Not the typical doctor's office...

This might look like just an ordinary building, unless you notice what one of the signs actually says.I remember seeing this sometime during my second year here in Korea, but didn't take a picture. After that I tried to find it again but for some reason, couldn't. I saw it once again last year, but my camera batteries were dead, so again, no picture. And again I looked for it along that same strip but again couldn't find it. Until today. I was walking to Starbucks and looked up and there it was. This time my camera was handy and fully charged. :) Just in case you can't read the sign, underneath the Korean it says,

"www.ANALSURGERY.co.kr"

Now, don't ask me what kind of doctor's office THAT's supposed to be, or why the heck they'd pick a website address like that. Makes you wonder. Apgujeong is full of plastic surgery clinics and dermatologist clinics. This is something a little different.

mask

With the swine flu getting more and more around, last week the school decided to bring in a new dress code - masks for everyone. All of the teachers and students must wear masks all day. Here are a few of my kids:[Justin][Brian][Ellen][maybe Thomas??? (one of the twins - forget which one was wearing the yellow mask that day. They keep changing day to day)]
It's a nice idea but doesn't really work. None of the kids wear them properly (most of the teachers as well) and many have stopped wearing them altogether. ALL of the kids keep touching their faces anyway, trying to sneak a nose pick here and there, taking the mask OFF to sneeze or cough, etc. Then they touch the tables, the classroom pencils and erasers and everything else. Many have them down just covering their mouth but not their nose, or just hanging on their chin. [In the pics of the kids above, I fixed their masks before taking the pics.]
Today I was watching my students. Only one had the mask covering her nose. The others had theirs down or rolled in a ball on the table. One kid had a pencil hanging from his nostril, another had a pencil in her mouth. Ugh. Also, while the kids are wearing masks during the day, during snack time and lunch time, the masks are put away and the kids are all sitting together at little tables, talking and breathing over each others' food and poking at each others' food at times.

What's the point???
As of this week I have stopped wearing one at all because it is impossible to teach phonics with a mask hiding my mouth and muffling the sound. You can't teach the proper way to make the 'th' sound without them seeing what I am doing, and without me seeing what they are doing to make the sound (there is nothing equivalent to the 'th' sound in Korean so it is sometimes difficult for them). They're quite uncomfortable anyway and make my face itchy.
Another thing the school has brought in is hand sanitizer. They have the kids using the stuff between classes. Well, the kids are getting used to using the hand sanitizer and some are getting obsessed with it. Apparently some of the other foreign teachers have seen some of the kids using sanitizer after going to the bathroom instead of washing their hands.
I think most of them will be getting immunized sometime the beginning of this month. See if they get rid of the masks then.

swine flu, skirmishes with North Korea, etc...

So, my school has closed its doors until Friday. 3 days off mid week. I'm certainly not complaining.
I wonder though how affective this is. A couple of students got the flu and the result is the school closing. So what happens if a couple more students end up with the flu next week or the following week or such? Do we close the school again? Korea has free flu shots for school children (grade 1 and up, but not kindergarten age because it is not part of mandatory education) that will be given in public schools across the country. The parents can opt out of having their child immunized if they want. Any children younger than that can be taken to family doctors for their shots. Public school teachers are next on the list (or at the same time?) for the shots. Foreigners have to wait, or so I've been told. I figure all of the hagwons should provide shots for the teachers. Why not? We see just as many kids as the regular teachers!
In an attempt to make kids remember to wash their hands and be careful, I think some parents are telling their children that if you get the flu, you will definitely die. I've been told that by several students. Interesting. I then explain to the kids that no, getting the flu doesn't mean you will die. Some will just not understand my explanations, though, or accept them if they do, since it's all in English, a foreign language to them, and of course, if it contradicts what their mommy tells them, what are they to believe? I suppose they will learn soon enough since all of them will at some point encounter someone who has had it, or will catch it themselves.
Today there was a bit of a fight between North and South Korean ships to the west. Sounds almost the same as the one that happened my first year in Korea, in 2002. A North Korean ship crossed the Northern Limit Line, that is the internationally agreed upon demarcation line in the Yellow Sea. North Korea doesn't agree with NLL and so every now and then crosses it. The incident in 2002 was a bit more serious, though, as it involved 2 North Korean ships, one of which was on fire on its way back up, and a South Korean ship sank as it was being towed back to shore. Several South Koreans died during the skirmish. I didn't really hear much about it, though, other than the first couple of reports.
There have been other incidents as well.
I wonder how much attention this newest fight will get with all of the attention being put on the swine flu.

Korea. now.

A lot seems to be happening in South Korea these days.

First the former president, Roh Moo-Hyun jumped off a cliff (for which they are no anticipating copy-cats???)

Now they have swine flu. Or, at least, the foreigners there do. Foreigners are being tested for the flu (I have some friends there who have been randomly tested), and many are being quarantined en masse. The news articles only mention 15 foreigners being quarantined, but there are a lot more than that according to those actually in the quarantine - more than 50!!! Koreans are now even more afraid of the dirty foreigners than they always seemed to be. One friend sneezed on the bus and ended up with the entire half of the bus to herself!!! Koreans are great at generalizing. One foreigner (or a few) gets the flu and they think all foreigners have it. On a positive note, maybe it will make taking a sick day a bit easier! Sometimes foreigners get sick, call in sick and are forced to work. I've been so sick I couldn't talk, with really bad tonsilitis and other infection that affected my gums and ears. I still had to work. They told me to just not talk as loud.
I guess kimchi didn't work this time around (There were claims that kimchi was the reason SARS didn't come to Korea.) ;)
OH!!! Apparently "ALL foreign teachers who enter the country after May 11, 2009 are required to do a home quarantine for 7 days before returning to school.
During the quarantine, you are required to stay home and wear a mask if leaving the house temporarily to run errands such as grocery shopping. At the end of the 7 day quarantine, you must visit a public health clinic for a final checkup." (I found this on Brian in Jeollanam-do)

And I'm missing it all!!!!!!

