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(236) Reshape the corner of one's mouth for physiognomy?

By Janet ShinIt is reported that quite a number of Koreans have plastic surgery to lift the corner of their mouths for a better facial impression. It is also believed to improve their fortune by changing their mouth shape. It is not a fresh fact considering previous articles reporting that Korea is a Mecca for plastic surgery. There has also been rather ridiculous footage showing how identical the appearances of all participants at beauty pageants here are. It is kind of embarrassing picture.Leaving people’s obsession with appearance aside, it is pitiful once you know it is done for many people working in the service industry. They have the operation in order to satisfy their customers by showing them a smiling face even with artificial treatment. Clowns put on makeup of exaggerated mouth shapes regardless of their internal emotion. This is a sorrowful contradiction ignoring the clowns true life, who show laughing faces even in times of gloom. Imagine a face of a crying Pierrot wearing a big smiling mouth.Why do they try such facial expressions. Not only for their customers, bu

May 9, 2013
(236) Reshape the corner of one's mouth for physiognomy?

Why young workers quit so soon?

New employees find it hard to adapt to company culture By Park Ji-won, Nam Hyun-woo, Baek Byung-yeul, Lee Kyung-min Nearly one out of four new employees quit their jobs within a year, despite the high rate of youth unemployment, amid the continuing economic slowdown.The Korea Employers Federation said in a report that 23.6 percent of new employees quit their jobs within a year in 2012, an increase of about 8 percentage points from 2010.Jobseekers are presumed to be desperate for jobs, but many who land them find it hard to adapt to company culture.  There have been extreme cases involving attempted suicide as a result of unrelenting workplace stress.A 29-year-old intern at an insurance company committed suicide a few days ago, apparently because of alleged poor sales. According to investigators, his family quoted him as saying, “I want to quit the job.”This might be a rare example. But definitely a growing number of new employees are quitting their jobs for different reasons.  Interviewees answer questions during a job interview. Many young employ

May 7, 2013
Why young workers quit so soon?

Colorful nights: lotus lantern festival starts Friday

The Lotus Lantern Festival, or “Yeondeunghoe,” is designated as an Intangible Cultural Heritage.                                                        / Korea Times fileBy Baek Byung-yeulColorful lotus lanterns will illuminate Buddhist temples in Seoul and the city’s downtown stream of Cheonggyecheon from May 10 to 12 to celebrate the 2,576th birthday of Buddha, which falls on May 17.The Lotus Lantern Festival, or "Yeondeunghoe,’’ is designated as the country’s Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 122, and considered the country’s oldest surviving cultural festival, dating back to the Silla Kingdom (B.C. 57-A.D. 935), when Buddhism was the state religion.In Buddhism, lighting lanterns symbolizes a wish to brighten the darker side of the world and represents a devotion to performing good deeds. It’s traditionally held on the day of ``Daeboreum,’’ or the first full moon of the lunar calendar.

May 6, 2013
Colorful nights: lotus lantern festival starts Friday

There is need for personal space

Dear Dr. P,Hi. I will try to make this question short.My question is: how much personal space does a person need?I am currently living with my female friend. Recently, my friend says she needs space from me. She does not want to talk to me anymore because she says she needs to breathe. It could be for weeks or months, who knows? I am afraid this could lead to break up of our friendship.Matt Hi! Matt,It may be true that some space is needed for two people who live together in the same place. But in some sense, the emotional intimacy is more important than physical distance.They are happy even in the small and cramped space if they like or love each other. But the problem is nobody can like or love each other all the time. There isn’t anything like the human mind or emotion to blow hot and cold.In that sense, you should accept that her emotions can change too. Now she is complaining there isn’t any space to breathe, but nobody knows what she really needs.First of all, you should try to adjust your time schedule. When she is at home, you should go out to the library or

May 3, 2013
There is need for personal space

Symptoms, treatment of migraine

By Lee Sung-hunOne of my regular patients visited the clinic a few weeks ago with a sudden and severe headache. He said he saw a bright light reflected in his rearview mirror and his vision turned dark, after which a severe migraine started. It came with severe nausea and pain that made him vomit.Migraine headaches are one of the primary headaches that do not have a diagnosable cause even with a thorough medical examination such as a Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Many migraine patients complain of nausea, vomiting or hypersensitivity to light as part of their symptoms.For most, migraines first appear between the ages of 10 and 45. They are more common among women than men, and may run in the family. A migraine can be triggered by various factors that cause abnormal brain activity, but the exact mechanism of how it is triggered is yet to be fully identified. The most recent explanation proposed by medical experts is that they start in the brain and affect neural pathways and chemicals, whose change affects the blood flow in the brain and its surrounding tissue.Tension-type headaches, wh

