This piece is the opening portion of Chapter 2 of Stones in the Body: More Frightening Than Cancer (Yoon Jong-won). The body, figures, and citations follow the manuscript as written.
Yet one question in particular was left unexplained to the end. It is the question, "By what is that change executed; what is the physical signal that actually moves the cells and the organs and the whole body?"
The theory of evolution is like a 'blueprint' drawn by an outstanding designer. It tells us the direction and the principles and the rules of selection, but which screw to actually tighten first upon reading that blueprint, which circuit to turn on and off first, and what the hands and tools that move at the execution stage are: these had been left unexplained.
To use an architectural analogy, Darwin presented the bird's-eye view and the design philosophy of a splendid building, but as for what cement and steel reinforcement are needed to build that building, and in what order the materials must be stacked, he can be said to have remained silent.
Of course, science since Darwin has filled in many blanks. With Mendel's laws of heredity and Watson and Crick's discovery of the DNA double helix, the blueprint of 'genetic information' was uncovered. Yet even though the genes were uncovered, the 'physiological execution pathway' that shows how environment and aging interact in real time was still empty. If DNA holds the information of 'what to make,' this is the connecting link that shows 'when and how' that information is executed in the actual body.
The DIAH-7M Aging and Chronic Disease Pathway System presented in this book was at first born to explain the pathway of chronic disease. Here DIAH refers to the four triggers of Deficiency, Inflammation, Acidosis, and Hypoxia, and 7M means the seven pathological mechanisms of Obstruction & Rupture, Dysfunction, Coating & Blocking, Hardening, Overflow & Burst, Disconnection, and Collapse.
It was a frame created in the process of tracing why modern people fall ill in similar patterns, age in similar ways, and in the end close their lives from similar causes.
But when we step back and survey the whole, we come to see that this system, beyond being merely a chart organizing the process by which disease arises, serves as an immense connecting bridge that leads naturally toward that blank Darwin left behind, namely the question of what the physiological execution pathway of evolution is.
The important point here is that DIAH-7M is not a theory that denies or replaces Darwin's theory of evolution, but one extension frame that gives concrete form, through the substance calcium, to the 'execution stage' that theory could not address.
That in studying chronic disease we came to approach the secret of evolution is no coincidence. For chronic disease is in the end a record of the changes a living organism undergoes in the flow of time, and the direction and speed of that change are deeply connected to the life-cycle program that evolution designed.
DIAH-7M Chronic Disease and Aging Progression Pathway System
| Abbreviation | English | Korean | Action | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| D | Deficiency | Deficiency | Bone calcium fills the shortfall | Deficiency of calcium, minerals, vitamin D, and so on → calcium is broken down from bone to replenish → blood → supplied to various cells ※ Common: D, I, A, and H all induce a drop in blood calcium, and it is replenished by breaking down calcium from bone. |
| I | Inflammation | Inflammation | Calcium is mobilized in the progression of inflammation | Large amounts of calcium consumed in the inflammatory response → replenished by calcium breakdown from bone → blood → concentrated at the site of inflammation |
| A | Acidosis | Acidosis | Bone is sacrificed to neutralize acid | Alkaline calcium used to neutralize acid → replenished by calcium breakdown from bone → blood → whole-body pH balance |
| H | Hypoxia | Hypoxia | With oxygen shortage, calcium floods excessively into cells | Cellular oxygen shortage → calcium pump failure → blood calcium over-absorbed into cells → blood calcium shortage → replenished by calcium breakdown from bone → blood → reabsorbed by damaged cells → vicious cycle |
| Mechanism | Korean Name | English Name | Action | Scope |
| 1M | Obstruction & Rupture | Obstruction & Rupture | It blocks and bursts | Calcium deposition → luminal occlusion, stenosis, infarction, rupture, hemorrhage |
| 2M | Dysfunction | Dysfunction | It grows dull | Calcium deposition → dulling of joint/muscle/valve movement, decline in contraction/relaxation function |
| 3M | Coating & Blocking | Coating & Blocking | It is covered and blocked | Calcium deposition → receptor blockade, signal blockade, secretion blockade, insulin resistance |
| 4M | Hardening | Hardening | It hardens | Calcium deposition → fibrosis, calcification, rigidity, loss of elasticity |
| 5M | Overflow & Burst | Overflow & Burst | It overflows and bursts | Excessive calcium influx → cellular hyperproliferation, hypertrophy, tumor, expansion, apoptosis |
| 6M | Disconnection | Disconnection | It is cut and severed | Calcium deposition → nerve severance, vascular occlusion, tissue necrosis, apoptosis |
| 7M | Collapse | Collapse | It falls apart | Calcium shortage → structural collapse of hard tissue (bone, teeth) |
Darwin Who Spoke the Law, DIAH-7M That Seeks the Pathway
Darwin's theory of evolution explained why life forms change as generations pass, through the principle of natural selection that "the individual better adapted to its environment survives in greater numbers, and its genes are passed on to the next generation."
