Lifestyle - The Korea Times

(321) Some controversies over saju in modern society

By Janet Shin In practicing or searching for appropriate advice from Oriental teachings such as saju, there are crucial factors everyone should be aware of, from novice to experienced practitioners. You must take the phases of the times and cosmopolitan outlooks into consideration. Without this, it is just fossilized letters and little can be applied to your reality. This misled interpretation is the reason if any of them are considered peripheral, obsolete or even superstitious. Saju was formed as a study of humans and their environment, what is known as the relationship between Heaven, Earth and human beings. By symbolizing the principle with the concept of yin, yang and the five elements, ancient scholars tried to explain every phenomenon of the universe. Saju is intended to interpret human life and social structures to predict the future. Within the context of its multidimensional perspective of space and time, we can see how it views the paths of life. It regards each pillar of birth year, month, day and hour as one’s lifespan. Although it does not exactly c

Jan 7, 2016

(321) Some controversies over saju in modern society

'Cosmetic surgery tourism has limits'

Bang Yung-jue is a pioneer of clinical trials in Korea and world-famous researcher in gastric cancer treatment. Over the past 30 years, he has published more than 380 papers in international medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet. /Korea Times photo by Choi Won-sukBy Jung Min-ho, Kim Eil-chulThe global success of Korean pop music and TV shows has helped to make cosmetic surgery one of the largest attractions for the country’s medical sector. Today Korea is dubbed the “plastic surgery capital of the world,” attracting tens of thousands of people annually seeking to look like their favorite stars.Over the past several years, Korean medical industry’s reliance on Chinese tourists seeking such medical services has increased sharply. For a country, whose ambitions in medical tourism are well beyond cosmetic surgery, this is a worrying trend, one scholar said.“The trend will not last long,” Bang Yung-jue, 62, president of the Biomedical Research Institute at Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH), said in a

Jan 3, 2016

'발기부전, 수명 단축시켜'

발기부전이 수명을 단축시킬 수 있다는 연구결과가 나왔다.    미국 미시시피 대학 건강행위연구센터(Center for Health Behavior Research)의폴 로프린지 박사가 2003~2004년에 전국보건영양조사(NHNES)에 참가한 남성 1천790명(20~85세)을 대상으로 2012년까지 진행된 조사자료를 분석한 결과 이 같은 사실이 밝혀졌다고 영국의 데일리 메일 인터넷판이 30일 보도했다.    발기부전 남성은 다른 남성에 비해 일찍 사망할 위험이 70% 큰 것으로 나타났다고 로프린지 박사는 밝혔다.    이는 발기부전이 고혈압, 고지혈증, 비만, 당뇨병, 흡연, 뇌졸중, 심근경색, 관상동맥질환과 연관이 있기 때문으로 생각된다고 그는 설명했다.    특히 발기부전은 혈관내피세포의 기능부전과 혈관을 이완시키는 산화질소 생산기능 장애와 연관이 있어 심혈관질환 발생 위험을 높이는 것으로 알려져 있다.    조사대상자 중 발기부전 남성은 557명이었고 조사기간에 모두 244명이 사망했다.    사망원인은 61명이 심혈관질환, 64명이 악성 종양, 12명은 만성 하기도질환이었고 나머지는 사망원인이 다양했다.     그러나 20~40세의 발기부전 남성 61명 중 조사기간에 사망한 경우는 4명에 불과했기 때문에 전체적인 결과는 신중하게 받아들일 필요가 있다고 로프린지 박사는 강조했다.    이 연구결과는 '성의학 저널'(Journal of Sexual Medicine) 최신호에 게재됐다. (연합뉴스)

Dec 31, 2015

No physician-scientists, no future

/Korea Times photos by Choi Won-sukBy Jung Min-ho, Kim Eil-chulKorea has many world-class surgeons but few world-class medical researchers, which bodes ill for the country that considers its medical industry as a future growth engine, one scholar said.Even more worrying, Korea’s medical education system is failing behind the times. According to Huh Kap-bum, 78, a former dean of Yonsei University College of Medicine, the system is regressing.“At a time when Korea badly needs more research experts in medical fields, its education system is now falling back into the outdated model, which is largely designed to train students as surgeons,” he said in an interview. “The country needs more physician-scientists. Otherwise, the future for its medical industry is bleak.”By 2021, the U.S.-style medical school system, which requires an undergraduate degree and an additional four years in medical school, will be abolished in Korea.This change means that students will have to get a high score on the state-administered annual college entrance exam and, upon graduation

Dec 27, 2015

(320) Dongji - preparation for New Year

By Janet Shin Dongji, or winter solstice, usually falls on December 21, 22 or 23 every year. It was on the 22nd this year. A special holiday on the ancient agrarian calendar system of jeolgi, the day has been considered a small new year’s day and greatly celebrated. While people conventionally regard it as a day of eating red bean soup to expel evil spirits, it has more significance than you might think. As jeolgi have been used to mark time in Far Eastern countries since ancient times, many people presume it would be based on the lunar calendar. But it actually relates to both the lunar and solar calendars, denoting that it is associated with the activities and circulation of the sun and moon. Regarding the concept that Dongji is a small new year’s day, this belief has its roots in Yijing, the book of changes. Yi represents not only ‘changes,’ but ‘easy.’ The notion of change is about the alternation of the sun and moon or day and night and the cycle of the seasons of the year. The eight trigrams, created by Chinese mythologica

