We compared three nations' diets on Year 2000 Korean, American and Mediterranean in the aspect of contribution of each to the development of cardiovascular diseases. We searched all the available evidences published. Korea has a very low incidence of cardiovascular diseses compared to the other countries even though they are increasing recently. In addition to many risk factors to these defenerative diseases such as diabetes millitus, hypertension, smoking, hyperlipidemia, sedentary lifestyle, etc., dietary factors are also contributing a lot to their development. High calorie, trans fatty acids, cholesterol, saturated fatty acids, alcohol, salt intakes are examples. Korean diet has superiority of low calorie, low fat, good fat proportion, high omega-3 fatty acids, vegetables, beans, and garlic and onions These are believed to contribute to low incidence of cardiovascular diseases in Korea. Korean diets was also found to have some issues for improvement such as high salt, low calcium, and higher use of barbequed meats. We concluded Korean people stay better off with Korean diet with some modifications.

In Korea, there is an urgent need to identify nutrition-related risk factors for obesity, because the prevalence of these conditions continues to rise among Koreans. While some studies suggest that westernized dietary pattern may increase the risk of obesity, others do not support these findings. Longitudinal studies examined the role of dietary patterns in relation to changes in body fat composition. Nowadays rapid changes in dietary patterns are related to socioeconomic status and westernized diet. Major dietary changes include a large increase in the consuming of at in the diet and a fall in total cereal intakes and fiber. This research showed remarkable decline in the consuming proportion of the grains and vegetables. These results fit closely with the trend toward increased prevalence of obesity in Korea. Most longitudinal studies on these relationships among children and adults showed that the dietary patterns affected obesity. In conclusion, we need programs to promote healthy Korean diet pattern in Korea.

Background: A reasonable weight reduction is to reduce fat-body mass while preserving free-fat mass. Recently, many people in Korea have been trying reckless diet therapy for weight reduction by low calory and protein diets, which gave rise to many side effects consequently. For reasonable weight reduction, this study was undertaken to investigate the influential diet factors that change body composition during short-term low calory diet. Methods: 26 healthy obese women aged 23-27 years whose BMI was greater than 24volunteered for the 6 week diet therapy from January to April in 2003. All subjects were instructed to eat approximately 1200kca1/day and write dietary diary. In the beginning of the study, the 3rd week and the 6th week, subjects' body weight and fat body weight were measured by BlA. In the 6th week, the analysis of dietary diary was conducted. Results : There was significant positive correlation between protein intake per ideal bodyweight in the first 3 weeks and free fat mass increase in the later 3 weeks (P<0.05). At the same time, fat intake in the first 3 weeks had positive correlation with free fat mass in the second 3 weeks, too(P<0.05). But, we could not find any significant values that had effect on free fat mass increase in multiple regression analysis. Conclusion: The protein intake in the first 3 weeks helps preserve fat free mass in the later 3 weeks, and has positive effects.

The prevalence of diabetes is increasing now in Korea because of westernized diet and so on. Korean diabetic patients show some different characteristics such as being less obese from western ones. Korean diet, especially traditional 'sets of dishes' serving diet, is more balanced in terms of nutrition than that of western. Korea diet thus is more beneficial than western one.

The functional dyspepsia is a complex disease reaction that ocurs due to the presence of various factors and its pathophysiology has not been clearly verified until now. This disease is diagnosed after the organic diseases are ruled out. Therefore, the main treatments are limited down to compensating for revealed symptoms through exercising the supportive care. The international prevalence of the functional dyspepsia under the Rome I criterior is approximately 25%. For the cases of Koreans, there are very omnifarious symptoms in gastrointestinal disorders and the medical vocabularies which describe the diagnostic standard are not closely associated with the daily vocabularies, thus there would be a lot of restrictions to directly apply the Rome II criterior. However, the Korean Society of Gastrointestinal motility had decided to promote the use of the international standardized Rome II criterior in order for Korea to be comparable to the clinical studies from the other nations. There should be more extensive studies to differentiate the definitions of symptom descriptions from Korea to foreign countries. The extended researches concerning the pathophysiology are highly recommended which in return, would help enabling the reliable treatment techniques for this disease.

