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Turns Out South Korea Is Just As Shallow As Thailand

November 17, 2008 at 11:30 AM | 1 Comment

After watching Thailand, India and Argentina grab all the headlines--and big-spenders--South Korea is now courting medical tourists looking for everything from cheap joint replacements to low-cost breast implants. Government officials are encouraging the nascent industry, too, by relaxing immigration rules and working with foreign hospitals so potential patients will decide to have procedures done in Korea instead of elsewhere in Asia.

On Jeju Island south of the mainland, for example, the Wooridul Spine Hospital is adding apartments, a concert hall and an art museum to its existing amenities, which include a golf course, says The New York Times. A government official says:

We believe this is a major future industry for our island. The town will specialize in medical checkups, long-term convalescence and procedures Korean doctors do well and cheaply, such as plastic surgery and dentistry.

After reading a first-hand account of one of these swanky Asian destination hospitals, we're actually considering going to have a bit of dental work done ourselves. After all, if you're gonna suffer for your pearly whites, might as well get an international vacation starring UNESCO-recognized lava tubes thrown in for your trouble, right?

Related Stories:
· South Korea Joins Lucrative Practice of Inviting Medical Tourists [NYT]
· Wooridul Spine Hospital [Official Site]
· Jeju Island to Have Foreigners-Only Medical Centers [Korea.net]
· Plastic Surgery Travel: Thailand [Jaunted]

[Photo of Jeju Island: karendotcom127]

India Welcomes People Who Want to Make Babies

October 22, 2008 at 12:00 PM | 0 Comments

India's plans for outer space domination might be progressing only slowly, but when it comes to fertility tourism they're doing very well.

For those unlucky souls who have trouble producing children, India is welcoming them and offering fertility treatment such as IVF cycles for a fraction of the price in countries like the United States or Britain.

There are two bonuses here: One, the laws connected to fertility treatments are a lot more lax so you can get pretty much get anything you need; and two, you get an interesting Indian holiday thrown in with your baby-creating experience.

Related Stories:
· Indian Clinics Woo Fertility Tourists [news.com.au]
· Let's Hope the Mayor Isn't Hiding up There [Jaunted]
· Medical Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: flypig]

Cold Travel: Freeze Yourself for Health in Slovakia

September 29, 2008 at 9:00 AM | 0 Comments

From the front, the AquaCity building in Poprad looks like a harmless water park with a fun, twisty slide. But what they actually do inside is freeze people.

We're not trying to say that the pool temperatures are just a bit low or something. We mean that you can actually go there for some cryotherapy which involves walking around a chamber where the temperature is minus 184 degrees F.

Apparently doing this for a couple of minutes will give you (surprisingly) a warm glowing feeling and can suppress inflammation and pain for weeks. (Kind of like applying a full-body ice pack.) AquaCity has been winning a bunch of green awards for being all sustainable and eco-friendly, so they're doing something right, although we still wonder if they have a room full of snap-frozen tourists hidden somewhere.

Related Stories:
· AquaCity [Official Site]
· Stripped to Your Undies in Minus 120 Degrees [The Age]
· The Big Chill [Jaunted]

[Photo: xgeorg00]

First-Person Medical Tourism: How Are the Dentists in Bangkok?

September 4, 2008 at 4:00 PM | 1 Comment

Geopolitics junkie and Knife Tricks blogger Paul Karl Lukacs had a bit of an oral revelation the other day, and since it's 2008, he blogged about it. Problem? Infected wisdom tooth. Solution? Surgery at Bumrungrad International Hospital in Thailand.

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Medical Travel: Shrinks Galore in Argentina

August 25, 2008 at 10:00 AM | 0 Comments

We know that medical tourism is a growing field: After all, we've contemplated a trip to Hungary to get our teeth fixed or a stay in the Netherlands to cure our nail-biting habit. But our next booking is taking us to Buenos Aires, and here's why.

We've just discovered that Argentina's capital is the "psychoanalysis capital of the world," and a two-hour therapy session will set you back only around $18. They've got more qualified psychologists than anywhere and if you head to the district of Palermo, you'll discover there's a good reason why it's nicknamed "Villa Freud."

Locals suggest that it's the country's long history of instability--war, dictatorship and economic collapse are just a few of the problems--that's made them a nation full of shrinks. We're just happy to have an exotic destination lined up for our next mental breakdown.

