Korean Healing Available for Foreign Journalists

(ATR) Writing stories on deadline during stressful moments in the Olympic Games can be headache inducing.

Long-distance travel via multiple means of transportation is a guaranteed recipe for jet lag and soreness.

Lack of sleep from chasing down stories wears the body down and makes it prone to sickness.

Normally, these maladies can be cured by a quick trip to the drugstore or a short doctor’s visit. For journalists finding a temporary home at the Gangneung Media Village, however, there is another solution. A group of Korean doctors are bringing traditional, local medicine to the horde of foreign journalists covering the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Dr. Jin Won Kim is available and ready to serve foreign media who have never tried traditional Korean medicine. He says he anticipates journalists with headaches, stomach aches, nausea, muscle pain, and numbness to come in. The Korean Medicine Center in the media village offers acupuncture, cupping, and massage therapy treatments. A selection of traditional Korean teas is also available for journalists to try.

The center has been open since mid-January and will be open every day through the PyeongChang Closing Ceremony. Journalists continue to trickle into South Korea, but before this week only local construction workers have taken advantage of the treatment options.

"Koreans do have their own traditional medicine and it is very systematic and very scientific and we have very well organized education system," Kim said. "We do provide guidebooks and leaflets where you can get some information about Korean medicine, the things [we want] you to know."

The South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare is overseeing the project in the hopes of educating and spreading awareness about the traditional medicine. Kim says any visitor will get detailed pamphlets outlining potential treatments, and the science behind them.

I visited the center after moving into the Gangneung village on Feb. 3. I had travelled to South Korea two days earlier to do interviews in Seoul, but still had not slept fully through the night. Kim and his team were excited to speak about the center and said fatigue could easily be cured with some light acupuncture.

His only warning was not to be afraid and tense up when he places the needles. That would render any treatment a failure.

I happily obliged, as I later found out I was the first journalist to do so, and relaxed as Kim placed a few needles on my wrists.

I’ve slept soundly ever since. Unfortunately, the deadlines haven’t gotten easier.

Written by Aaron Bauerin PyeongChang

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