On a side note, Korea will soon have a bill larger than the 10,000 won note ($10ish). The new 50,000 won bill will come out June 23rd. The first 100 will be kept at the BOK (Bank of Korea) museum. Then the bills numbered up to 10000 will be auctioned off to the highest bidders. They do have 100,000 won bank checks but they are not the same as bills. Woo hoo. Something bigger than a 10 will be fantastic!

Soooooo busy!!!!

I like keeping myself busy. I don't like sitting at home. When I do, I end up vegging out in front of my computer, either surfing the web, browsing through Facebook (which is getting a tad boring), or watching tv shows and movies that I have downloaded. Usually, though, I am out. I am having a hard time keeping up with my laundry. I'm running out of things to wear. My home is a disaster. I did clean it, but it is building up again. I need to spend some time cleaning and such. But when?
This week:
Monday after work I was on a poo hunt - that is, a search for poo related things such as stickers, stamps and what not. A friend of mine made a request for me to send him such things. I walked from Apgujeong to the COEX stopping in what ever little stationery store I saw. It took about an hour to walk. I then wandered around the COEX for quite a while shopping... for poo stuff, and possibly some clothes and shoes for me (which I probably don't really need). I was home quite late.
Tuesday after work I headed to Suwon to meet up with my rafting guy. It takes between 1.5 and 2 hours to get there. Walked around for a couple of hours, had dinner, and then I hopped on a bus back to Gangnam. I didn't get home til about 12:30 AM or so.
Wednesday I had a Dr. appointment re: my neck. That takes a while as he does adjustments (chiropractic), accupuncture, and then I head to another building for physiotherapy. After finishing up there, I was off to a bit of a meeting/interview(?) regarding a possibly teaching job. It was a bit odd. I didn't even meet the guy that wants the lessons, as he is always busy. I met a friend of a friend's boyfriend to discuss the possibility of teaching business English to his boss, who is the CEO of some Architect firm. The mr. CEO is married and lives in Gwangju (a city in south-west Korea) but comes up to Seoul a few times a week. As he is always busy, it can't be set times for teaching. Basically, when he has time, he'll call to see if I'm available to teach for an hour (or more or less, but I'll still be paid for a full hour if it is less). Possibly over coffee or dinner at times. The money, of course, would be quite good, though it might only be once a week. Right now it would be very handy. My girls that I normally teach on Wednesdays are in America for the summer, and I finished teaching the 40min/3times a week class at the other school. The loss of these two make a huge dent in my income!!!!!
The Thursday I was up near Hongik University to get my tourist VISA for Vietnam. VERY important. Once again, I wandered about a bit buying a few odds and ends that I don't really need. Gotta stop doing that.
Tonight I'm out for coffee and then later out for dinner.
Even my weekend is pretty much filled up with plans, as usual.
I'm thinking I'm actually going to have to write in a time for me to stay home and get things done. But who really wants to do that???

Chinese Medicine

Very EXPENSIVE Chinese Medicine (~$150 for 10 days worth). Muscle relaxant, pain killer, and I'm not sure what else.Kinda looks a little like rabbit poop, does it not?

Help Bill Kapoun

A week or so ago, a foreign English teacher here in Seoul suffered severe burns fire tore throught his home. He suffered third degree burns to more than 70% of his body! He is now in the hospital here in Korea. Unfortunately, he doesn't have health insurance here in Korea as it was not offered in his contract. His family and friends are trying to raise money to cover his medical costs here and to pay for his transfer to the Cook County Burn Center in Chicago which has offered free medical care as long as it takes to get him better.

I would hope that if anything ever happened to me, people would be so helpful. I do have National Healthcare here, though it still doesn't cover everything. Koreans all have two kinds of health insurance. National health insurance and some sort of private health insurance that covers emergencies and such.

There is a Facebook group for Bill Kapoun and a blog, Save Bill Kapoun, as well. They have set up several ways for people to make donations. IF you want to help him, check out Bill Kapoun's Burn Fund.

