[Kim Jaeho's Life Story]<265> Creating Mysterious Happiness in the Nervous System

The nervous system plays a crucial role in all our activities, including breathing, moving, speaking, seeing, thinking, and feeling. Since the nervous system controls many bodily functions such as digestion, heartbeat, and wound healing, life without a nervous system is unimaginable. If any problem arises in the nervous system, not only can we not live a normal life, but it can also lead to immediate death.

The nervous system acts as the command center of the body, receiving messages from various parts of the body through the brain, tracking what is happening inside and outside the body, deciding how to respond to the current situation, and sending messages back to the body to inform it what to do, thereby controlling and coordinating other organs.

To perform these functions, the nervous system is composed of two main parts: the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord. The brain is made up of 100 billion nerve cells called neurons and is connected to nerve cells throughout almost the entire body via the spinal cord. It receives sensory information, processes it, and sends out motor signals.

The peripheral nervous system includes all nerve cells outside the brain and spinal cord, consisting of 12 pairs of cranial nerves distributed in the head, 31 pairs of spinal nerves distributed in the torso, arms, and legs, and the muscles controlled by these nerves. It provides sensory information to the central nervous system and transmits motor commands from the central nervous system to the body. This also includes the autonomic nervous system, which regulates internal organs such as breathing, blood flow, and heartbeat.

Because the nervous system is widely distributed throughout the human body and plays an essential role in everything we do?moving, thinking, feeling, making the heart beat, and enabling the lungs to breathe?every bodily function is connected to the nervous system in some way. Therefore, if any problem occurs in the nervous system, various diseases arise, which are called neurological disorders.

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, more than 600 neurological disorders are known. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that more than one in three people worldwide suffer from neurological disorders, making them very common. In South Korea as well, many people suffer or die from various neurological diseases such as stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and epilepsy.

According to the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, the number of people treated for stroke was about 590,000 in 2018 and increased to about 650,000 in 2023, showing a significant and rising trend. Those treated for Alzheimer's disease increased from 440,000 in 2018 to about 620,000 in 2023, also showing a rising trend. The number of people treated for Parkinson's disease rose from 106,000 in 2018 to 126,000 in 2023, which is considerable and increasing.

Neurological disorders are numerous, and many people suffer a significant decline in quality of life or die from them. Why do so many people get neurological disorders, and why is recovery often difficult? Are there good ways to prevent neurological disorders and recover easily if affected?

Because the nervous system is widely distributed throughout the body and connected to all bodily functions, it is highly susceptible to various diseases. Since it is difficult to find prevention and cures for the numerous neurological disorders by disease type, it is necessary to classify neurological disorders by their nature and examine them accordingly.

Neurological disorders can be classified into vascular neurological disorders, infectious neurological disorders, structural neurological disorders, functional neurological disorders, and degenerative neurological disorders. Vascular neurological disorders occur when blood vessels passing through the central nervous system have problems, causing inadequate supply of nutrients and oxygen, leading to nerve cell death. These include stroke, transient ischemic attack, subarachnoid hemorrhage, subdural hemorrhage and hematoma, and epidural hemorrhage. Most can be prevented and significantly improved after onset by maintaining healthy blood vessels through healthy lifestyle habits.

Next, infectious neurological disorders are caused by pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, or parasites entering and proliferating in the body. Examples include meningitis, encephalitis, poliomyelitis, and epidural abscess. These can mostly be prevented by maintaining personal hygiene to reduce pathogen infection and especially by boosting immunity through good lifestyle habits. Recovery after onset is also generally not difficult.

Structural neurological disorders are caused by injuries to the brain and spinal cord that result in nerve cell death, including brain or spinal cord injury, cervical spondylosis, brain or spinal cord tumors, and peripheral neuropathy. Functional neurological disorders arise from problems in nervous system function or the way the brain transmits signals, such as headaches, epilepsy, dizziness, and neuralgia. Degenerative neurological disorders involve abnormally rapid nerve cell death leading to loss of brain and spinal cord function, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and Lou Gehrig's disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).

To prevent and cure structural, functional, and degenerative neurological disorders, attention must be paid to the damage to the DNA that makes up our body's cells and the repair processes of damaged DNA.

Our body's cells contain 6 billion DNA molecules per cell, and up to one million DNA molecules can be damaged daily. These damaged DNA molecules should be repaired to their original state by a program encoded in the genes (which the author calls the "best doctor prepared inside my body") that replaces them with new DNA.

If too many DNA molecules in the cells are excessively damaged or if the genes responsible for repairing damaged cells do not function properly, resulting in many cells not being restored to their original state, we become susceptible to various diseases such as structural, functional, and degenerative neurological disorders.

To prevent and cure neurological disorders such as structural, functional, and degenerative types, it is essential to live a lifestyle where the genes of nerve cells are not heavily damaged, and the gene switches are appropriately turned on so that damaged genes are well repaired. This lifestyle is called Newstart (refer to Life Story Part 6).

Among the eight components of Newstart, the first is a life diet, which involves eating a variety of plant-based foods, including fruits, vegetables, and grains, in their whole form and in sufficient amounts without selectively avoiding specific foods. Along with this, it is important to reduce the intake of sugar?which causes many problems when consumed excessively?processed or refined bad carbohydrates, saturated fats, trans fats, salt, and alcohol. Practicing the other Newstart components?exercise, water, sunlight, temperance, air, rest, trust, and love?is also crucial.