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...

More than 250 medical doctors and health care providers from South Korea and the United States gathered in Seoul on Friday to discuss ways to pursue innovations as the economies around the world embrace the fourth industrial revolution. The annul Healthcare Innovation Seminar, hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, brought together leading experts from government, academia and indu...

Heatstroke has claimed 58 lives in South Korea over the past five years, government data showed Thursday. Those in their 70s accounted for the largest share with 18, followed by 11 each for people in their 50s and 80s and six in their 60s, according to the data by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Yonhap) The number of heatstroke patients, meanwhile, reached 5,910 from 201...

Red ginseng helps reduce fatigue in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, a local report showed Thursday. The report based on a survey on 438 colorectal cancer patients by professor Kim Yeol-hong of Korea University Medical Center in Seoul revealed the group of 219 patients who took 1 gram of red ginseng every day for 16 weeks registered 81.07 on the overall Brief Fatigue Inventory index. An...

A third of South Korean people are obese, causing Asia's fourth-largest economy to shoulder nearly 7 trillion won ($6.12 billion) in social costs every year, the government said Wednesday. Also, some 25 percent of boys aged between 5 and 14 in South Korea suffer from obesity, compared with an average 23 percent for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries, accor...

More than 100 medical doctors and vaccine experts from all over the world gathered in Seoul on Wednesday to examine ways to improve vaccine management, and called for concerted efforts on extend benefits of immunization around the world. The international forum, the first of its kind, is co-hosted by the World Health Organization and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and broug...

Consumption of kimchi does not raise blood pressure despite its high salt content as the lactic acid bacteria in the fermented dish actually helps drive sodium out of the body, a survey showed Wednesday. Kimchi is a traditional Korean side dish made of fermented napa cabbage, salt and pepper. An image of kimchi (Yonhap) The survey of 5,932 people by professor Song Hong-ji of Hallym University ...

Ramyeon instant noodles raises blood sugar, blood pressure and the chance of artery hardening and heart attack due to its high fat, sodium, sugar and carbohydrate content, the latest findings showed Monday. Those who regularly eat ramyeon three or more times a week are 2.6 times more susceptible to cardiovascular metabolic disease than those who have the instant noodles once or less frequently p...