Family fights to save burn victim
Before third-degree burns on half his body turned his life upside down, Will Kapoun was not just any English teacher - he was a born natural.
"He has three younger brothers that just idolize him and being a teacher is something he really enjoyed. When he would come home from traveling, he would give them projects to do: research and presentations to the family on countries he visited," his mother, Judy Kapoun, said in an interview.
"He was just a born teacher," she added.
On Monday, Feb. 25, a fire tore through his Haebangchon, central Seoul, apartment. Details are still sketchy, but it is suspected the fire started inside the front entrance of his apartment from "a flammable liquid." No other apartments in his building were damaged and no one else was injured.
"We're concentrating on survival, we're not even close to thinking recovery," his mother said.
In his apartment itself, one bedroom was untouched by the fire as the door was shut, Judy told The Korea Herald. "But Will's bedroom and the living room are all totally charred and blistered. The fire and the heat must have been so incredibly intense."
Will, 26, is now in critical condition in an intensive care burn ward at a hospital in Seoul. "He has third-degree burns on over 64 percent of his body. His arms, chest, back, legs - basically the only thing not burned is his thighs," said his mother. "He is still extremely critical; as a matter of fact he took a turn for the worse (Wednesday)."
Will has been undergoing skin graft surgery since last week and had more work done on Monday. But his mother said that he doesn't have enough of his own skin left for more grafts. "He doesn't have enough of his own flesh left to transplant it, so they have to grow flesh in a Petri dish. We had to agree to the cost of that yesterday just to get them started on that."
Cost is another serious issue for the Kapouns. While Will was retroactively added to the Korean National Health Insurance program this week, it is only expected to offset a fraction of the total costs as it does not cover skin grafts. Each operation costs around $15,000. Treatment costs could reach around 145 million won ($150,000) or higher for injuries as bad as Will's.
A Medivac to a hospital in the United States will cost another $170,000. Judy said that Quick County Hospital in Chicago has agreed to take Will in and treat him at no cost to the family - but that they would be responsible for the $170,000 Medivac.
But at this point, said Judy, he is still fighting for his life, and will not be able to be transported for months.
Will is the oldest of five children - his youngest brother is just 12. A family friend in the United States, Abby Cox, explained: "The boys are at home in Alexandria, Indiana, with their grandmother, who is also undergoing cancer treatments."
"(Costs) keep mounting. He had to go on dialysis today and at one point we were given a figure of $150,000, but I think it's going to surpass that greatly because of complications," Judy said.
Will had been working at Bulam Elementary School as a part-time English instructor and was working under 15 hours a week. Under Korean law, employers are not on the hook for health insurance for part-time employees. "Part-time employees are not covered by mandatory health insurance," Brendan Carr, a foreign legal consultant with Hwang Mok Park law firm in Seoul.
Carr also said anyone legally residing in Korea is permitted to retroactively join Korea's national health insurance plan, but that they are liable to costs from the date of eligibility. "If you enroll late, be aware that the insured is required to ante up for all unpaid premiums as from the date of eligibility for cover - i.e., date of arrival. You don't get to buy insurance just when you need it."
So far, national health insurance has covered about 40 percent of the costs. "At this point right now, only about $20,000 of $55,000" has been made up by the insurance, noted Judy.
Responding fast to the family's plight, friends in both the United States and Korea have established financial support channels.
Laura, 22, Will's younger sister, is spearheading awareness and fundraising in the United States from her university in Bloomington, Indiana. With the help of friends, she set up www.billkapoun.com, where online donations are being accepted from people in the United States.
"I needed a way to clearly state what happened to my brother and how people could help. The website has been able to do this," she said. So far, the website has raised about $19,000.
Kin Jin-uk, a family friend, told The Korea Herald a bank account has been established and is now taking donations from people residing in Korea. He noted that the Kookmin Bank account is for direct deposit donations. The account number is 794002-04-03-1635 and the holder name is "Warren Franklin-William Fund."
A blog has also been set up to provide regular updates on Will's condition: www.savebillkapoun.blogspot.com. Fundraising events in Seoul are being planned and will be posted on the blog.
As the money slowly comes in, the Kapouns continue to fight alongside their son. Immediately after the devastating fire, his mother and father came to Korea to be at his side for as long as it takes.
"Will and I have always been really close. I am simply doing everything that I can to make sure that my brother is able to receive everything he needs to recover from this. I hope that people are able to see the human in this story and open their hearts to that," said Laura.
By Matthew Lamers 2008.03.07

Foreign Teachers Campaign for Colleague Injured in Fire
By Kang Shin-who Staff Reporter 03-04-2008
William Kapoun, 26, loved teaching kids. But the young, confident American will not be able to continue what he loves ― at least for a long while. About 10 days ago, a fire broke out at his apartment at dawn and left him with third-degree burns over 70 percent of his body.
The part-time teacher at Bulam Elementary School in northern Seoul is now in intensive care. He will have to endure reconstructive surgery on numerous occasions and a lengthy recovery. Despite the will to live, however, he lacks the means to fight the brutal battle.
The blaze not only altered his body and dreams but also laid bare working conditions that are void of shelters or insurance schemes against such terrible accidents. His full treatment is estimated to cost roughly $130,000.
His parents flew over immediately. They are also shocked by the staggering costs as he has no health insurance under his contract . "He lived in an unsafe apartment. There was no sprinkler system or fire alarm and he had only one exit, which was blocked by the fire," Dan Kapoun, 53, father of William, told The Korea Times at the hospital in Seoul.
The father lamented the absence of any clear insurance policy. "I think whoever hires someone should take responsibility for making sure there is insurance," he said.
He said his son was very happy when he decided to go to Korea. "My son was very adventurous. He thought it would be a very good thing to teach English here, not only for him but also his students."
Kapoun Burn Fund
Bulam Elementary School, the employer of the victim, said that the school is not obliged to provide any insurance coverage to employees working less than 15 hours a week in line with the Labor Law. The school has some 10 other part-time foreign teachers working under similar conditions.
William initially started to teach at a hagwon before transferring to the "after-school" English programs that paid him some 2.2 million won a month. He has worked here for 14 months. He holds a double-bachelors degree in history and economics from Indiana University, his home state school.
With his parents in a difficult financial situation, his friends and colleagues are joining hands to launch a campaign to raise funds via the Internet at http://www.billkapoun.com.
Calling on educational authorities to take measures to install systems to protect foreign teachers, they also lamented the absence of any organized representative body for teachers to rely on when disaster strikes.
Matthew Sellar, a part-time teacher at an elementary school in Seoul, said that the terrible situation could happen to other foreigners as well. "The fact that William was uninsured is indicative of the larger issue that many foreign English teachers do not have insurance," he said. "I wish it was easier for foreigners to report illegal activities without fear of being fired, deported, or arrested. I love Korea. I love teaching my students."
Faulty Hiring Procedures
Apart from some 4,000 full-time foreign teachers at public schools across the country, many other schools employ native-English speaking teachers for their 'after-school' programs through recruitment agencies.
In Seoul alone, there were 833 English programs after school hours. While full-time foreigners get benefits such as health insurance, pension and severance, part-time workers are not entitled to such basic packages.
Most schools hire teachers through agents and many of the part-time teachers have difficulty in communicating with their employers. That’s because agents do not care much about them once schools hire them. Some agents don’t even give contract copies to foreign teachers, William’s friends who were gathered at the hospital said.
Korea Immigration Service issues E-2 visas to foreigners as long as the employers are trustful such as public schools. Under the immigration law, holders of E-2, or working visa, are not automatically entitled to insurance coverage. There should be contracts guaranteeing insurance coverage for them to be protected by insurance.
"As far as I know E-2 visa holding foreigners are not eligible for insurance policies without contracts containing insurance coverage," said Kim Young-guen, an immigration official.
Adam Mueller, another native-English speaking teacher also asked the Korean government to give more attention to their difficulties. "The situation that our friend William is in is the ultimate nightmare for a foreigner in Korea; huge medical bills, difficulty getting information and no easy access to solutions," he said. "Teachers considering working in Korea will naturally have some concerns about their new life."
If the Korean government does more to make foreigners feel confident about their safety and access to information, Korea will be able to attract more and better English teachers, he added.
Warren Franklin, who is teaching at a university, said "If a teacher is working for an 'after-school' program and is given an E2 visa they should be entitled to insurance at least."
Meanwhile, police have yet to figure out the exact cause of the fire. They say it will take one or two more weeks to determine exact reasons.

