How running changed Kian84's battle with panic disorder

More than a decade ago, one of the many diet trends to capture public attention was the so-called paleo diet. The basic idea was to eat plenty of meat, fat and vegetables while sharply reducing bread, grains and dairy products.

Its premise was that many human diseases emerged after the transition to settled agricultural life, and that people would therefore be healthier if they returned to something closer to the diet of their hunter-gatherer ancestors. Grains and dairy products that became abundant after the rise of agriculture were pushed aside in favor of meat and vegetables — although, of course, no one was suggesting a return to the brutal struggle for survival, hunger after failed hunts or the shorter life spans of prehistoric humans.

"The Perfect Primitive," a book published in March by popular YouTuber Ja Chung, whose online name is short for "self-made young man" in Korean, builds on a similar idea. The book has gone through more than 14 printings since its release.

Like many books written by prominent YouTubers, its greatest strength lies in packaging a range of existing information into an easily digestible format. Its exaggerated rhetoric, self-congratulatory passages and simplistic explanations of success can be distracting, but some of its arguments are worth examining.

The book begins with the "savanna hypothesis." While the paleo diet tends to look back to humans living before the advent of agriculture, the book repeatedly makes references to humans of 100,000 years ago. The savanna hypothesis itself, however, reaches much further back, often more than 2.5 million years.

According to the hypothesis, as the Earth became hotter and drier and dense forests gave way to vast savannas, some primates that could no longer find sufficient food in trees descended to the ground and began walking upright, setting the stage for human evolution.

The theory has also been used to explain why people today may feel comfortable in wide-open landscapes and why humans often enjoy spaces that combine open views with scattered vegetation.

The central argument of "The Perfect Primitive" is that moving across such landscapes to hunt and gather was the default condition under which the human brain developed over millions of years, while modern society — only a few centuries old in its current form — suppresses much of that behavior.

The book compares the situation to keeping a border collie, a breed developed for intense physical activity, confined to a room all day.

John Ratey, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is among researchers who have emphasized the close relationship between physical activity and brain health. "The Perfect Primitive" takes that idea further, arguing that some of the psychological difficulties experienced by modern people can be understood as the brain reacting to a lifestyle radically different from the one in which humans evolved.

The book describes prehistoric life in simple terms: Humans woke to natural sunlight, spent much of the day walking or running while hunting and gathering, experienced the rewards of successful hunts, shared food with members of their communities and slept when darkness fell.

Physical activity stimulates brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a protein involved in the growth and maintenance of neurons and associated with learning and memory. Light exposure, physical activity, social interaction and darkness also influence biological systems involving serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and melatonin.

Modern lifestyles can look very different. People spend long hours sitting indoors under artificial lighting, have fewer reasons to move and explore, eat alone while looking at smartphones and continue exposing themselves to artificial light and digital stimulation late into the night.

The book points to webtoon artist and television personality Kian84 as a striking example of what can happen when that mismatch becomes extreme.

During his years producing webtoons, Kian84 pushed himself relentlessly in pursuit of success. He spent most of his days sitting at a desk, relied heavily on food delivery and often needed a drink at night to fall asleep.

After living that way for years, he developed panic disorder. He has said that while driving normally, he would suddenly be overwhelmed by the terrifying feeling that he was about to die.

He received counseling and medication, but panic symptoms continued to occur in everyday life. Doctors repeatedly recommended exercise, advice he initially struggled to accept.

He wondered what exercise could possibly have to do with his condition when his work consisted of sitting still and creating with his mind and hands.

Eventually, when the symptoms became unbearable, he began running.

He was not good at it at first. He could not run far, and his breathing and pace were poor. But he felt refreshed afterward.

As he gradually began running for longer periods, he said his panic symptoms subsided and he drank less alcohol.

"I might have died if I hadn't run," Kian84 has said.

He later went so far as to say that people seeking to overcome panic disorder should run.

Running eventually became a prominent part of Kian84's public persona. He took on a full marathon through a television program and later pushed himself even further with a marathon in the Arctic for the variety show "Extreme Kian84."

The book uses his experience to illustrate its broader argument: The human brain should not be viewed simply as an organ built for sophisticated abstract thought. Movement, navigation and exploration were also fundamental to its evolution.

It offers the sea squirt as a comparison. In its mobile larval stage, the animal has a primitive nervous system that helps it navigate until it finds a place to attach itself. Once settled permanently, it reabsorbs much of the nervous tissue it no longer needs.

The book argues that modern humans risk doing something similar — possessing highly developed brains while living increasingly sedentary lives that give those brains fewer opportunities for physical exploration.

Walking and running for prehistoric humans, the book argues, were not merely forms of exercise. They involved constantly searching for food and shelter while navigating terrain, observing plants and animals and interacting with other people.

From this evolutionary perspective, the book proposes five lifestyle habits for modern people. Below are two of them.

Get enough deep, restorative sleep

The brain consumes high amounts of energy, and the book argues that periods of intensive work need to be balanced by sufficient rest.

Sleep is the most important part of that recovery. To improve sleep, it recommends spending at least 15 minutes outdoors in sunlight, getting at least 10 minutes of aerobic exercise and minimizing stimulating activities such as smartphone use in the evening.

Eat vegetables first if paleo diet unrealistic

Vegetables, fruit, nuts, fish and meat form the basis of the diet recommended in the book, while highly processed foods and refined sugar are discouraged.

But eating exactly like prehistoric humans is neither simple nor realistic. Modern fruit has been selectively bred to be sweeter, for example, while the nutritional composition of today's meat also differs from that available to hunter-gatherers.

The book therefore suggests a more practical alternative: change the order in which foods are eaten.

It recommends eating vegetables first, followed by meat or other protein, and leaving carbohydrates such as rice until last. It also recommends light physical activity after meals, such as brisk walking or squats.

Rather than simply starving oneself in the name of health or weight loss, the book recommends a substantial protein-focused breakfast, lighter meals later in the day and occasional intermittent fasting.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, was translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.