Related Stories:
· Get Your Head Tested in Buenos Aires [UK Times]
· Hungary For Some New Teeth [Jaunted]
· Cure Your Nail Biting Habit [Jaunted]

[Photo: Esparta]

Oklahoma's Million Pound March

February 5, 2008 at 9:30 AM | 0 Comments

We're not sure if Oklahoma City saw an unflattering picture of itself, got too big for its fat jeans or simply got tired of being known as one of America's porkiest towns, but last month, the entire place went on a diet. Mayor Mick Cornett, who at one point had "a bit of a weight problem" himself, is spearheading the campaign to help his constituents get off their size XXL duffs. He's hoping that with a little encouragement--and fewer double cheeseburgers--they can shed more than 1 million pounds by 2009. The mayor says:

Putting an entire city on a diet may seem a little extreme but we have to get people's attention. This is a serious public health problem that's not going to go away unless we act.

Since the program launched on New Year's Day, more than 10,000 people have registered on OKCMillion.com, a website that allows dieters to confidentially track their weight loss progress and calculate their body mass index. Just five weeks in, the city has already collectively lost more than 10 tons. No telling, of course, if the other 680,000 residents not registered on the site have been pulling their weight too--or taking advantage of slightly shorter lines at Sonic.

Related Stories:
· OKC Million [Official Site]
· Oklahoma City mayor puts city on diet [MSNBC]
· Lose Weight in Italy [Jaunted]
· Oklahoma Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: KB35]

Medical Travel: Lose Weight in Italy

August 16, 2007 at 9:45 AM | 0 Comments

We would never put Italy at the top of our list of countries to visit if we wanted to lose weight (spaghetti bolognese, anyone?!). But it looks like the northwestern town of Varallo, not far from Turin, might be the place to go. That's because the mayor of Varallo has just announced that local residents are going to get paid to lose weight.

This sounds unbelievable, but it's true. In an effort to beat rising obesity, local men who lose 9 pounds and women who lose 7 pounds in a month will get 50 Euros ($68), and a bonus 200 Euros ($272) if they keep the weight off for five more months. So it's kind of a group diet that they get paid for: sounds like a place that will develop some good weight loss strategies. Perhaps Varallo will be the hip new place for some weight loss travel--saving you some Plastic Surgery Travel in the future.

Related Stories:
· Italian Town Pays Residents To Shed Flab [Reuters]
· Italy coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: glynnish]

Medical Travel: Cure Your Nail Biting Habit

August 3, 2007 at 9:01 AM | 0 Comments

Going to Hungary for your dental work or Thailand for your breast enlargement is so 2006. The next hot destination for medical travels going to be the Netherlands, now that they've opened up a treatment center for those who bite their nails.

Apparently 2 million people in the Netherlands alone bite their nails, so the worldwide market must be huge. And they claim that after four weeks' treatment, 98% of nailbiters will be fully cured. The new center is in the city of Venlo in the south-east of the Netherlands, but it's not a huge nation, so we suggest combining your nail-biting therapy with a tour of the whole country.

Can't wait to see what viral marketing ads the Dutch come up with for this one, they have certainly impressed us in the past.

Related Stories:
· First Treatment Centre for Nailbiters [Ananova]
· Hungary For Some New Teeth? [Jaunted]

[Photo: annodam]

Transplant Tourism in China is a Reality

November 27, 2006 at 4:05 PM | 2 Comments


A quick lap around the interweb will shows us that there is something to the "China sells transplant tourism" rumors. It appears corneas, kidneys, livers, hearts and lungs, can all be had in the People's Republic, if an eager patient books one of these transplant trips to Shanghai.

Recently, China acknowledgment that the practice of transplant tourism does exist in their country. To wit, the organs of executed prisoners are sold to foreigners.

more ›

Hungary For Some New Teeth?

April 5, 2006 at 5:18 PM | 1 Comment

One story could be considered an anomaly, but two stories, now that makes plastic surgery travel an official trend.

Ok, maybe counting dental work under plastic surgery travel is a bit of a stretch, but the point is once again these cheap bastards frugal tourists are willing to travel half way around the world to significantly trim their medical bills.

The 56-year-old Benicia man went more than 6,000 miles to Hungary in March to get his teeth fixed for less than a third of the $50,000 or more it would have cost in this country.

An opportunistic outfit in the UK (insert British teeth joke here) called Hungarian Dental Travel will take care of all the travel and medical details for you.

Hungary is considered to be the dental capital of the world. They've got the biggest dental universities.

So says a director at the HDT.  However, the Hungarians better watch their back.  India, Thailand, and Singapore are all beginning to market medical and dental services a rock bottom prices.

Something tells us we haven't heard the last of this trend.

[Image via Google Images]

Related Stories:
·   Dental work too expensive?  Go overseas. [SFGate]
·   Cartagena Information [TripAdvisor]

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