Lifestyle - The Korea Times

S. Korean pastor convicted of breaching security law

The nation's top court has sentenced a 54-year-old pastor to six months in prison for praising North Korea in violation of South Korea's national security law.Upholding a lower court's decision, the Supreme Court convicted Park Kwang-hyuk of supporting the authoritarian regime on the Web site of a pro-North Korean online community from 2010.The top court agreed with the lower court's judgment that Park's posts on the Web site pose a clear threat to national security as they can be distributed to many people.Still, the jail term was suspended for two years. The Ulsan District Court said there is a lack of evidence to say Park tried to preach his thoughts at the church. It also took into consideration that he had no other criminal records.South Koreans are prohibited from supporting or praising the North in any way under the National Security Law. They are also banned from joining a pro-Pyongyang organization or having unauthorized contact with North Korea. (Yonhap)

Apr 20, 2016

Foreign medical tourists flock to Korean clinics

/Yonhap By Lee Jin-aWhile the number of foreign tourists who receive medical treatment in Korea is increasing, patients have different reasons for it by country, figures show.  The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday the total number of foreigners who visited Korea for treatment was 266,501 in 2014. China was top with 79,481 people, followed by the U.S., Russia and Japan.Most Chinese medical tourists, or 28 percent, came for plastic surgery.Most patients from the U.S. and Russia - 26 percent and 33 percent, respectively - visited Korea for internal medical treatments. The largest number of Japanese tourists - 28 percent - headed to oriental medicine clinics.“Many American tourists come to Korea to receive medical treatment because Korea provides a high-quality medical service with relatively low prices,” said Han Dong-woo, the chief of the Medical Care Global Marketing Support Bureau at the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, according to the Korea Economic Daily.

Apr 19, 2016

Foreign medical tourists flock to Korean clinics

BBQ meat causes low birth weight: research

By Bahk Eun-jiPregnant women who eat red meat cooked over an open flame or fried in oil are at high risk of delivering a lower-weight baby, according to research.An Inha University research team traced 778 pregnant women in their 12th to 28th weeks from 2006 to 2011 with teams from Ewha Womans University and Seoul National University.The subjects were separated into nine groups based on the amount and frequency of meats ― beef, pork and fish ― they consumed. The first group “rarely ate” meat while the second did “once in a month” and the last group “three times a day.”Among the subjects, 52 percent ate meat cooked with high heat.The difference between the weights of babies born to those in the first group and the last group was 174 grams at most, the research said. The study said that when red meat is cooked with an open flame’s high heat, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are created. The chemical alters parts of DNA that could result in a greater cancer risk. The toxic substance can also damage placenta blood vessels and possibly

Apr 19, 2016

BBQ meat causes low birth weight: research

Excessive smartphone use causes 'cross-eye': experts

An excessive use of smartphones by teenagers may cause them to suffer from eye deviation, experts warned Tuesday, adding users must refrain from viewing displays for more than 30 minutes consecutively.Chonnam National University Hospital said it has found the possible relationship between convergent strabismus, a symptom in which a patient's eye moves inward eventually to become "cross-eyed," and excessive use of smartphones based on its study on 12 patients aged seven to 16.The convergent strabismus is more common among westerners, and usually appears before the age of five. Thus, it is rare for a South Korean youth to suffer from the condition.The research team said the 12 patients' daily use of smartphones came to four to eight hours. The distance between their eyes and screens were also close at 20 to 30 centimeters.Nine of the 12 patients, however, were cured from the disorder after ceasing to use smartphones for around two months, researchers said, adding the result proves the link between the condition and smartphone use.The research team added users must refrain from looking

Apr 19, 2016

'Unification could bring health crisis to Korea'

/Courtesy of Korea University Anam HospitalBy Jung Min-ho, Kim Eil-chulImagine hundreds of thousands of North Korean refugees are crossing the border into South Korea after their regime suddenly collapses. What would be the most urgent issue for the unified Korea?Surveys show that most South Koreans believe the cost of unification is the biggest concern. However, according to Kim Young-hoon, former president of Korea University Anam Hospital, money may just be a secondary issue.“President Park Geun-hye said unification would bring a bonanza, but it could instead bring a health crisis, if we are unprepared,” Kim said. “Unification could bring along many lethal, infectious diseases that we are not ready to cope with. The worst part is that we know very little about such risks.”Some health risks are obvious, he said. For example, North Korea has about 110,000 tuberculosis (TB) patients, 5,000 of whom died in 2014 alone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).“More worryingly, many of TB cases in North Korea are multi-drug resistant. This means we

Apr 17, 2016

'Unification could bring health crisis to Korea'