An apple a day

Makes sense. And I just bought a big bag of apples today! :)

Eat apples, bananas and oranges to boost memory
Saturday, 02 February , 2008, 19:09
New York: Regular consumption of apples, bananas and oranges can protect the brain from damage and also improve memory, suggests a new study by American and South Korean scientists.
These fruits are important sources of vitamins, minerals and fibre. Of the three, apples appeared to contain the most antioxidants, followed by bananas and oranges, the study found.
Scientists at Cornell University, New York, and their colleagues from several universities in South Korea exposed cancer cells to phenolics - a class of chemical compounds extracted from the three fruits, health portal Medical News Today reported.
The scientists then put the cells under oxidative stress - a general term used to describe the damage in a cell, tissue or organ caused by reactive oxygen species.
The researchers discovered that the chemical of the fruits had prevented a significant proportion of cells from succumbing to damage from oxidative stress, with varying degrees of success.

Hotel Glasses

I don't think I'll ever use a glass hotel glass again!!! Simply shocking!

working the nightshift a carcinogen?

This is a scary thought. I know so many people that are working (or have for long periods of time) graveyard shifts. As a traveler, I know that messing with sleep patterns really screws up the system.

Check out the official ACS (American Cancer Society) list of known and probably carcinogens (link also listed at the bottom of the article). It is kinda scary! Some of the things listed are things that you wouldn't even consider: mineral oils, wood dust, Chinese style salted fish!!!

Graveyard shift soon to be listed as 'probable' cause of cancer
Thu Nov 29, 8:03 PM By Maria Cheng, The Associated Press
LONDON - Like UV rays and diesel exhaust fumes, working the graveyard shift will soon be listed as a "probable" cause of cancer.
It is a surprising step validating a concept once considered wacky. And it is based on research that finds higher rates of breast and prostate cancer among women and men whose work day starts after dark.
Next month, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer arm of the World Health Organization, will add overnight shift work as a probable carcinogen.
The higher cancer rates don't prove working overnight can cause cancer. There may be other factors common among graveyard shift workers that raise their risk for cancer.
However, scientists suspect that overnight work is dangerous because it disrupts the circadian rhythm, the body's biological clock. The hormone melatonin, which can suppress tumour development, is normally produced at night.
If the graveyard shift theory eventually proves correct, millions of people worldwide could be affected. Experts estimate that nearly 20 per cent of the working population in developed countries work night shifts.
Among the first to spot the night shift-cancer connection was Richard Stevens, a cancer epidemiologist and professor at the University of Connecticut Health Center. In 1987, Stevens published a paper suggesting a link between light at night and breast cancer.
Back then, he was trying to figure out why breast cancer incidence suddenly shot up starting in the 1930s in industrialized societies, where nighttime work was considered a hallmark of progress. Most scientists were bewildered by his proposal.
But in recent years, several studies have found that women working at night over many years were indeed more prone to breast cancer. Also, animals that have their light-dark schedules switched develop more cancerous tumours and die earlier.
Some research also suggests that men working at night may have a higher rate of prostate cancer.
Because these studies mostly focused on nurses and airline crews, bigger studies in different populations are needed to confirm or disprove the findings.
There are still plenty of skeptics. And to put the risk in perspective, the "probable carcinogen" tag means that the link between overnight work and cancer is merely plausible.
Among the long list of agents that are listed as "known" carcinogens are alcoholic beverages and birth control pills. Such lists say nothing about exposure amount or length of time or how likely they are to cause cancer.
The American Cancer Society website notes that carcinogens do not always cause cancer. The cancer society doesn't make its own assessments of possible cancer-causing agents, but relies on analyses by the IARC and a U.S. agency.
Still, many doubters of the night shift link may be won over by the IARC's analysis to be published in the December issue of the journal Lancet Oncology.
"The indications are positive," said Vincent Cogliano, who heads up the agency's carcinogen classifications unit. "There was enough of a pattern in people who do shift work to recognize that there's an increase in cancer, but we can't rule out the possibility of other factors."
Scientists believe having lower melatonin levels can raise the risk of developing cancer. Light shuts down melatonin production, so people working in artificial light at night may have lower melatonin levels.
Melatonin can be taken as a supplement, but experts don't recommend it long-term, since that could ruin the body's ability to produce it naturally.
Sleep deprivation may be another factor in cancer risk. People who work at night are not usually able to completely reverse their day and night cycles.
"Night shift people tend to be day shift people who are trying to stay awake at night," said Mark Rea, director of the Light Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, who is not connected with the IARC analysis.
Not getting enough sleep makes your immune system vulnerable to attack, and less able to fight off potentially cancerous cells.
Confusing your body's natural rhythm can also lead to a breakdown of other essential tasks. "Timing is very important," Rea said. Certain processes like cell division and DNA repair happen at regular times.
Even worse than working an overnight shift is flipping between daytime and overnight work.
"The problem is re-setting your body's clock," said Aaron Blair, of the United States' National Cancer Institute, who chaired IARC's recent meeting on shift work. "If you worked at night and stayed on it, that would be less disruptive than constantly changing shifts."
Anyone whose light and dark schedule is often disrupted - including frequent long-haul travellers or insomniacs - could theoretically face the same increased cancer risk, Stevens said.
He advises workers to sleep in a darkened room once they get off work. "The balance between light and dark is very important for your body. Just get a dark night's sleep."
Meanwhile, scientists are trying to come up with ways to reduce night workers' cancer risk. And some companies are experimenting with different lighting, seeking a type that doesn't affect melatonin production.
So far, the colour that seems to have the least effect on melatonin is one that few people would enjoy working under: red.
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List of known and probable carcinogens from IARC and National Toxicology Program listed on American Cancer Society website: http://tinyurl.com/2kl5ab
International Agency for Research on Cancer: http://www.iarc.fr/

