Korean Job Discussion Forums

dutchman · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: My backyard

My son had a stye in his eye. If you've ever had one and gone to a western doctor, you know the advice given is simply to not touch it and put a warm compress on frequently. Well, my wife took our son to an Oriental doctor. She (the doctor) told my wife that many times a poor diet causes styes and that my son should not be eating a lot of flour based foods. Well, my wife is 8 months pregnant and obviously doesn't want to cook much. As a result, I've been feeding our son a lot of western foods (bread, pizza, hamburgers...) recently. So, the doctors advice seemed to make sense. The doctor then proceeded to take a needle and poke one of my son's big toes to let the blood flow out (a kind of bloodletting I guess). Pretty bizarre huh? Guess what. By the end of the day my sons stye had popped and is now disappearing.

I've always had a certain amount of respect for Oriental medicine but now I'm a true believer.

Anyone else have some stories on the subject?

Hank Scorpio · Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Location: Ann Arbor, MI

I don't know, I kind of consider Oriental medicine to be right up there with voodoo and santeria. I've just seen way too much superstitious nonsense coming from educated Koreans (fan death, anyone?) to trust some ancient eastern form of medicine. You're talking about medicine that uses rhinocerous horns, various animal t esticles (can't believe that word gets bleeped, c'mon, it's an actual anatomical term), and other junk. Meh.

Of course, I also have zero faith in holistic medicine, faith healing, crystals, or any other hippy dippy California fad. Chiropractors, though, I swear by. They may be witch doctors, but damnit, they work.

posco's trumpet · Joined: 20 Apr 2003 Location: Beneath the Underdog

desultude · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2003 11:41 pm Post subject:

Tell Cubans and Haitians that Santeria and VooDoo don't work. Some of the benefits of western medicine (how much depends on who you ask) come from what is derisively called the "placebo effect." There is much being said these days, sometimes in medical journals, about the benefits of prayer. It all gives new meaning to the adage "doctor heal thyself." A lot of healing is just that, healing yourself with a little help from the (witch) doctor.

I suspect that Dutchman's son was not too concerned with who the doctor was, but the Oriental practitioner seems to have performed a cure. Alls well that ends well, as they say.

I've been meaning to get my sinus problems checked out by a traditional medicine doctor here, as my western doctors can only give me drugs and advise surgury.

TINKERBELL · Joined: 07 Apr 2003 Location: GWANGJU

I had a stye on 2 occassions when I was younger. My Gran told me that rubbing a gold ring on it before it comes to a head, will cure it. She then proceeded to remove her wedding ring and rub it on my eye Shocked

I am the ultimate cynic when it comes to these things but I have to say, it worked like a charm!

the_beaver · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

rapier · Joined: 16 Feb 2003

I learned about this from a co-worker last week, it was very interesting. She had a headache..and then proceded to get out a needle gun and punture heer finger, and then bleed it.
She swears by this treatment for every ache and pain she gets. Apparently different points on the hand correspond to points on the body, and to massage or bleed these points will stimulate better circulation and rapid healing in the required part. I laughed out loud at this, but now I'm starting to take it seriously.
For muscular pains she uses a selection of strong suction cups applied to the suffering area. The suction actually causes bad or toxic blood to be sucked out through the skin and relieve the muscle. However the red skin mark left behind takes 2 weeks or so to dissapear. From what I've heard, its all very effective.
However I would discount as superstition some of their other remedies. I don't believe that eating kimchi prevents SARS or cancer.
Last week I told them I used to eat Kangaroo tails in Australia. They were very interested and asked what they were good for-ie, what medicinal value. I replied that they help you jump higher...

dutchman · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: My backyard

the_beaver · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

wormholes101 · Joined: 11 Mar 2003

This shouldn't be a western medicine VS oriental medicine thread.

99.95% of the time I'm a skeptic and a scientist. I'm sure a lot of Oreintal medicine is bollocks. However, I do have one story to tell.

I occasionally have an allergic reaction after eating large quantities of crustaceans or any amount of insects. Red skin and swelling. I had it the first time in Thailand after eating some type of lavae. The reaction lasted all night even after a shot of anti-hystimine. A few weeks later while in Malaysia, I ate several crabs and again got a reaction. My step mother swabbed my down with plum wine and the swelling completely dissapeared within a hour. I've had the reaction a few times after that and never has it subsided as quick as with the plum wine.

Who knows? I think that it can't ALL be quackery. In 5000 years of oriental medicine, they must have got something right.

Interestingly, University studies indicate that eating Deer Velvet (this is a traditional medicine) may increase muscular strength and endurance when combined with a exercise program.

Len8 · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Location: Kyungju

Oriental Medicine is big buisness here, but it's also very cheap. Acupuncture in the U.S. is $70 a shot. Here it's $5.

It's too bad that their Bible of Oriental Medicine hasn't been translated into English. It would be a big money spnner. it contains all the herbal cures from the days of "Hogin" the benevolent doctor depicted on the Korean drama series that ran for a couple of years back.

I lived near Kyunghee University for a couple of years, and got to hang out with some of the oriental medical students. I was fascinated with how they learned their acupuncture. Some learened first hand by practicing on themselves, and others practiced on each other. Poor guys had needle marks all over their bodies.