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Medicine in Korea, the good, the bad, the weird...

 
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Squid



Joined: 25 Jul 2003
Location: Sunny Anyang

PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 9:48 pm    Post subject: Medicine in Korea, the good, the bad, the weird... Reply with quote

Winter is receding, and I guess if you're anything like me then you've been to the pharmacy at least once. What's good medicine? bad? or just plain weird? For the record here's my picks:

Best: Madecassol- antiseptic cream/gel... hard to beat

Worst: A green gel capsule for colds, threw them away after they twice gave me the wicked trots.

Weirdest: Another cold remedy, purportedly chinese, which resembled buckshot. Simply pour the contents of the sachet into your mouth and wash it down with juice or water... or desperately try to stop gagging whilst attempting to swallow, then fish around with your tongue for half an hour finding stray bits which taste like dirt, only bitter.


Speculators (I never tried these)

Tooth pills, you know the guy who can't eat his steak because of crappy teeth, then voila! a magic tooth pill later and he's a raving carnivore... what sort of dimwit would buy a $2 pill for a toothache?

Acupuncture: devised by our old friend Dr. M. Jumbo.

Suction cups... ok I've had it, there are plenty more- stone beds (give me a break), twig tea, rice tea, corn tea any f'ing tea, and the band-aids here wouldn't stick to elephant glue.

ok rant done... any more?
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Zenpickle



Joined: 06 Jan 2004
Location: Anyang -- Bisan

PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 9:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've done the buckshot before, chasing it with a horrible brown concoction. I'm still skeptical of traditional Chinese medicine (think of what traditional European medicine used to be), but both times my fever broke within a few hours.

As far as the suction cups go, are you talking about where they heat a glass and put it on your skin, causing a suction reaction?

I took a pharmacology course in college, and my professor got so worked up and angry about talking about what a totally dangerous fraud this was, he walked out of the classroom.
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Squid



Joined: 25 Jul 2003
Location: Sunny Anyang

PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2005 11:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, thats the suckers. There's a variation with burning herb cones too (cue the potheads)... just as strange.

Also any kind of "tonic" drink in the wee bottles from 7-11, those al suck too, including Bacchus.

Wellbeing chocolate biscuits too... I could go on.
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hirsute



Joined: 15 Nov 2004

PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 12:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

i've done some of the weird things you've mentioned (acupuncture, suctin)... and they work. i actually like the weird things better than the weird things present in western medicine. this isn't some kind of 2 day fluke, this stuff has been around for awhile... it's not a mass hypnosis scam either. and when i say this stuff, i'm not vouching for anything you get at the convenience store or pharmacy, i'm talking about the long history of oriental medicine. if it's been around for that long, chances are there are some benefits.
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peppergirl



Joined: 07 Dec 2003

PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 12:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tried acupuncture once, for persistent shoulder pain, worked like a charm (one 20 min treatment, by a Chinese guy who had been studying it since he was 15 or so - would never trust the quacks in the west who take 1 course in acupuncture and think they are fully qualified)

Tried one course of oriental medicine (the bags with the bitter brown liquid that you're supposed to drink 2-3 times a day, and you get recommendations not to combine it with certain kinds of food/drink) and it seemed to help regulate things.
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Squid



Joined: 25 Jul 2003
Location: Sunny Anyang

PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 12:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Acupuncture, acupressure, phrenology, iridology- they're all the same, a lot of old cobblers.

I forgot one excellent product: Nuk nappy rash cream (for the parents out there)

And if you trust something because it's been around a few thousand years you probably still believe in Santa Claus too, or God, and the tooth fairy.
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paperbag princess



Joined: 07 Mar 2004
Location: veggie hell

PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 2:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

each time i've tried korean medicine, it's been an adventure in legal highs. one time i took some weird concoction and ended up getting really dizzy, totally unable to make sense, then puked my guts out and passed out; not fun. i didn't finish that course. then another time i got something similar so took it right before bed and guess what? it had tons of ephredrine in it and i lay in bed twitching till it wore off. oh yeah, and neither time did i get any better any faster. when i'm sick i like dayquil and nyquil.
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animalbirdfish



Joined: 04 Feb 2004

PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 4:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think a lot of meds - narcotics aside - are simply psychosomatic in their effect anyway. Koreans have been conditioned to believe that the oriental drugs work, so therefore they do. Same for westerners and Tylenol.

