking treatment for acne and skin scars.
She was majoring in art, but had to drop out of her studies due to extreme fatigue.
I couldn't fall asleep easily at night and couldn't get up in the morning.
She complained that she was having difficulty maintaining her studies, let alone her daily life.
The moment I heard the story, I knew it wasn't just a simple skin problem.

I thought that acne was just a superficial symptom and that there must be a deeper cause behind it.
After conducting blood tests and a questionnaire, it was confirmed that she was suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome.
What's more interesting is that her blood tests showed abnormally high levels of inflammatory markers, even though no specific medical conditions were found.
This suggested that she may be experiencing physiological changes similar to inflammatory aging, rather than simple fatigue.
As her treatment continued, her symptoms became increasingly reminiscent of inflammatory aging.
I focused on treatments that reduced inflammation and modulated immune function.
As a result, her condition gradually improved over time, and she finally recovered enough to return to her studies.
This case study revealed that chronic fatigue syndrome is not simply a state of energy deficiency, but a disease deeply related to inflammation in the body.
Furthermore, we were able to confirm that the symptom patterns of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome were quite similar to those of people with severe inflammatory aging.
So when I see patients in my clinic with high inflammation levels, I often refer to the diagnostic criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome.
In fact, if you apply the criteria one by one, you can find significant similarities with the symptoms of patients with severe inflammatory aging.

--- p.44~45, from “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Long COVID, the Essence is the Same”

We tend to think that more iron is better, but as with everything, too much of anything is bad.
If excessive, it can actually act as a factor that promotes inflammation.
In particular, increased ferritin levels in severe COVID-19 patients are not simply the result of an inflammatory response, but are closely related to abnormalities in iron metabolism.
The more severe the inflammation, the more likely it is that free iron (Fe2+) will increase, which activates the 'Fenton reaction' in the body.
When the Fenton reaction is activated, a powerful reactive oxygen species called hydroxyl radical (OH) is generated, which damages cells and increases oxidative stress, further aggravating inflammation.
This process is likely to be one of the key factors determining the severity of COVID-19.
Iron levels also affect longevity and health.
American biologist Dennis Mangan said in his book Dumping Iron, “One of the reasons women live longer than men is because they menstruate.”
This is because menstruation helps prevent iron overload by periodically releasing blood.
In fact, when comparing the amount of iron in a 45-year-old adult, men have about four times more than women.
In proportion to this, the incidence of myocardial infarction is four times higher in men.
Additionally, men have higher rates of cancer, heart disease, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's than women.
These are all known diseases that are related to iron.
Of course, postmenopausal women also experience increased risk of heart disease and cancer as their iron levels rise.
--- p.75~76, from “The more iron you have, the more likely you are to get sick?”

An interesting study was recently published that revealed a link between sugar and aging.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, studied how eating habits affected the epigenetic clock of 350 women.
Research has shown that the healthier your diet, the younger your cells are, and that every ounce of added sugar you consume increases your biological age.
“Because epigenetic patterns are reversible, reducing your daily added sugar intake by 10 grams is equivalent to turning back your biological age by 2.4 months,” the researchers explained.
So, how much is 10g of added sugar? Coke contains 20g of added sugar per 200ml.
Snacks, ice cream, and various flavored milks easily exceed 10g of sugar.
Considering this, we can see that aging can be reversed simply by reducing the amount of snacks and drinks we frequently consume in our daily lives.
The results of this study clearly show that reducing sugar intake is the first step toward preventing aging and maintaining a youthful appearance.

Sugar doesn't just age you on the outside; it affects you deep inside.
As mentioned earlier, glucose and fructose are metabolized in different ways, damaging our bodies and accelerating aging.
Sugar has the harmful effects of both glucose and fructose, slowly destroying our bodies from the inside out – our blood vessels, organs, immune system, and overall metabolic function.
--- p.135~136, from “10g of sugar a day changes your biological age”

A recent study revealed some shocking findings regarding the intake of multivitamins.
According to the British Guardian, a research team led by Dr. Erika Loftfield of the National Cancer Institute in the United States analyzed data from more than 390,000 adults who were followed for more than 20 years and found no evidence that taking a daily multivitamin reduces the risk of death.
Rather, the risk of death was 4% higher among users during the first few years of follow-up.
Taking a daily multivitamin does not help you live longer and may even increase your risk of premature death.
(…)
There are also a growing number of studies showing that excessive intake of antioxidant supplements can actually be detrimental to your health.
Normally, active oxygen is known to increase the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease, so it can be thought of as a dangerous substance.
However, a certain level of reactive oxygen species is required for mito to function normally.
Reactive oxygen species play a role in mito's body's defense mechanisms, such as cell death, predation, and detoxification.
In other words, it is not something that should be completely eliminated, but rather has a dual-sided nature that has a beneficial effect on the body.
These active oxygen species can basically be sufficiently controlled with vitamins contained in food.
(…)
I always reach the same conclusion when talking with Professor Myung Seung-kwon of the National Cancer Center, who is conducting a meta-analysis on nutritional supplement use.
He always says, “Nothing works except iron supplements for pregnant women.”
I think the same thing.
I believe that it is most important to get nutrients from foods in their natural state.
Natural foods contain a balanced amount of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that our bodies need, and have a high absorption rate.

--- p.199~200, from “A Healthy Table that Reduces Inflammation”

It is important to consider the ‘order’ of aerobic exercise and strength training.
As we have seen, strength training stimulates the mTOR pathway and promotes muscle growth and protein synthesis.
It is especially activated with the intake of nutrients such as protein or essential amino acids (BCAA).
Aerobic exercise, on the other hand, activates the AMPK pathway.
It plays a role in regulating energy balance and promoting mitochondrial production and fatty acid oxidation.
Because these two pathways interact, the effects can vary depending on the order of exercise. AMPK activation is relatively short-lived, returning to normal within a few hours after aerobic exercise.
In contrast, the mTOR pathway is maintained for a relatively long period of time.
Considering this, it is ideal to do 'strength training' first and then 'aerobic exercise'.
By doing this, you will sufficiently stimulate the protein synthesis pathways necessary for muscle growth, and then use aerobic exercise to help with mitochondria production and recovery.
Conversely, if you do aerobic exercise first and then immediately do strength training, AMPK may be activated first, inhibiting the action of mTOR.
In particular, performing strength training immediately after high-intensity aerobic exercise can have a negative impact on muscle recovery and protein synthesis.

Of course, doing cardio first isn't always a problem.
Light walking or low-intensity jogging is safe to do after strength training because it does not overstimulate AMPK.
However, caution is advised with exercises that involve high AMPK activity, such as high-intensity interval training or marathons, as these may interfere with muscle recovery.

--- p.231-232, from “If you sit, you get old, if you move, you get young”