(328) Similar saju of two people and synchronicity in their lives

By Janet Shin What we do first to read someone’s destiny by saju is to plot a chart constituted by the records of his or her birth year, month, day and hour. This is obtained by the so-called 10,000 year calendar, which contains both the solar and lunar calendars, 24 divisions of the year, decades and so on, considering all the leap years and summertime practices of relevant countries. Owing to advanced computer software these days, you just need to key in your birth records based on the local time of the city where you were born. What makes it simpler is by the help of colorized smart applications, you may even be able to visualize the images of your saju. Illustrated in the examples below, you will see two saju charts for A and B. In order to make them more presentable, I trimmed some complicated parts out, but still left all the Chinese characters of both heavenly stems (cheon-gan) and earthly branches (ji-ji) and whether they are yin or yang. Nevertheless, the colors and some images make them a little more comprehensible. As you have learned, the five elements are

Apr 14, 2016

(328) Similar saju of two people and synchronicity in their lives

Toddler and table: feeding the picky eater

 Meals are prepared for three children.  / Courtesy of Jane Han  By Jane HanThree meals a day, seven days a week. That’s 21 meals a week and 84 in a month.Wow, just seeing these numbers make me feel dizzy.Cooking was never my strongest forte, but as a mom of three toddlers, it is my responsibility and one of the single most important tasks on my list of mommy duties to provide a balanced, healthy and tasty meal three times a day.Sounds like I’m doing a pretty impressive job, doesn’t it?In reality, not so much.Up until Ellen and Ann turned 15 months, I can proudly say I was strict about what I gave the girls.I religiously prepped their meals separately as I thought adult seasoning was too strong for them and I made sure they got a colorful platter of food at least two meals a day.No sweets (not even their first birthday cake), no salty food, no pizza, no fried food and the list went on. Puffed rice snack was their biggest treat.Yes, call me uptight and boring.I secretly cringed when I saw other children the same age eating chips, gummies and ice c

Apr 12, 2016

Toddler and table: feeding the picky eater

Good posture crucial in maintaining spinal health

Source: Ministry of Health and Welfare / Korean Academy of Medical Sciences By Lee Sung-hun As parents, most of us fret over pretty much everything about our children. Their postures are no exception to our concerns.Especially nowadays when our teenagers spend vast amounts of time in front of a desk sitting over a book, and if away from the desk, when they have a smartphone or a tablet in their hands, many students unfortunately end up with bad posture.Considering that a correct posture is directly related with the overall well-being of a person, and affects the appearance and even growth itself, a child’s posture can become quite a major concern for parents.Most often, when parents bring their children to the Oriental clinic regarding the posture issues, it is for one of three cases; straight-neck posture where the head is protruded forward, kyphosis where the upper back becomes rounded (commonly known as a round back), and scoliosis where the spine is bent sideways.When viewed from the side, a normal spine takes a slight s-shape.The neck has a small forward concavin

Apr 12, 2016

Good posture crucial in maintaining spinal health

Training doctors of the future

/ Korea Times‘Medical education should focus more on leadership’By Jung Min-ho, Kim Eil-chulMedicine in Korea has undergone dramatic changes over the past 20 years. Almost all medical records are managed electronically and an increasing number of surgeons rely on robots in performing their job.But the field will see even faster and more dramatic changes in the next two decades, which would require the nation’s medical schools to change the way they educate their students in order to make them relevant to the future needs, said Kang Dae-hee, dean of Seoul National University College of Medicine (SNUCM).“It could be a case of ‘now or never.’ We must act fast,” Kang said in an interview. “All these technological changes will affect what the next generation of doctors needs to learn.”With new technologies quickly changing the way doctors work in many areas, from diagnosis to treatment, Kang believes the most important skill for doctors will be the ability to lead.“In the future, doctors will have to play a role as medical orches

Apr 10, 2016

(327) Simple ways to apply feng shui at your house

By Janet Shin For people at large, feng shui and saju may sound like something Oriental that has been observed traditionally so that it is often linked to occultism and esotericism. While saju is the practice of reading one’s destiny by decoding the symbolic letters from one’s birth, feng shui, literally representing wind and water, teaches how to control the wind and acquire the water by the theories of yin and yang and the five elements. Feng shui can also be comprehended as qi atmosphere and shui money. The former governs one’s health and the latter wealth if broadly defined. Feng and shui guide one to a successful and healthy life when they are properly implemented in our living environment. That’s why many feng shui promotions are titled as ‘feng shui to bring success and wealth to your life.’The proto concept of feng shui would have been derived by primitive life in caves. Some had settled down in good feng shui, sunny caves, for example, while others took up their residence in those facing north. The former naturally prospered while the

Mar 31, 2016

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Others

S. Korean pastor convicted of breaching security law

Foreign medical tourists flock to Korean clinics

BBQ meat causes low birth weight: research

Excessive smartphone use causes 'cross-eye': experts

'Unification could bring health crisis to Korea'

(328) Similar saju of two people and synchronicity in their lives

Toddler and table: feeding the picky eater

Good posture crucial in maintaining spinal health

Training doctors of the future

(327) Simple ways to apply feng shui at your house

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