Health Blog
Written by Dr. Heo Ji-young. Each piece takes a single symptom and follows what is actually happening in the body.
Asleep in Your Arms, Awake the Moment You Put Them Down
Parents joke that their baby has a sensor on its back. But an infant's chest is not a small version of an adult's, and lying on the back genuinely makes the work of breathing harder. Waking up and not settling again appear to have different causes.
They Say They Have No Energy — So Why Are They So Oversensitive?
A child is worn out, yet reacts strongly to small things. You would think that when strength drains away they would go quiet, but instead they get louder. This place, where reactions grow larger as reserves shrink, is something Korean medicine has long had a name for, and modern pharmacology has a name for it too.
When Period Pain Is Bad Enough to Keep Her Out of School
Period pain comes from a substance made inside the uterus squeezing the uterus hard. The squeezing reduces blood flow, and the place where it is reduced becomes painful. This is also why painkillers work well, and it is the same point that I work on.
He Says His Stomach Hurts Only at School
There are children who are fine at home but say their stomach hurts and their breathing feels tight the moment they get to school. The body has read the situation in advance and gone into a state of readiness, and that state does not touch only one place. This is why the stomach and the breath come together.
Since Starting Daycare, She Has Had One Cold After Another
A child who has started daycare catches colds often and does not eat well. These two are not separate matters. Losing one's appetite while ill is something the body does, and so the order of recovery is set as well.
My Child Gets Nosebleeds Often
A child's nosebleeds usually come from the same spot. It is a place at the front of the nasal septum where blood vessels gather close to the surface. If they come often, you have to look at what state the lining of that spot is in, and the knack for stopping them depends on the spot as well.
No Matter How I Wake Him, He Cannot Get Up in the Morning
Past the upper elementary years, a child cannot get up in the morning. It is easy to see this as having become lazy, but at this age the body's clock really does shift later. That it stays that way even when they are given plenty of sleep has been confirmed in the laboratory.
Can Tension Be Seen as a Number? — On Heart Rate Variability
The device on your wrist gives you a number like a "stress index," and more and more people bring me a screenshot of it and ask whether a low reading is all right. It is a good question, so today I want to say what that number actually is.
If Sound and Light Grate on You Especially, and People Wear You Out
Being grated on by sound and light is not a personality problem. It is not that the senses have grown sharper, but that the power to filter has grown weak. A state of alertness does not come down by resolve; it comes down only when the conditions to come down are met.
When Heat Rises to Your Face and Your Chest Feels Tight, but the Tests Are Normal
There are people whose face burns while their hands and feet are cold. It is not that there is too much heat — the heat has lost its way. Put out only the heat above, and below grows colder still. I look at reconnecting the circulation that has been cut off.
When the Gut Tenses, the Mind Tenses Too
Why does stress upset my stomach, and stomach trouble make me anxious? The gut and brain exchange signals in both directions, so what to address first depends on which side changed first; weight loss, bloody stool, or pain that wakes you at night needs testing first.
When Your Eyes and Mouth Are Dry and Gritty but the Tests Are Normal
Why are my eyes gritty and my mouth often dry when tests are normal? Tear and salivary glands are regulated by autonomic nerves, and many medicines can reduce secretion; joint pain or severe persistent dryness needs evaluation for Sjögren’s syndrome and other causes.