Functional constipation is regarded as a long-standing symptomatic manifestation of abnormal defecation expressed by either a reduced frequency of bowel movements and /or an altered act of evacuation. Patients with constipation can be treated with laxatives, diets and regular habits. Thorough evaluation of functional constipation is considered in those in whom conservative treatment with dietary advice and use of laxatives fails. Patients with normal colonic transit and normal anorectal function may only need reassurance, education and dietary advice with fiber supplementation. For constipated patients in whom such treatment modalities fail, laxatives including bulk-forming and osmotic agents may be used Although most laxatives, if used intermittently, are relatively safe, they must be chosen bearing in mind possible side effects, patient compliance and their action mechanisms. A subgroup of patients with slow transit through the colon ay be unresponsive to conventional laxatives, and, in these subjects, a trial with enteroprokinetics and sometimes stimulant laxatives should be attempted. This article presents our view of the assessment and pharmacologic treatment of functional constipation.

In order to investigate the epidemiological situation of intestinal parasite infections in Lao PDR, parasitological surveys were carried out on a national scale including 17 Provinces and the Vientiane Municipality. A total of 29,846 stool specimens were collected from primary schoolchildren in May 2000 June 2002 and examined once with the cellophane thick smear technique. The cumulative egg Positive rate For intestinal helminthes was 61.9%, BV species, the rate for As caris lumbricoides was 34.9%, hookworm 19.1%, Trichuris trichiura 25.8%,Opisthorchis viverrini 10.9%, Taenia spp. 0.6% and Hymenolepis spp. 0.2%. The northern mountainous regions suck as Phongsaly, Huaphan or Saysomboune Province showed higher prevalence(over 70%) of soil- transmitted helminthes. The regions along the Mekong River such as Khammuane, Saravaue or Savannakhet Province showed higher prevalence(over 20%)of fish-borne parasites. On the other hand, Schistosoma mekongi eggs were detected from1.7% of schoolchildren only in Champassak Province, a previously known endemic area. The highest prevalence was noted in Phongsaly Province(96.0%) and the lowest in Bolikhamxay Province(27.5%). An additional smal1-scale survey by cellophane anal swab detected Enterobius vermicularis eggs in 35.7% of 451 schoolchildren aged 6-8 in Khammuane, Vientiane, Champassak Province and the Vientiane Municipality. Meanwhile, the mean blood hemoglobin level of hootrworm-infected children was not lower than that of hookworm-uninfected children, suggesting that nutritional factors are more important than parasite infection per se. Nevertheless, the above results indicate that a nationwide parasite control project is necessary to reduce possible morbidity of parasitic diseases in the country.

