We performed a study to understand the dietary situation in North Korea and to compare the difference between the North and the South. Two hundred North Korean defectors from the North since 1990 participated in this survey. Information was collected from December, 1997 to February, 1998 by mailing pre-tested questionnaires, which had been confirmed by 10 previous interviewers. The final data from 157 defectors(107 male and 33 female with 17 unidentified gender) were analyzed. We found that (1) North Koreans are lowr in height, weight and BMI than South Koreans, (2) The North Korean diet is very simple and monotonous. It is limite to their local and unprocessed foodsand dishes, which is far from the trend of globalization and readiness. (3) On the other hand, in the North, the government control on foods diminished because food shortage leads to free market activity where housewives manage their own foodservices, and to accelate their eating-out behaviors. (4) Profound differences between the South and the North in dietary life are noticed by the defectors as English words and Korean words. Efforts to understand and learn about each other is necessay before not too late.
Democratic People's Republic of Korea* ; Diet ; Female ; Hand ; Humans ; Internationality ; Male ; Postal Service ; Ghee ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Natural medicinal systems such as Ayurveda and folk medicine has remedies for wound management. However, the exact cellular and extracellular mechanisms involved in the healing process and its influence on keratinocytes is less discussed. Therefore, the present study was designed to evaluate the effect of certain natural wound healing medicines on the biology of the keratinocytes/HaCaT cells. Test materials such as honey (H), ghee (G), aqueous extracts of roots of Glycyrrhiza glabra (GG) and leaves of Nerium indicum (NI) were considered. The HaCaT cells were treated with the test materials singly and in combinations (H+G, all combined [Tot]) for a specific period (24, 48, and 72 hours). The cells were then subjected to cytotoxicity/proliferation and migration/scratch assays. All the test materials, except NI, were non-cytotoxic and showed increased cell proliferation at variable concentrations. Significant observations were made in the groups treated with honey (100 µg/ml at 48 hours, P<0.05; 1,000 µg/ml at 72 hours, P<0.05), GG (all concentrations at 48 hours, P<0.05; 750 µg/ml at 72 hours, P<0.05), H+G (250 µg/ml at 24 hours, P<0.001; 500 µg/ml at 48 and 72 hours, P<0.05), and Tot (50 µg/ml at 24, 48 and 72 hours, P<0.01). In the in-vitro wound healing assay, all the treated groups showed significant migration and narrowing of the scratch area by 24 and 48 hours (P<0.001) compared to control. The results obtained from the present study signifies the positive influence of these natural wound healing compounds on keratinocytes/HaCaT cells.
Biology ; Cell Proliferation ; Ghee ; Glycyrrhiza ; Honey ; Keratinocytes ; Medicine, Traditional ; Nerium ; Wound Healing ; Wounds and Injuries