to improve your memory....

This is very interesting. I think I can handle all that. ;)

You Must Remember This: Tips for Improving Memory
Why do we tend to forget things so easily as we get old? The answer lies with the hippocampus on either side of our brains. Everything we see, hear, and feel is stored in these two cucumber-shaped areas that measure just one cm in diameter and 10 cm in length.
The moment we are born the neuro-cells in the hippocampus start to die off, and around the age of 20 the rate of destruction starts to pick up speed. Some say about 3,600 memory cells disappear in about an hour. But there's no need to worry. While one memory cell generates a few axons, people can create enough axons, through deliberate efforts, to replace dying memory cells. Let's examine a few proven methods to keep our brains young.
1. Walking
By making 210 people with average-sized brains walk briskly three times a week for one hour each session, a research team at Illinois University found that after just three months of walking, the walkers' memory cell activities were on par with those who were three years younger. The team also found that walking stimulates the cervical vertebra which in turn doubles the amount of blood circulated to the brain. Active blood circulation facilitates the release of neurotransmitters, enabling much faster and simultaneous information exchange, said Prof. Lee Dong-yeong of Seoul National Hospital’s neuro department. "This helps to improve long term memory.”
2. Wine
A research team in Auckland, New Zealand, reported that one to two glasses of wine a day can significantly improve people's memory. They say a neuroreceptor called NMDA reacts to the alcohol. "A small amount of alcohol not only stimulates NMDA but also expands blood vessels, thereby facilitating blood circulation," said Prof. Han Seol-heui of Konkuk University Hospital’s neurology department. The antioxidants in red wine also prevent the destruction of brain cells, improving our memories. Still, too much alcohol -- more than five to six glasses a day -- may well destroy the brain cells, deteriorating our ability to remember things.
3. Coffee
Dr. Karen Ritchie of the National Health and Medical Research Center of France conducted research on 7,000 adults over the age of 65 for four years. She found that those who drank more than three cups of coffee a day had a memory deterioration rate 45 percent slower than those who drank one cup or less per day. A research team from Ottawa University in Canada studied 6,000 people living in four different cities from 1991 to 1995, and found out that those who had a consistent intake of caffeine performed better in tests -- by about 31 percent on average -- compared to those without the intake. "Caffeine in coffee and tea stimulates the central nervous system and enhances memory capacity by facilitating the brain's reticular system,” said Prof. Koh Jae-young of Seoul Asan Medical Center’s neurology department.
4. Sleeping
Robert Stickgold, an American psychologist, argued in a paper published in a cognitive neuroscience magazine in 2000 that a minimum of six hours of sleep is needed to fully retain knowledge learned the previous day. "Knowledge acquired during the day gets stored in the temporal lobe while one sleeps," said Dr. Park Dong-seon of Yesong Sleep Center. "It is strongly recommended to sleep after midnight in particular, as the stress hormone that destroys neuro-cells is secreted significantly more after midnight.”
5. Writing notes
The long term memory capacity of our brains has no limit. But there is limited space for short term memories -- such as recently memorized phone numbers, lists of daily tasks, and names of stores passing by the car window. Thus, elderly people with fewer memory cells are better off writing down miscellaneous information like phone numbers and daily tasks the moment they pop up. When useless short-term memories clog our brains, our forgetfulness only worsens.
6. Reading
Reading is a much better way of improving memory than conventionally known methods such as playing cards or chess. After studying the relationship between dementia and recreational activities such as playing chess, cards, watching TV, and reading, a research team at Kyung Hee University Medical Center found that people who read often have a lesser chance of developing dementia. "Reading helps to stimulate the transition between short term memory to long term memory by exercising the ability to understand events that happened earlier and later in a book,” said Dr. Won Jang-won of Kyung Hee University Hospital.
(englishnews@chosun.com )

