A local research team has discovered a form of nanostructure that has potential for later applications in cancer treatment. A joint research team of Yonsei University College of Medicine and Ewha Womans University assembled a phthalocyanine photosensitizer (PcS) with an anticancer drug mitoxantrone (MA) to form uniform nanostructures (PcS-MA). When the nanostructures were injected into a labora...

Some 41 percent of adult men are overweight, much higher than 24 percent for women, according to an obesity report out Sunday that showed the correlation between body size and income level. The report was released by the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) based on 13.95 million people who received medical checkups last year. Results showed that 41.28 percent of men and 23.74 percent of wo...

Healthier lifestyles and higher incomes helped increase life expectancy by 10 years in 35 nations in the past half a century, according to the Health at a Glance 2017 report by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. Out of the OECD’s 35 member countries, life expectancy exceeded 80 years in 25 nations. The leading countries are Japan with life expectancy of 83.9 years, as ...

While millions of people die of hunger in developing countries, genetically modified organisms are an essential tool to fight malnutrition and, most importantly, to help them age well, Nobel laureate Richard Roberts said Monday at a forum in Seoul. Speaking at Nobel Prize Dialogue, hosted by Nobel Media in partnership with the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, the acclaimed scientist in ...

The number of people with HIV in South Korea has nearly tripled over the past 10 years, data showed last week. A total of 13,584 people had been diagnosed with HIV in 2016, up from 5,316 tallied in 2007, according to data from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention submitted to the National Assembly. Patients in their 30s accounted for 27.2 percent of the total, followed by those ...

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 1 out of 6 South Korean children and youths (elementary, middle school, and high school students) are obese with the rate increasing every year. The obesity rate increased from 11.2 percent in 2008 to 14.3 percent in 2010, 14.7 percent in 2012, 15 percent in 2014 and moved up to 16.5 percent in 2016, the data showed. Also, the data showed that...

Anti-aging care growing popular among Koreans, old and young

As people age, so do their looks. In the hopes of reversing the ravages of time, a growing number of people are willing to pay for the privilege: The anti-aging industry in South Korea is expected to gross more than 28.3 trillion won ($25.1 billion) by 2020. Yet aging is a natural process of life, and experts warn against manipulating the pace using therapies that have not yet been proven to hav...

The government said Tuesday it will implement a prior approval system for biocidal products, such as disinfectants, starting in 2019, in a preventive measure after unscreened use of a deadly substance in a household humidifier disinfectant resulted in more than 70 deaths here. The Ministry of Environment announced the change in two separate legislations regarding the use of harmful chemical subs...

Chances of detecting liver cancer are 2.5 times higher for those who have regular checkups than those who do not, a report showed Sunday. Those who have regular medical examinations are also 24 percent less likely to die from this type of cancer than those who do not, according to the report of the state-run National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency, which analyzed statistics of th...

HONGSEONG -- A Nepalese worker died from a tick-borne disease earlier this week in South Korea's first case of the illness contracted by a man in his 20s, the South Chungcheong provincial government said Tuesday. The 24-year-old man, who had been working at a livestock farm in Hongseong, a town in South Korea's central province of South Chungcheong, was diagnosed with severe fever and thrombocyt...

South Korea's vaccination rates for hepatitis B and several other major diseases are higher than those of the United States, Britain and Australia, government data showed Thursday. South Korea's vaccination rates for HepB, BCG, DTaP, IPV, Hib and MMR stood at 96.6 percent, according to the statistics by the Korea Centers for Disease Control which analyzed the vaccination records of 440,000 child...

The state quarantine agency said Tuesday it will work with a number of different organizations that monitor migratory birds for systematic prevention of avian influenza. The Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency said it signed memorandums of understanding with the National Institute of Biological Resources, the National Science Museum and other related organizations to share their studies and resea...

South Korean women tend to consider themselves chubbier than they actually are while men are inclined to think the opposite, a survey showed Thursday. About 20 percent, or 5,002 women, of the 25,281 women polled said they are overweight, although they actually have normal body weight, according to the survey jointly conducted by professor Kwon Jin-won of Kyungpook National University and Park Su...

Government authorities said Monday they will be examining the e-cigarette IQOS for any health risks starting next month. IQOS, a product that heats tobacco, went on sale locally in June. Its manufacturer, Philip Morris International, claims that it has removed health-harming substances in the product by 90 percent compared with conventional burning cigarettes. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safet...