[One Thousand Characters a Day] Jeong Heewon's 'The Secret to Aging Slowly' <1>

Editor's NoteAlthough we say the era of living to 100 has arrived, can we truly live healthily for a long time? Professor Heewon Jeong, a geriatrician at Seoul Asan Medical Center and a biogerontologist, states that with current lifestyle habits, even if average lifespan increases, it is difficult to avoid a painful old age. We are now at a crossroads. Will we choose a "life that is comfortable now but less painful," or a "life that is inconvenient now but more peaceful and less painful in the long run"? You Too Can Age Slowly introduces the 4M health method developed by Professor Jeong, spanning medicine, science, sociology, psychology, economics, humanities, and religion. These are Mobility, which restores physical function; Mentation, which enhances cognitive resilience; Medical issues, which correct misconceptions about health; and What Matters, which prevents social isolation. Word count: 929.

Chronic diseases are usually the result of aging accumulated over a lifetime. A person's values and lifestyle create patterns of chronic illness and pain, greatly affecting healthy lifespan. As a geriatrician, it is inevitable to focus not just on diseases but on the patient's life itself.

Because the body and mind have elasticity, losing balance once or twice does not completely ruin health. However, if tension and distortion caused by leaning in one direction persist for 20, 30, or 40 years, they become fixed. It is like walking slightly off course in a vast desert; at first, the path does not change much, but eventually, you end up far from your destination. To narrow the gap that has widened over time between health and oneself, one must find the root cause and consistently work to improve it. Yet, most people do not try to solve problems fundamentally. They simply cover up visible discomfort with medicine, health supplements, or massages. The more they do this, the more life worsens, rushing toward greater discomfort.

Those around me are no different. When I teach a child who sits comfortably but with poor posture while reading how to sit properly, I immediately hear complaints: "It's tiring; I just want to sit comfortably." But maintaining a comfortable posture now will not only prevent proper sitting in the future but also lead to living with pain throughout the body for a long time.

(Omitted)

If the capitalist premise that less pain and discomfort is better were true, everyone should be overwhelmed with happiness by now. However, when observed at the national level, physical activity?which reflects the degree to which people must use their bodies uncomfortably?is steadily decreasing, and the severity of abdominal obesity?indicating more physical pleasure?is rapidly worsening. Yet, people continue to look at smartphones with increasingly hunched postures and indulge in stimulating foods, losing elasticity in body and mind. Chasing constant rewarding stimuli, they become angry middle-aged adults. What remains then is a long, painful old age.

- Heewon Jeong, You Too Can Age Slowly, The Quest, 17,800 KRW