The present pilot project was executed to recommend a strategy of clonorchiasis control in China. The pilot area of this project was Zhaoyuan, Hailin, and Ningan, Heiloagjiang province. A baseline survey subjecting 4,865 residents in Heilongjiang confirmed Zhaoyuan asa high endemic area and Hailin and Ningan as moderate endemic areas. Six different control strategies were implemented in Zhaoyuan, two were in Hailin, and one was in Ningan. Including the baseline survey and project programs from 2000 to 2004, total 63,274subject-times were examined of their feces for Clonorchiseggs, 26,680 were treated, 10,082 were screened by ELISA, and 6,130 subjects were examined of their liver by sonography. The egg Positive rates in 6 villages of Zhaoyuan were as high as 44.8% 70,0%. Following the protocolof each strategy, the subjected residents were examined of their feces and treated with 25 mg/kg praziquantel, 3 times. Except the control group, all of the villages showed 72.8% to 92.0% reduction of their original egg Positive rates at Zhaoyuan. Mass treatments of all subjected residents in 2001 and 2003 reduced the egg rate from 68.8% to18.7% and 4 annual mass treatments reduced the rate from 44.8% in 2001 to 8.7% in 2004.Selective annual treatments of egg positive subjects reduced the egg rates from 50.8% in2001 to 13.8% in 2004 or from 70.0% in 2001 to 11.6% in 2004, and two treatments in a year reduced the rate from 57.6% in 2001 to 4.6% in 2004. According to repeated treatments, EPG counts decreased remarkably. In moderate endemic areas, the original egg rates were 22.6% and 28.3% in 2001 but were 1.7% and 1.1% after 2 or 3 selective treatments. The present findings of the chemotherapeutic control of clonorchiasis prove that repeated medication is important. The reduction is directly correlated with dose of praziquantel but not with mass or selective treatments. Chemotherapeutic control of reservoirhosts has little effect on reinfection of clonorchiasis because the field along the Songhua-jiang is too wide to be impacted. ELISA confirmed many serologically positive cases to Clonorchisantigen but only a few cases were positive to other antigens (Paragonimus, cysticercus, sparganum). The abdominal soaography visualized intrahepatic bile duct dilatation and periductal echo in 2,002 of 6,070 examined subjects. In addition to these examinations and treatment, health education supplemented tㅗe control activities. The present findings prove clonorchiasis is very widely prevalent and heavily endemic along the rivers in Heiloagjiang. The results suggest that group chemotherapy with praziquantel is effective to reduce endemicity of clonorchiasis. Mass treatment without individual fecal examination is recommended in heavy endemic areas where the egg rate is over 40% while one selective treatment is effective enough in moderate endemic areas.

Rice is the primary main dish of Traditional Korean diet. Although there have been changes in food consumption and nutrient intake among Koreans, traditional dietary pattern is stil dominant among Koreans. Traditional Korean diet has emphasized breakfast, which is the most frequently missed meals in Korea today but important for daily work performance and health. Compared to diets of the U.S. and Greece, Korean diet is high in carbohydrate and low in fat and cholesterol due to low intake of meat. Koreans also consume large amount of plant food, which makes fiber content of diet to be high. However fruit and milk consumption tends to be low in Korea. Koreans use fermented food, including kimchi, very frequently as well as foods cooked and consumed at high temperature and over direct fire. Traditional cooking methods are time consuming which limits the usage among modern city dwellers with working women. Despite the strengths of traditional Korean diets in reducing risk factors of chronic diseases, preservation of the tradition in modern Korean society requires special attention and efforts to make them more adaptable to contemporary life styles.

Chronic fatigue syndrome(CFS) is a complex, debilitating disorder characterized by at least 6 months of severe persistent of relapsing fatigue and a group of characteristic but nonspecific symptoms. Many researchers have proposed that CFS has a specific cause. However currently no evidence exists that proves either a specific cause of CFS. And there is no diagnostic test for CFS. The diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome is based on the patient's history, excluding other illnesses In the absence of consistent biological markers, the diagnosis of CFS arises from operational criteria that do not afford validity. The prognosis is poor and often disability and impairment of daily function and performance are prolonged. A limited understanding of the CFS has complicated the management of this disorder. Therefore, treatment of CFS may be variable and should be tailored to each patient. Therapy should include exercise, diet, good sleep hygiene, antidepressants, and other medications, depending on the patient's presentation. Regular follow-up is key to continue to exclude other medical problems and provide support for patients. Chronic fatigue syndrome is a challenging illness to manage and requires a team approach of caring providers. For the majority of patients this is a chronic illness with the goals of therapy being to improve functional status and to prevent disability. Further understanding of the etiology and pathogenesis of this illness should lead to better specific therapy.

The ultrasonography(US) is one of very important item for abdominal evaluation. Especially for the routine check of the abdomen, the US becomes the essential part of the precedure. Though the abdominal US is simple and easy, its value is very high for detection of various morphological changes of abdominal organs. The study techniques of US, common abdominal abnormalities, standardization of image interpretation, and clinical significance of the lesions, etc, were discussed.