Mental Aerobics for a Sharp Old Age
People who do a lot of work with their brains, and indeed those who don’t, may benefit from mental aerobics. The exercises, quiz games and the like, aim to improve memory for anyone from elderly people at risk of Alzheimer’s to students. They have been shown to boost the dendrites in brain cells that help the brain process information more effectively and prevent it from getting slow. Dr. Michael Valenzuela, a clinical neuroscience research fellow at the University of New South Wales’ School of Psychiatry who won the Australian Computer Society's Eureka Award this year, says games like wordplay are effective in preventing Alzheimer's disease. His three-year research of 29,000 people over 60 found that those who do plenty of brain work saw the risk of Alzheimer's disease halved while their hippocampus, the area in the brain related to memory, shrank less than normal.
Mental aerobics has been known to the public in advanced countries like the U.S. for 10 years. The UCLA Brain Research Institute and division of Neurophysiology of Duke University took the lead in conducting research on the exercise and produced plenty of programs and books on mental aerobics. Here, the exercise is being introduced in the neurological clinics of university hospitals and private clinics that help students perform better, including Inje University’s Paik Hospital and the Dementia Prevention Center at Hallym University Medical Center in Kangdong, Seoul.
The most effective way to do mental aerobics is to participate in programs offered by brain clinics and receive training in a systematic way, but there are simpler methods. For example, keeping a diary is one good method. To improve memory and practice abstract thinking, bring back what you did in the past and reflect on what you did. In addition, you can become more positive-thinking by planning for a better future. Another good method to practice at home is to write down what you remember after watching news or TV dramas: you may recall what articles you read or what clothes or what hairstyle a character wore in the drama you saw. You can also write down what you ate and how it tasted after each meal.
Korean checkers, chess, card games or computer games that are not too stimulating are also not bad, provided you do it no more than 30 minutes at a time. Staying sedentary for too long can cause abdominal obesity, and that is a cause of other metabolic diseases such as hyperlipidemia that are also bad for the brain. Yeon Byeong-kil, a professor with Hallym University’s College of Medicine, says six out of every 10 patients who come to him because of memory loss or dementia are also suffering chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases related to lifestyle and obesity. "I often see that their MRI pictures show fats accumulated in their brain blood vessels, which kills their brain cells,” he adds.
To maximize the effect of mental aerobics, you may need to change your diet and do light exercise. Getting together with people you know often and complimenting others is also good for your brain. When you skip breakfast, it slows down your brain activity in the morning. You need to have fresh fish more than twice a week and fresh fruit and vegetables every day. Tuna, mackerel, white fish, nuts and brightly colored vegetables are also good for your brain. Processed instant food like fried potatoes, donuts and bacon are not. You should have at least 10 glasses of water a day and choose tea over sodas or coffee. In addition, do stretches to straighten your muscles for more than 5 seconds frequently and walk for between 30 minutes and an hour.
(englishnews@chosun.com )

Train the Brain to Fight Disorders

Parkinson's Disease in Korea

Very interesting. I wonder why the numbers are so high.

Korea's Parkinson's Patients Often Misdiagnosed
Korea has more Parkinson's disease patients per capita than any other country in the world, but 70 percent are misunderstood as suffering from normal aging effects or senile dementia and are not receiving proper treatment.
In June and July of this year, Prof. Chung Hae-kwan from Sungkyunkwan University's School of Medicine, with support from the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, studied 2,238 seniors over 65 in Gangneung.
According to the study, there are 2,060 to 2,993 Parkinson's patients for every 100,000 seniors over 65 in Korea. By sex, there are 807 for every 100,000 senior men and 2,020 for every 100,000 senior women.
When adjusted to include seniors over 60, the figure reaches at least 1,252.7 Parkinson's patients per 100,000 in Korea. This is the highest rate in the world.
In comparison, the figure in the U.S. is 429.5 per 100,000 over 60, 276.2 to 1,280.1 in China, 382.3 to 445.2 in Japan, 302.9 to 1,324.2 in Italy and 508.1 to 627.8 in the U.K.
However, only 33.3 percent of Parkinson's patients in Korea are diagnosed accurately, with the other 66.7 percent believed to be suffering from normal aging effects or dementia.
"When detected at an early stage, Parkinson's disease can be delayed considerably with proper treatment," Prof. Chung said. "But most patients are even misdiagnosed at hospitals, so raising public awareness of Parkinson's is urgently needed."
Parkinson's is a degenerative disorder in which an insufficient amount of dopamine in the brain leads to chronic shaking or muscle rigidity, and eventually death. Last year, there were 39,968 patients diagnosed with Parkinson's and receiving proper treatment in Korea.

why do i worry so much?

I worry all the time about too many things. Maybe this is why.??

Why Women Worry So Much
By Andrea Thompson, LiveScience Staff Writer 28 September 2007 10:15 am ET
Scientists have known that on the whole, females of all ages tend to worry more and have more intense worries than males. Women also tend to perceive more risk in situations and grow more anxious than men.
Now we know why.
Women are more likely than men to believe that past experiences accurately forecast the future, according to two new studies.
The research, involving both 3- to 6-year-olds and adults of both genders, tested the extent to which participants' thought that worry can be caused by thinking that a bad event that happened in the past could happen again in the future. (This skill, in its simplest form, is critical to social understanding as it is important to making decisions and assessing risk.)
For the first study, subjects listened to six stories that featured characters harmed by another person or animal in the story. Many days later, the character felt worried or changed their behavior when confronted with the same wrongdoer who had hurt them before. (For example, if one little boy stole a toy from another, the child might be worried when he saw that boy again and hide the new toy he was playing with.)
The second study was the same, except that the person or animal the character ran across later only looked similar to the one that had harmed them before.
At the end of each story, the participants were asked to explain why the character was worried or changed their behavior.
Females, both children and adults, were more likely to use uncertainty to explain the character's reaction, that is, they tended to explain the reaction in terms of events that might happen versus those that will happen, the researcher reported. They also tended, more than males, to predict that the characters who encountered the new character who looked similar to the wrongdoer would feel worried because they thought the new character would also do them harm.
The studies, detailed in the Sept./Oct. issue of the journal Child Development, also found that children increasingly made these kinds of past-to-future connections as they got older, which yields insight into their cognitive development.
"These results are significant because they reveal that knowledge about the impact of past-to-future thinking on emotions and behaviors develops during the preschool years," said study author Kristin Lagattuta of the University of California, Davis.

