According to a survey from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the proportion of men who smoke came to 39.3 percent in 2017, down 1.3 percentage points from a year earlier. The survey was conducted with 228,381 adults here. The smoking rate has steadily fallen from 47.8 percent in 2008 to 40.3 percent in 2015, with exceptions in 2009 and 2016, the survey showed. The smoking...

Obese people are more susceptible to contracting diabetes than those who are not, a survey showed Friday. Obese people have a 156 percent greater chance of contracting diabetes than those who are not obese, according to the survey of 51,405 people carried out by a research team led by Professor Kwon Hyock-sang of Saint Mary's Hospital in Seoul. The review was carried out between 2002 and 2009. ...

Lookism hinders efforts to tackle obesity, focusing on appearances rather than health

A university research team has identified a protein produced by immune system that plays a key role in asthma attacks, opening up new possibilities for treatment research. The team led by professor Chung Doo-hyun at Department of Biomedical Sciences at Seoul National University found that XCL1 protein, produced by immune cells called natural killer T cells, engages with dendritic cells that cont...

Roughly seven out of 10 Koreans have received traditional Korean medical treatment, a study showed Tuesday. The Ministry of Health and Welfare put out the results of their study conducted on a total of 6,914 citizens. Results showed that 90.6 percent of those in their 60s or older have used Korean medicine, followed by those in their 50s (86.1 percent) and in their 40s (77.7 percent). Acupunct...

With the average temperature falling in January, the number of frostbite patients usually peaks drastically in that month, but the number has been declining in recent years. According to data from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, the number of patients suffering from frostbite reached 17,496 in 2014, 11,122 in 2015 and 9,806 in 2016. There were 1,297 patients in December 201...

The annual miscarriage rate for working women in Korea is 23 percent. Data also showed that the danger of failed pregnancy was 1.3 times higher for women with jobs as compared to those who do not work. According to a team of researchers led by Kim Eun-Ah from the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, the miscarriage rate for working women was 3.9 percentage points higher than those wh...

South Korean adults run the risk of chronic diseases due to unhealthy diet, a report from a state-run agency showed. According to the “Public Health Weekly Report” published on Thursday by the Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Koreans eat much less than the recommended daily intake of nut and seeds, calcium, milk, vegetables and fruits. On the other hand, they eat much more than re...

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