It became possible to explain why the giraffe's neck grew long, why the polar bear's fur is white, and why the human brain grew so large, all through the single principle of natural selection. That is why many scientists rate the theory of evolution as one of the theories with the most powerful explanatory force and universality in the history of humankind.
But what the theory of evolution tells us is, in the end, "rules and patterns." It tells us which traits are selected and why particular genes survive, but as for what signals pass within the cell, what substance moves when and where to grow bone and to make organs, and from what point it begins to tear down that structure by itself, it remains silent about the 'pathway' of that execution stage. It is just like having an excellent rulebook for a game while not addressing how the players' muscles actually contract and how the nerves actually deliver commands.
Put simply, Darwin is the one who uncovered "the rules of the game and how the score is counted." DIAH-7M, by contrast, is a map that traces "how those rules are actually executed inside the body, and which circuit turns on when which button is pressed." And what we found at the end of that map is the fact that the single substance calcium serves as the execution signal and the material that runs through the entire lifespan, leading from birth to growth, from growth to reproduction, from reproduction to decline, and from decline to death.
This is just like the relationship between a design document and the actual source code in a computer program. The perspective this book proposes is that if DNA is the blueprint of a building, calcium is both the radio signal of the site manager commanding that bricks actually be laid on the basis of that blueprint, and also the material actually put in. If Darwin explained the principles of the blueprint, DIAH-7M is the map that shows how that blueprint is executed through the substance calcium.
DIAH-7M, Beyond a Map of Chronic Disease to a Map of Birth, Aging, Illness, and Death
The DIAH-7M Chronic Disease Pathway System set out at first by asking this question: "Why is it that, as modern people age, they fall ill in similar ways, their blood vessels clog in similar ways, their bones empty in similar patterns, their organs break down, and in the end they converge on similarly shaped causes of death?" Each person's genes differ, lifestyles differ, and environments differ, so why are the patterns of aging and disease so similar?
To answer that question we analyzed how the four triggers, namely D (Deficiency), I (Inflammation), A (Acidosis), and H (Hypoxia), operate simultaneously to push the body into a state of chronic stress. The living environment of modern people continuously activates these four triggers. Nutritional imbalance and deficiency from high-salt, high-sugar meals and excessive intake of processed foods; chronic inflammation from environmental pollution and stress; acidosis from excessive protein and refined carbohydrate intake; and a hypoxic state from a sedentary life, air pollution, and lack of sleep all act in combination.
When these four triggers persist, as a result calcium begins to flow out of the bones. This is because our body makes it the highest priority to keep the blood calcium concentration constant. To neutralize acidified blood, to repair tissue damaged by inflammation, and to maintain cellular function under a hypoxic state, the body draws calcium out of the calcium warehouse that is bone. And the calcium thus drawn out travels throughout the body and sets off the 7M mechanisms, that is, the series of pathways of blocking, growing dull, becoming debilitated, hardening, overflowing, being severed, and collapsing.
This process was at first focused on explaining the 'pathway of chronic disease.' It sought to explain how individual diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and osteoporosis are connected to one another, and why one chronic disease leads to another.
But as the research deepened, it became clear that what we were dealing with was not the simple beginning and end of a disease. What we were tracing was "the immense narrative in which the whole of life lives one life and disappears, that is, the common pathway of birth, aging, illness, and death." It was exactly at this point that DIAH-7M, beyond a theory of chronic disease, began to expand into a frame of a far larger scale that fills the blank of the theory of evolution.
Why do all living things get born, grow, reproduce, age, and die? To this question the theory of evolution answers, "Once the purpose of gene transmission is achieved, the individual no longer receives the protection of natural selection." But it cannot explain how that is actually realized inside the body. DIAH-7M explains the mechanism of that realization through the flow of calcium.
Calcium, a Substance of 'Dual Identity' That Builds Structure and Fires Signals
The one that appears here as the central protagonist is calcium. At school we have mostly learned about calcium only as something like "a nutrient that makes bones strong." Most of it is fragmentary knowledge of the sort that drinking milk makes you taller, and that a lack of calcium leads to osteoporosis. But in reality calcium takes on a far more fundamental and wide-ranging role than that.