An older but related article:

Men and Women Really Do Think Differently
By Bjorn Carey, LiveScience Staff Writer 20 January 2005 02:12 pm ET
Men and women do think differently, at least where the anatomy of the brain is concerned, according to a new study.
The brain is made primarily of two different types of tissue, called gray matter and white matter. This new research reveals that men think more with their gray matter, and women think more with white. Researchers stressed that just because the two sexes think differently, this does not affect intellectual performance.
Psychology professor Richard Haier of the University of California, Irvine led the research along with colleagues from the University of New Mexico. Their findings show that in general, men have nearly 6.5 times the amount of gray matter related to general intelligence compared with women, whereas women have nearly 10 times the amount of white matter related to intelligence compared to men.
"These findings suggest that human evolution has created two different types of brains designed for equally intelligent behavior," said Haier, adding that, "by pinpointing these gender-based intelligence areas, the study has the potential to aid research on dementia and other cognitive-impairment diseases in the brain."
The results are detailed in the online version of the journal NeuroImage.
In human brains, gray matter represents information processing centers, whereas white matter works to network these processing centers.
The results from this study may help explain why men and women excel at different types of tasks, said co-author and neuropsychologist Rex Jung of the University of New Mexico. For example, men tend to do better with tasks requiring more localized processing, such as mathematics, Jung said, while women are better at integrating and assimilating information from distributed gray-matter regions of the brain, which aids language skills.
Scientists find it very interesting that while men and women use two very different activity centers and neurological pathways, men and women perform equally well on broad measures of cognitive ability, such as intelligence tests.
This research also gives insight to why different types of head injuries are more disastrous to one sex or the other. For example, in women 84 percent of gray matter regions and 86 percent of white matter regions involved in intellectual performance were located in the frontal lobes, whereas the percentages of these regions in a man's frontal lobes are 45 percent and zero, respectively. This matches up well with clinical data that shows frontal lobe damage in women to be much more destructive than the same type of damage in men.
Both Haier and Jung hope that this research will someday help doctors diagnose brain disorders in men and women earlier, as well as provide help designing more effective and precise treatments for brain damage.

sick AGAIN! and sad to be losing some students.

I'm sick. :S
I have some sort of very bad throat etc infection... again. It is ALL swollen and infected, not just the tonsils this time. Not sure what caused it.
I went to the doctor after work today. I got an injection in the 'hip' and have medication for 2 days. I have to go back on Saturday.
The doctor says I shouldn't talk for a couple of days. Not really possible as I still have to teach. Today teaching was so hard. I had to talk. I could barely stand. It is making me feel week and a bit light headed. It started getting bad yesterday, mostly after work (only a little bit yesterday morning), really. Last night I was even having trouble typing as my whole body was feeling strange. I guess it is all connected. My body wanted rest. It still does.
The pain is almost unbearable at times. Sometimes even moving or saying something would almost bring tears to my eyes and make me feel like I was going to pass out. I ate quite a bit at lunch (it was actually a VERY GOOD lunch!) but I didn't really enjoy it as it hurts to swallow. Even the coffee and the chocolate milk that I had today weren't enjoyable.
I went to sleep after I got home. When I'm sleeping, obviously, I can't feel the pain. I woke up twice when Revo phoned me. The first time I felt dead so just went back to sleep. Now (1:30 AM) it is so late. I still have to get up and go to work in the morning (if I were back home I wouldn't have gone to work today or tomorrow, but here it is a bit different).
I might have considered taking tomorrow as one of my 3 allowed sick days, but it is the last day for 2 of my students. Steve and SeungWoo will be leaving my class. They live too far away so the school bus won't pick them up. Their moms have been taking turns dropping them off and picking them up. It is too bad as they are doing so well in the class. They both love me so much. They each say, "I love you, Laura Teacher," regularly and wait for me to say, "I love you, too." Sometimes I would be the other way around. They both love giving me hugs and a kiss on the cheek. They each cling to me at times. I will miss them soooooo much.
Another student finished this past Tuesday - David. He was cute, but always caused everyone a lot of stress. Just the way he is. He always has his hands on others' things or others. The staff at the school have been released of one of their major causes of stress - the mother! She was always coming in for every tiny little thing. David is western age 4 and yet his mother listens to and believes EVERYTHING he says. An odd family. I won't miss him as much as the others, but still will. And he was doing so well. They other day he surprised me by writing his own name, without asking for help. He is the only one in the class that hasn't been able to write his name. He is starting to be able to write some letters by copying from another page (rather than me having to write lightly for him to trace). Sometimes it is hard to make out what he has written (copied) but he is putting so much effort into it. His mom decided he should go to a bigger English school where it is more intensive in terms of reading and writing. I'm not sure he could handle it. He needs help all the time. He is only 4 and is a bit slower at picking things up than the others his age.
I started out with 11 students. Then it went up to 12. After tomorrow, I will be down to 6!!!
Annie and Jin went to the big International Kindy. Nicole was only here for the summer. And now David, Steve and SeungWoo. How sad.
I'll go back to bed soon... I have a couple more things to do - 2 more notebooks to the parents to write in! I've slept a little more than 6 hours already. That is usually all I get in a night!

