Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BigMikeAbroad]

I know Seoul is known for its poor air quality. I have asthma, nothing bad, just need to carry an inhaler around with me. Was curiouse iof anyone knows if asthma inhalers are sold in Korea?

[Otherside]

Yes Inhalers are sold in Korea.
Ventolin (which i use) is sold in every pharmacy I've been to. Only catch you need a prescription (and they are very hesitant to give a prescription for more than 1 inhaler at a time). For me, getting a prescription involves showing my inhaler to the nurse at the front desk, sitting down in the waiting room and picking up 5 minutes later, half the cost of the 'consult' is covered by health insurance. The whole deal, consult+inhaler costs about $12.

[nobbyken]

I used to get asthma when running or in an area with lots of dust mites.

I used the Alexander technique for breathing, which in a nutshell is exhaling the air in the lungs before trying to breath in.
The natural tendancy is to brreath harder, which means more stress in the chest and neck and a contraction of the wee pipes carrying air, combined with the production of phlegm.
Breathing in when we have half-full lungs is a natural habit.
It's also natural to breathe harder when we feel weezy:catch 22 situation, but we should breathe out more in a relaxed manner.

If you've not already tried, give it a shot.
Helped me in two minutes, dead gen. .

[BigMikeAbroad]

So As long as I have one when I arrive I should be ok? Just go to a pharmacy with it and they should be able to give me another one? Sounds not too bad.

[ryouga013]

I have never been diagnosed with asthma just with crap lungs. Smaller than normal, and weaker. After doing as much cardio as I can until my lungs feel like they are going to burst, then doing it again and keeping this up in a decent routine, my lungs have gotten stronger, but still not that great.

You may want to use a few of those masks that they sell in pharmacies, it will help with some of the crap

[Evanzinho]

Is Advair available here in Seoul? If so, does anyone know how much it is? In the U.S my copay was close to $40 for one disc of Adviar, and that was with insurance. I think the list price was $175 or so.

I can use Albuterol instead, but I find it doesn't last very long for me, and I can breathe better with Advair.

Any info is appreciated.

[Doogie]

[BigMikeAbroad]

Do you have to go to a dr or a pharmacy for advair?

[lorenchristopher]

Go to a hospital and get a script. It's not over the counter, no....but before I had health insurance I went to the hospital for an inhaler and the whole visit was really cheap compared to the states.

[BigMikeAbroad]

So does anyone know of a hospital or dr in Songpa-Gu? English is good but if all I have to do is flash my inhaler than Korean is ok. A hospital would me fine too but if I go to a hospital it would be nice if they had a foreigner clinic. Any help would be great. I am maybe 4 km from Jamsil.

BM[/list]

[travelbender]

I didn't need a prescription for Ventolin. I just walked into a pharmacy and showed them my old inhaler and they sold me a new one. Really cheap too...

[MrRogers]

I had a an "adverse" reaction to Advair - so be careful...

this was many years ago when it first came out and doctors were pushing it -- it made my asthma worse instead of better - after consulting my doctor/allergist about the whole thing, chemicaly, he arrived at the conclusion certain components of it caused the adverse reaction

we found the best thing was to take Maxair (similar to ventolin/albuterol) (3M made it but I don't know if they make it anymore) and hard to always obtain -- I took that along with

the state-of-the-art of corticosteroids from Sweden, Pulmicort - so now I use both the bronchodilator (ventolin/albuterol) and the Pulmicort

I have had asthma my whole life (it is genetic) and have seen many different levels of dealing with it through the years and I am really thankful for modern medicines compared to the suffering I had as a child - and I am much older than most here - there were none of these medicines; much depends on what type of asthma individuals have; true, breathing techniques, vitamins, herbs all help - but when it is allergic bronchial asthma there comes a time to accept that one's adrenals are drained and take some medication...Amen.

[axmill]

just show a k doctor your old inhaler and you should have no problem getting a new one.

the other day i bought advair and an inhaler together for less than 20,000W...

if your worried about air quality, but want to live close to seoul live in gyeongido..i live 20 mins from seoul. most of the times i think it's worth it.

i've heard in the spring that there are dust storms that come over from china...

hope that helps.

[ttompatz]

[Jeweltone]

Asan Medical Clinic (hospital) has an excellent international clinic with a Western-trained doctor (Dr. Kwak!). The hospital is in Seongpa-gu near Jamsil, but it is easiest to reach it by taxi; I did it once by subway (with pneumonia) and there is an 800 meter walk from the station to the hospital...through an exercise park!

Dr. Kwak speaks excellent English, and can probably help you.
http://www.amc.seoul.kr/eng/index.jsp