According to various cell biology studies, the calcium ion operates in all eukaryotic cells as a universal second messenger that regulates almost all key processes, from gene expression, hormone secretion, muscle contraction, and neurotransmission to cell death. A second messenger is a substance that receives an external signal and transmits it into the interior of the cell, and calcium is among these the most universal and versatile messenger.
Professor Carafoli, a master of cell biology, wrote as follows in his renowned paper: "Calcium is the most universal carrier that transmits signals to cells, and it was selected in the course of evolution for its outstanding flexibility as a ligand. Calcium regulates every important aspect of cellular activity, from the birth of new life through fertilization to the dramatic event of apoptosis." In other words, from the moment life begins to the moment it ends, calcium is involved at every important moment of decision.
Why did calcium of all things come to take on such a role? This is no coincidence. Calcium has unique chemical properties compared with other abundant cations, for example sodium, potassium, and magnesium. Calcium can accommodate binding sites of irregular geometric structure, its binding and dissociation are fast, and it responds sensitively to changes in concentration. Because of these properties, evolution selected calcium as the 'language of life' from a very early period.
Also, according to various physiology textbooks and research materials worldwide, more than 99% of the calcium in the human body is stored in the 'warehouse' of the bones and teeth in the form of hydroxyapatite. Only the remaining 1% shuttles between blood and cells and is used to regulate, in real time, life-sustaining functions such as heartbeat, blood pressure regulation, blood coagulation, and hormone secretion.
It is easy to understand if we liken this structure to an economic system. Bone is like a nation's central bank vault. 99% of the total gold reserves are stored in the vault, and only the remaining 1% circulates in the market. Yet for the economy to run, this 1% in circulation must be absolutely stable. Too much and inflation arises; too little and the economy is paralyzed. Likewise, if the blood calcium concentration deviates even slightly, the heart stops or the muscles cramp. That is why our body, in order to maintain the blood calcium concentration, draws calcium out of the vault that is bone when needed, and stores it again when there is a surplus.
In other words, calcium is not a simple building material. Calcium is a substance of dual identity that takes charge of structure and signal at the same time. It is a building material that forms the hard structure of bones and teeth, while at the same time being a signaling substance that takes charge of communication between cells. But here there is an important point. When survival is urgent, for example when acidosis or inflammation grows severe, our body makes the choice to protect the 'short-term signal (the calcium concentration in the blood)' even at the cost of sacrificing the 'long-term structure (bone).' This is precisely the survival strategy that evolution designed, but for modern people it becomes the seed of chronic disease.
To use an architectural analogy, calcium is the reinforced concrete of the building while at the same time being the telephone lines that handle all communication within the building. It is used to build the building, and it is used for all the communication that takes place inside the building. That is why, when we trace the flow of calcium, we can see the process by which the building is erected, we can see what is happening inside the building, and furthermore we can even see the process by which the building ages and collapses.
The Life Cycle Seen from the DIAH-7M Perspective: From Birth to Growth, From Reproduction to Decline, and On to Death
According to evolutionary biology, nature is designed so that an individual is born, grows, passes through the reproductive period, and, once it has completed the mission of its genes, gradually lays down its functions. This is precisely the 'Disposable Soma Theory.'
What matters from the perspective of evolution is not "how long one lives" but "how well one passes on one's genes to the next generation." Once the purpose of reproduction has been achieved, it is evolutionarily more advantageous to invest the resources that would go to maintaining the individual into the next generation instead.
When we look at this life cycle again from the DIAH-7M perspective, we come to discover an interesting fact. It is that the role calcium takes on at each stage of life and the way DIAH-7M operates fit together exactly. When we follow the flow of calcium, the entire process of birth, aging, illness, and death reads as one continuous story.
At the moment of fertilization, as the sperm bores its way into the egg, a 'Calcium Wave' occurs. This is not a metaphor but a phenomenon that is actually observed. At the moment the sperm fuses with the egg, the calcium concentration inside the egg rises sharply and a wave spreads out as if it were fireworks. This calcium signal pulls the trigger of the first cell division.
According to reproductive biology research, "the fertilizing sperm triggers a propagating calcium wave, and this increase in intracellular calcium is sufficient to bring about all the accompanying phenomena of egg activation." Without a calcium wave, the fertilized egg does not begin to divide. The very beginning of life is ignited by a calcium signal. What is even more astonishing is that this calcium signal is universally observed in all sexually reproducing species. Whether fish, frog, or mammal, at the moment life begins there is always a calcium wave.