May 3, 2013
Symptoms, treatment of migraine

Facts about cavity-prone teeth

By Hong Kee-sangMany parents are dismayed to learn during their children’s dental check-ups that they have dental decay. Sometimes better home care, preventive measures and regular monitoring are all that’s needed. Other times, however, extensive drilling and filling, capping, or even extraction of teeth is required, which is all the more problematic in young children as they are not yet capable of coping with such stressful situations on their own. They may need sedation or even general anesthesia, adding to the emotional and other burdens for the parents.The question lots of parents ask, and dentists hear often, is “why?” Why are my kids’ teeth so prone to cavities? Do they have particularly weak, defective teeth? They have taken care, some of them even better than other parents, about what the kids eat, make certain they brush their teeth and so on. However, we know that there are some people who don’t seem to put in any effort into maintaining their oral health but get along fine without any decay or problems.The casual, off-the-shelf answer yo

May 3, 2013
Facts about cavity-prone teeth

Beginning of third trimester

By Jane HanAnd so the final countdown begins. Time really does fly — even during pregnancy.The third trimester, the final stretch, the just-around-the-corner-and-you’re-almost-there period is finally upon me. Twenty-nine weeks and counting, so now what?Well, aside from feeling eager, nervous, excited, psyched and scared all at once, there’s the whole array of physical changes only a pregnant woman can attest to.You see, the third trimester is clearly a redefining upgrade from the second trimester.If the second trimester was that miraculous period where you start seeing the cute little baby bump, feeling the baby moving and all that other good stuff, consider the third trimester just the same, but on steroids.The baby bump is no longer a “bump,” but more of a basketball or watermelon. You don’t have to secretly hope that people notice that you’re pregnant. You go to a grocery store or any other public place and people automatically and quickly clear the way for you. Think of it as an invisible red carpet.While the stomach is bulging on the out

May 3, 2013
Beginning of third trimester

Recipe for slow and steady diet Saesongseonjeon: Panfried fish fillet

Courtesy of CypressIngredients   You will need 50 grams of “dongtaesal,” or frozen pollack fillet, 10 grams of flour, 25 grams of eggs, a half teaspoon of vegetable oil, some red pepper, “ssukgat,” or crown daisy, salt and powdered black pepper. Step by step    Season the frozen pollack fillet with salt and black pepper.Cut leaves of the crown daisy in appropriate size for decoration, and cut red pepper into rings.Dress the seasoned pollack fillet with flour and then egg.Decorate it with crown daisy and red pepper and panfry it. TipsYou can decrease the amount of oil by using a well coated pan and heating the pan enough before cooking. This is an excerpt from “500 calories diet” by Kim Hyung-mi, director at the department of dietetics at the Severance Hospital, and CJ Freshway, published by Cypress.

May 3, 2013
Recipe for slow and steady diet Saesongseonjeon: Panfried fish fillet

Smoking weakens bones of menopausal women

Prof. Kim Hyoung-ryoul Prof. Myong Jun-pyoBy Yoon Ja-youngSmoking is bad for bone health, leading to bone loss, osteoporosis and even fractures. A recent study showed women should especially quit smoking if near menopause.A research team led by Prof. Kim Hyoung-ryoul and Prof. Myong Jun-pyo at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital examined 4,260 females around the age of menopause in 2008 and 2009. It showed the more cotinine the women had in their urine, the lower the bone density of their femurs and lumbar spine. Cotinine is a metabolite of nicotine and higher levels in urine indicate a person is a heavy smoker. In the research, the bone mineral density of femurs for non-smoking, postmenopausal females averaged 0.78 gram per square centimeter, while it fell to 0.755 in their peers who were in the top quartile in terms of urinary cotinine level — showing smoking postmenopausal women have weaker bones than their non-smoking peers.The study is meaningful as most previous studies relied on self-reporting of females regarding whether they smoked or not. Such studies demonstrated co

May 3, 2013By Yoon Ja-young

Acupuncture effective in acute pain

A patient with acute low back pain is assisted by two doctors to walk with acupuncture needles inserted as part of the “motion style acupuncture treatment” at Jaseng Hospiatal of Korean Medicine in this file photo. / Courtesy of Jaseng Hospital of Korean MedicineBy Yoon Ja-youngSome people having problems with their intervertebral discs experience acute low back pain so severe, they have trouble walking. They go to hospitals for emergency treatment and get painkiller injections. However, research published in Pain, a journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain has shown that acupuncture is more effective in treating acute low back pain.In the joint research titled “Effects of motion style acupuncture treatment in acute low back pain patients with severe disability” by Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine, Pusan National University and the Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, 58 patients who visited the hospital for acute low back pain were divided into two groups — the first group was composed of patients who chose to get acup

May 3, 2013By Yoon Ja-young
Acupuncture effective in acute pain
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