Always Tired and Irritable: The 'Fire' Inside Your Body Is Draining Your Energy

The concept of fire in the Donguibogam bears a striking resemblance to the chronic stress response in modern medicine. When we experience stress, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in the brain is activated, releasing stress hormones such as cortisol. While these hormones are essential in the short term to help us escape danger, maintaining chronically high levels causes them to act as a toxin in the body. Cortisol raises blood glucose and regulates inflammatory responses to supply energy, but sustained excessive secretion induces chronic inflammation and weakens immunity. Furthermore, it impairs the functions of the hippocampus, which manages memory and learning, and the prefrontal cortex, which governs concentration and decision-making, leading to impaired concentration, memory impairment, and lethargy. The brain becomes overloaded and fails to function properly. Imbalance of neurotransmitters also plays a role. When substances related to happiness hormones such as serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine are not properly secreted or become depleted due to stress, irritability, anxiety, and depressive feelings accompany them as well. Moreover, research on the gut-brain axis has revealed a vicious cycle where stress alters the gut microbiota, thereby increasing pro-inflammatory cytokines, which in turn impairs brain function again. Even the function of mitochondria, which produce energy in our body, deteriorates, causing chronic fatigue. It is as if the entire body's battery has been drained. The expression in the Donguibogam that fire burns away qi and blood captures the complex, multifaceted mechanisms of the stress response explained by modern medicine through timeless wisdom.