During the growth period, calcium accumulates intensively in the bones and organs and builds the structure of the body. At birth the body's calcium is at a level of about 20 to 30 g, but by adulthood it increases to about 1,000 to 1,200 g. During this period calcium operates mainly in 'storage' mode. Bones lengthen and thicken, teeth form, and the muscular and nervous systems develop. In all these processes calcium functions as a building material that forms structure.
In the reproductive period, calcium coordinates even hormone secretion and the movement of germ cells. In the case of women, estrogen promotes the storage of calcium in the bones and thereby maintains bone density. This is an evolutionary preparation to supply calcium to the fetus and the infant during pregnancy and lactation. In the case of men as well, testosterone contributes to maintaining bone density. The reproductive period is the time when calcium storage is maintained most stably.
But once the reproductive period passes, the situation changes. In the case of women, with menopause estrogen decreases sharply, and accordingly calcium begins to flow out of the bones. What plays the key role here is the osteoclast. Sex hormones normally suppress the activity of these osteoclasts. When the hormones decrease, the suppressed osteoclasts are activated and dissolve calcium out of the bones excessively. In men too, as they age testosterone decreases and a similar phenomenon occurs. From this point on, once DIAH (Deficiency, Inflammation, Acidosis, Hypoxia) begins to accumulate, calcium flows out of the bones even more rapidly.
Where does the drawn-out calcium go? That calcium travels throughout the body and sets off the 7M mechanisms. Calcium deposits on the blood vessel walls and causes arteriosclerosis (1M Obstruction & Rupture); it piles up in the joints and tendons and dulls movement (2M Dysfunction); it covers the cell receptors and induces insulin resistance (3M Coating & Blocking); it calcifies tissue and makes it lose elasticity (4M Hardening); it promotes abnormal cell proliferation (5M Overflow & Burst); it blocks blood vessels and necroses tissue (6M Disconnection); and finally it collapses the very structure of bone and teeth (7M Collapse).
As we follow this flow, it becomes clear that each stage of the life cycle spoken of by the theory of evolution is in reality being executed as the physical pathway of the substance calcium: its placement and movement, its accumulation and efflux, its formation of structure and its collapse. DIAH-7M plays exactly the role of placing this whole process onto a single map. From birth to death, when we follow the journey of calcium, the whole picture of birth, aging, illness, and death comes into view.
The blank Darwin left behind: "What executes that change?"
Darwin explained the direction and the principles of how life changes. Natural selection, survival of the fittest, the divergence of species... these concepts explain the 'why' of the phenomena of life. But in the 19th century in which he lived, there was almost no information about which ions pass within the cell as genes turn on and off, or about how the calcium in the bones moves to the blood vessels and governs a lifetime of health and disease. Even Mendel's laws of heredity were not widely known during Darwin's lifetime.
So Darwin's theory of evolution was, to put it by analogy, "an explanation that describes the scenario and the directing perfectly, but is missing the circuit diagram of which switch, when pressed on the film set, turns on which light, and of how each device moves." It is like a state in which one can know the plot and the intent of a film, but cannot know how that film is actually shot and edited.
Over the past 150 or so years, the history of science has continued the work of filling in that circuit diagram. With the advance of genetics, molecular biology, cell biology, and biochemistry, we have come to know in ever greater detail how genes are expressed, how proteins are synthesized, and how cells divide. But an integrated view that pierces through all these individual discoveries into one was still lacking.
When we reorganize, from the DIAH-7M perspective, the vast data accumulated in modern cell biology, physiology, internal medicine, cardiology, endocrinology, and so on, we come to see that calcium always sits at the center of that circuit diagram. In any cell, the final trigger of a signal is expressed as a sharp rise and fall in calcium concentration. The beating of the heart, the contraction of muscle, the nerve's transmission of a signal, and the secretion of hormones are all set off by a calcium signal.
For the sake of that signal, calcium is drawn out of the great warehouse that is bone, and the leftover residue leaves traces throughout the body in the form of calcification. Calcification of the blood vessel walls, calcification of the heart valves, calcium deposition in the joints, calcification of the soft tissues... these traces are what draw out the topographical map of chronic disease. When the body is imaged by CT or X-ray, one sees, as one ages, calcium deposited white in every corner of the body. This is precisely the trace of DIAH-7M having been executed.
It is exactly at this point that DIAH-7M goes beyond a mere theory explaining chronic disease. To the question "What is the material pathway that actually executes the law of evolution that Darwin spoke of?", it becomes a frame that proposes the concrete entity of calcium. The life-cycle program that evolution designed is written in the language of calcium, and DIAH-7M is the translator that decodes that language.