[Photo: Hecto Healthcare]
Kim Seok-jin (김석진), chief executive of Hecto Healthcare, has published a new book titled “Immune Intelligence” in response to declining immunity and a rise in chronic diseases. The book redefines the human body as a “symbiotic ecosystem” rather than something centered on disease and genes. It includes ecological practical guidance to restore disrupted immune balance.
The book traces modern health problems to a breakdown in the balance of microbes and mitochondria in the body. It takes the view that excessive hygiene and refined diets can hinder the immune system’s normal opportunities to learn. While existing health books focused on adding new information, this book differentiates itself by presenting “changes in the environment” in daily life as the solution.
Kim presents 3 core life rhythms for a healthy life: “light (Good Light), fat (Good Fat) and microbes (Good Microbes).” Light awakens mitochondria, fat is an essential raw material for cell membranes and brain function, and microbes determine the diversity of gut microbiota. The book explains that these elements do not function separately but are tightly connected as a single integrated system.
It also gives substantial weight to a message for parent readers. Pointing out that mitochondria are passed to children only through the mother, it presents the concept of an “inheritance of environment” in which a mother’s gut microbiota status before and after pregnancy designs a child’s lifelong immune foundation. It also stresses that, unlike external environmental problems, the environment inside a child’s body is an area that can be changed by parents’ choices.
Kim said, “Health is not a short-term project completed by adding something new, but a process of realigning the symbiotic system our bodies originally have.” He added, “I hope this book becomes a practical guide for everyone from the generation of parents concerned about their children’s health to modern people who have lost their vitality, helping them care for the roots of life rather than symptoms of disease.”
Kim graduated from Seoul National University’s College of Dentistry, completed a master’s degree at Indiana University in the United States, and has served as an adjunct professor in the university’s periodontology department while researching links between microbes and oral and systemic health. He introduced the concept of probiotics domestically in a pioneering way with his 2011 book “Beneficial Bacteria in My Body: Probiotics”. He founded Namu Mulsan, the predecessor to Hecto Healthcare, in 2009.
Hecto Healthcare runs its healthcare business centered on the probiotics brand “De Simone” and the comprehensive health functional food brand “Kim Seok-jin LAB”. It recently expanded its business into the food sector through the launch of “De Simone Kids Yogurt.”