X-rays etc

I'm getting so tired of this. I changed hospitals to be closer to where I work (and so that I could actually make appointments without having mess around with the school schedule, which doesnt' really work anyway). The new doctor seems very nice, and a bit more concerned about things than the other one. But it meant more X-rays. He said a few, only to help make a diagnosis. 20 X-rays is a bit more than a few. And I go in on Saturday for a full body bone scan. This is getting so expensive. I mentioned how much I was paying (since this whole problem started) and he is trying to help me as much as he can. He is a specialist, which means to see him it costs about about twice as much (or more) than a regular doctor. Well, he made it so that I am only paying the fees for a regular doctor. Nice. I also asked if he could suggest a good multivitamin. He reached into his own bag and pulled out a new box of vitamins and gave them to me, saying that his pharmacist had just dropped them for HIM. Many of the things that I mentioned that the other doctor had just shrugged his shoulders at, this one shook his head and said it was not good.
So, in the last year, I've had, I think, around 45 X-rays. YIKES!!! That includes the ones at the previous hospital and the X-rays at the dentists' offices that I've been to. I had one X-ray taken yesterday at the dentist, and then again today, as the machine malfunctioned and squished the picture up a bit so that you couldn't clearly see what was what (computer image xray). They had to readjust the machine and retake the X-ray.
It is getting quite expensive. The dentist is quite cheap here compared to back home. At least, some things are. To get a wisdom tooth pulled, it cost me less than $10, including the X-ray and medicine; about $25 when it was a bit more intensive and I had to have a couple of stitches. The problem I have now, is a bit more extensive. The dentist says it is probably due to the medication I've been taking, that my immune system is down and so I am more susceptible to things (which is what I had already thought of). Anyway, it is some sort of gingivitis or such. I needed a teeth cleaning anyway, so he is doing that at the same time. He is also doing a bit extra for me because he feels bad, he is charging me for the regular type of scaling, but using the laser scaling. It will cost me a total of $400, being done in 4 sessions - one quarter of my mouth at a time. Each takes about 30 minutes. He used the laser to clean my teeth and I think he was cauterizing my gums a bit, as I have been having a bit of problems with them bleeding. With my mouth numbed and my face covered, all I could do was smell the burning what ever. not nice. 3 more times I have to deal with that.
So anyway, this hasn't been the best day. 2 hours at the hospital and almost an hour at the dentist's office.

so sick of being sick.

Well, my tonsillitis is all of a sudden back. I started to feel feverish Monday night. The gums around my last wisdom started to bother me again, so I began to wonder (last time I had it, it really affected my gums there). Then yesterday, my throat was killing me, as were my gums. My tonsils are inflamed again, with the white guck on them. Yuck. I went to the doctor and got medicine for 3 days. I'm crossing my fingers. Recurring tonsillitis is definitely not a good thing. He was already starting to talk about surgery the last time I had it, as it was taking so long to go away (I had it for over 2 weeks!). Today all of my gums are a bit swollen. My throat hurts, and is irritating (it feels like there is something stuck in my throat) and my gums are killing me. My whole mouth feels strange. This sucks.

OUCH!!!

This looks like it would hurt!!!!!Yes, he got his hand back.
National Geographic News

skinny

For the first time in my life, I am being called skinny.

On Monday, one of my students, Annie, came up to me and said, "Miss Laura, you are kinda skinny." Followed by, "My mom is a little bit fat." She just turned 5 years old (6 in Korean age). Usually, Koreans think that all foreigners are fat. I've had some very thin foreign friends complaining about their students calling them fat. Kids just say what they think, what they see. They don't sugar coat things. While I've been in Korea, I've always been told I have a small face, and the odd time I got some sort of reference to me being big.

I've always felt that being big boned is a curse. Since I was little I was generally referred to as being fat, even though it wasn't always so. My friends have often said I am not fat, but big.

Since last June, I've lost around 11 or 12 kg. I haven't tried to lose weight. I suppose the meds I'm on have something to do with it. Since I got sick and started taking anti-inflammatories and pain killers and such, I've lost a lot of my appetite. I do eat, but sometimes just plain forget to eat, as I don't often feel hungry. If I don't make myself eat, I forget. I eat way too much junk food, though. Choco pies and chocolates and sometimes chips. I'm not much of a cook. I guess I feel it is sort of a waste of time and energy to cook for only one person - in terms of time and the mess it makes. Not to mention the fact that everything is sold in large amounts, which is NOT good for one person. I am constantly having to throw food out. I hate it. It is so wasteful. As a result, I am often just eating things that take little or no effort. Cut up vegetables, peanut butter sandwiches, sometimes rice, etc. What ever.This is what losing 11 or so kg looks like. I bought these jeans in February last year, right before I came back to Korea. I set the belt at what I wore it at then. I have had to tighten it by 4 holes. I don't even undo the button or zipper on anything anymore. I don't need to. It is quite a problem really. Almost all of my clothes are so big on me that they look funny. And this is a bad country for that to happen in, as NOTHING fits. Korean clothes are small. The pants, if they do come in a big enough size, are always way too short (usually 30 inches long... I generally need 34 inches length). Shirts are too small in the chest area and long sleeves are about 3/4 length on me. Getting dressed is sometimes a chore as I get so stressed out about it. Almost everything in my closet now looks like crap on me.

getting better?

My throat is slowly getting better. Only now I also have a runny nose and a bit of a cough at times. So the doctor prescribed me some more medication, for that (for 3 days). They really over medicate here in Korea. I am also having trouble with my tooth - it started the same time as my throat. The doctor said it could be related, only it is not getting better, while my throat is.
I think I'll have to go to the dentist Friday and get my last wisdom tooth pulled. :

Not looking forward to it.

sick :(

I am still very sick. My throat is KILLING me. I've been going to the doctor almost every day for a shot in the 'hip' and some other treatments. I found out that the stuff he sprays in my mouth and the gas that I am inhaling from a machine are both some sort of anti-inflammatory or such (or so he said). The other day he prescribed me a new type of antibiotic as that other one wasn't working. The new one is MUCH stronger than the other one, he said. Well, the inflammation is very slowly going down. The pain, however, has not changed. That might be affected by my work. I am talking almost all day, in a very upbeat way. I have to. That is my job. My job is to speak as cheerfully as I possibly can, and as much as I possibly can. For my throat to heal quickly, I probably shouldn't be talking much at all.
Eating hurts sooooo much. Especially things like oranges or kimchi. OUCH!!! But I have been eating them anyway. Really, anything I eat or drink hurts, as it hurts to swallow. It hurts to breath.
WHEN will it go away?????
TGIF!!!!!