Dec 24, 2015

'Stem cell research will deliver on its promise'

Yang Yoon-sun / Korea Times photos by Choi Won-sukBy Jung Min-ho, Kim Eil-chulEver since Hwang Woo-suk’s fraudulent stem cell research a decade ago, the Korean public has become wary of anything associated with the phrase “stem cell.”In recent years, scientists have made meaningful progress in clinical care using stem cells, yet doubts still persist: will stem cell research deliver what it promised and conquer some of the incurable illnesses of our time?Ask this question to Dutch football manager Guus Hiddink, who completely recovered from serious osteoarthritis in his right knee, thanks to Cartistem, the world’s first allogeneic stem cell drug.“Every time we met, he expressed his gratitude, saying the drug gave him a second life,” Yang Yoon-sun, the founder and CEO of Medipost, Cartistem’s developer, said in an interview. “What happened to him shows what stem cells are capable of.”Stem cells are not a panacea, but they are one of the biggest and most realistic hopes for patients with many incurable diseases, she said.Unlike

Dec 20, 2015

'Stem cell research will deliver on its promise'

Maintaining body water balance

InBody CEO Cha Ki-chul is the developer of the world’s first and most accurate body composition analyzer that is capable of measuring water, fat, proteins and minerals in each of the five body parts — arms, legs, and torso./ Korea Times photos by Shim Hyun-chulInBody is increasingly used for clinical purposesBy Jung Min-ho, Kim Eil-chulEdema, or swelling, is an abnormal accumulation of watery fluid in the tissues of the body. It is a common sign of health problems such as an infection or disease.Information about patients’ edema status is particularly important for managing certain illnesses, including heart failure, that pose a high risk of edema-related emergencies.The world’s most accurate way to measure the level of edema is with an InBody machine. A patient simply stands on the machine and holds onto its handles on the sides, and within two minutes, the machine shows the locations and amounts of water, fat, proteins and minerals in the body.“For now, most customers use our products mainly as body fat analyzers, and 99 percent of our revenues come fr

Dec 13, 2015

(319) Games: a way of divinatory play

By Janet Shin Why do people do divination? You may relate it with a certain type of supernatural ability, so it is performed by an extraordinary person such as a shaman. You may also consider it to be practiced for special events. The reality is not always the case as you might assume. It is true that divination was conducted in times of war and for national matters since the olden days. However, it is actually one of the most universal rituals that people do in their daily routines. Let me explain it along with an intriguing theme. Stewart Culin (1858-1929), an American ethnographer, wrote how games across cultures are associated with acts of divination in his book ‘Chess and Playing-Cards’ published in 1896. Furthermore his book ‘Korean Games ― With Notes on the Corresponding Games of China and Japan’ (1895) introduces 95 traditional Korean games and compares them with Chinese and Japanese games. It is mentioned that games are derived from acts of incantation from ancient times. They are a part of divinatory rituals to relieve people’s a

Dec 10, 2015

Conquering silent killers

Prof. Shim Young-mog of Samsung Medical Center performs robotic surgery on an esophageal cancer patient. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk By Jung Min-ho, Kim Eil-chulWhat makes lung and esophageal cancers deadlier than many other cancers is late detection. Most patients feel nothing until the diseases have become too advanced to cure.These so-called “silent killers,” in most cases, remain undetected in the early stages because they do not cause any obvious symptoms such as difficulty in breathing and hemoptysis until they turn fatal and doctors can no longer do anything.For this reason, until the late 1980s, few surgeons in Korea dared to try to remove tumors from the patient’s lung or esophagus with a scalpel. Surgery was considered meaningless for the cancers since it barely affected the patients’ five-year survival rates.“It was a routine to send almost all patients with lung or esophagus cancer to radiotherapists. Surgery was rarely performed at that time,” Prof. Shim Young-mog of Samsung Medical Center (SMC) said in an interview.

Dec 6, 2015

Innovator of alternative heart surgery

/ Korea Times photo by Choi Won-sukBy Jung Min-ho, Kim Eil-chulSurgery was long considered the only way to treat heart valve disease.When Park Seung-jung proposed a new method using a stent as an alternative treatment for left main coronary artery stenosis, an abnormal narrowing of the aortic valve in the heart, at the American Heart Association’s meeting in 1997, most doctors, including Stephen Oesterle from Harvard Medical School, were skeptical.In recent years, however, less-invasive procedures have increasingly become accepted as an alternative to open-heart surgery.Today, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), a minimally invasive surgical procedure that involves replacing the faulty aortic valve of aortic stenosis patients, is performed in more than 50 countries, including the United States.Currently, TAVI is used mainly for those who face high surgical risk because its long-term safety has not yet been proved. However, Park, the interventional cardiology director at Asan Medical Center, believes the method will replace surgery for most aortic stenosis patients w

Nov 29, 2015

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