[Kim Jaeho's Life Story]<213> The Heartbreaking Causes of Pediatric Diseases

Individuals, society, and nations all tend to develop by "locking the barn door after the horse is stolen." It is practically impossible to perfectly predict and prepare for every problem in advance, whether in economics, infectious diseases, or human relationships. Since all problems we may face tend to recur in various forms, if we prepare well after suffering some sacrifice, there is much room to reduce the damage when the problem arises again.

Our health is no different. Many people believe that the unexpected damage caused by the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2015 greatly helped in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are many cases where the barn door is not fixed even after the horse is lost, resulting in repeated hardships. In fact, there are probably far more cases where people suffer greatly yet fail to prepare properly.

Although our life expectancy is among the highest in the world?80.3 years for men and 86.3 years for women, which is 2 to 3 years longer than the OECD average?our healthy life expectancy is only 64 years for men and 64.9 years for women. This means men live about one-fifth and women about one-quarter of their lives in poor health. We also still face the challenge of a high rate of premature death (see Life Story episode 212), which suggests we are closer to the latter case of poor response.

To increase healthy life expectancy and reduce premature death, controlling diseases well is crucial. However, there is one regrettable aspect in how diseases are controlled. Just as every event has a cause, diseases also have causes, but many people show little interest in the causes of diseases and focus only on treatment. Even then, treatment methods are often not very wise.

Since the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, humanity has learned that the blueprint for humans is contained within every cell. This blueprint includes programs in the form of genes that solve all problems occurring in our bodies. Furthermore, a genetic map has been released that shows which gene at which location is problematic when a disease occurs.

Nearly 20 years have passed since then, but little has changed in disease treatment. Efforts to repair faulty genes are not made, and treatment still relies on symptom relief methods used when genes were poorly understood. For example, in a patient with lung cancer caused by a mutated gene in the upper part of chromosome 3, there is little interest in restoring the gene. Instead, treatment focuses on killing cancer cells with strong drugs, killing many cancer cells, but lung cancer does not heal, and patients die.

When thinking about how to reduce premature death, the reality of children suffering from pediatric diseases is even more heartbreaking. Occasionally, we see articles where parents lament, "What sin did we commit for our child to suffer such a terrible disease?" This shows how ignorant people are about diseases. Many people do not realize that the cause of a child's illness lies with the parents.

It is difficult to confirm the number of children suffering from pediatric diseases through statistics, but in the past, traffic accidents were the leading cause of death among children aged 1 to 9. However, traffic accident deaths have decreased, and the proportion of cancer deaths has steadily increased from 5.6% in 1990 to 18-21% since 2015, making cancer the leading cause of death. The age-standardized incidence rate of cancer for the population under 14 years, weighted by the standard population ratio, rose from 13.2 per 100,000 in 2008 to 14.6 in 2018.

What exactly is disease? Disease is a plea to improve the environment when the top physician?the genetic program designed to solve all problems in the human blueprint?cannot function properly. When this faulty environment is improved, the top physician recovers, and the disease heals. This is natural healing and prevention if done in advance. Living a pro-life lifestyle that allows the top physician in our body to work well is called Newstart (see Life Story episode 6).

People do not realize that their anti-life lifestyle interferes with the activity of the "top physician" inside their bodies, causing disease. Naturally, they expect doctors to cure them, but in reality, it is not easy for human treatment to cure diseases caused by interference with the top physician. Moreover, children are not at fault themselves but get sick because their parents live anti-life lifestyles, and young couples today are very accustomed to such lifestyles and unaware of this fact.

Children are more vulnerable to disease when the top physician is not stabilized. Yet, parents say they love their children but live far from pro-life lifestyles and are accustomed to pleasure-centered anti-life lifestyles that interfere with the top physician’s work. It is heartbreaking that children are easily exposed to all kinds of diseases in this reality.

Jaeho Kim, Independent Researcher

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.