I've been conditioned to believe in the effects of western medicine, though, so that's what I want when I'm sick. I've had no luck whatsoever with the oriental meds here. If you want strong cold medication, though, you might have to head for Namdaemun now. The government recently pulled Contac from Korean pharmacy shelves (for whatever reason).
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Zenpickle



Joined: 06 Jan 2004
Location: Anyang -- Bisan

PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 5:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

animalbirdfish wrote:
I think a lot of meds - narcotics aside - are simply psychosomatic in their effect anyway. Koreans have been conditioned to believe that the oriental drugs work, so therefore they do. Same for westerners and Tylenol.

I've been conditioned to believe in the effects of western medicine, though, so that's what I want when I'm sick. I've had no luck whatsoever with the oriental meds here. If you want strong cold medication, though, you might have to head for Namdaemun now. The government recently pulled Contac from Korean pharmacy shelves (for whatever reason).


This is one point I tend to argue with my (Korean) girlfriend about. It's not "western" medicine. It's modern medicine.

Traditional Western medicine, like Chinese medicine, has also been around for centuries, like the concepts of the four humors, bloodletting, herbal concoctions, and going to the barber for surgery.

A few centuries ago, the Scientific Method gradually came into vogue through the Renaissance and Enlightenment in the West. As the Scientific Method, a system of observation, hypothesis, and experimentation, becamse more popular with western thinkers, it pervaded most every aspect of life, including medicine.

As scientists started applying the Scientific Method to traditional Western medicine, most of it was thrown out the window as folksy superstition.

The Scientific Method is just beginning to be applied to traditional Chinese medicine. If scientists can prove it all works, then I have no problem. But likely I might as well put a leech on my toe to cure a headache.
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OiGirl



Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: Hoke-y-gun

PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 5:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

animalbirdfish wrote:
The government recently pulled Contac from Korean pharmacy shelves (for whatever reason).

Sudafed is being pulled from the shelves in the US because it's easy to use it to make meth (so I've heard...) The one decongestant still available in the US will be substituted in a reformulated Sudafed. Too bad that drug doesn't work well for me. Crying or Very sad
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teachingld2004



Joined: 29 Mar 2004

PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 7:48 pm    Post subject: medicine Reply with quote

Now I have a sort throat and am conjested.

Went to the dr for meds, and what he gave me were as good as garbage.

So, went back to my old standard, good ond "Jung Woo". It is in a green pkg. Yep, granuals. I have had other brands that would make sawdust taste like a hell of alot better, but this jung-woo stuff actually does not taste bad, and goes down.

Anyway, i'm feeling lots better then from the stuff the dr gave me.

Certain things work for certain people. Like the old standby, lemon juice and honey for a cough. Works for some but not for others.

What ever floats your boat...
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mindmetoo



Joined: 02 Feb 2004

PostPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 10:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Zenpickle wrote:
If scientists can prove it all works, then I have no problem. But likely I might as well put a leech on my toe to cure a headache.


Amen. What's wrong with "hey you make a claim, just prove it's safe and effective"? Somehow that should apply to the pharmaceutical industry but its some kind of great sin to ask the Vitamin House to do the same. *Head shake*

One of my friends, a woman, went to the Korean doc and he started suggesting what she needed was regular injections of Japanese placenta into her uterus. And she's like "errr why and how much would that cost?" "Oh very expensive." "Okay no thanks." "Say, what if I pay for it?" Freak. Sounded like he just wanted to get off on injecting stuff into a white woman's hoo ha.
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