Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bedhead]

so for some reason i've had a number of throat and chest problems since moving to korea. i try to rest and let it run its course, but ultimately, it becomes a bacterial infection that can only be cured with antibiotics. so i've taken them maybe 4 times in the last year.

is there a health food store in seoul that sells acidophilus capsules? specifically "lactobacillus bulgaricus" which is the real one your body needs after antibiotics (the one you have to keep cold).

also, i just read an article in today's nytimes on the dangers of resistance to antibiotics.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/health/14well.html?_r=1

i've tried to fight it, and yes, doctors prescribe them without flinching, but i felt i have no choice. any help's appreciated!

[gazz]

[quote]also, i just read an article in today's nytimes on the dangers of resistance to antibiotics. [/quote]

Yeah thats why you should (never/rarely) use anti bacterial washing up liquid ect.

[ppcg4]

I don't have any info about the antibiotic you're requesting, but I will agree that doctors here give antibiotics like it's going out of style. Whenever I get a script I have the pharmacist tell me what everything is, so I can skip the antibiotics and just use the other pills to relieve the symptoms until I feel better.

Although I've had a cold/sinus infection for like 3 months now... I've tried the antibiotics, as well as a few shots in the ass, to no avail. I have a feeling it's the air.

[teachergirltoo]

To buy acidophilus as vitamins here costs an astronomical amount compared to what we pay back in North America. However, I had a doctor write me a prescription for them and then it was extremely cheap. I wish I could remember the Korean word he wrote but I can't. It is the Korean equivalent of the word probiotics. He did it at the same time he gave me the antibiotics. If you have no other choice just go buy some good yoghurt and eat that everyday for a while to build up the good flora.

[Goku]

I'm a huge advocate for controlled exposure to germs and bateria. It's important that people are exposed to different types of strains and cultures of bateria to develop antibody immunities.

The overcleansing culture we have runs the danger of creating super germs that are resistant to chemcial eradication. Also our immune systems weaken and we could run the threat of having another plague like epidemic with something common as the cold in the future. A bleak future for our species if we don't prepare now.

For the survival of the species it's a necessary step that we try not to over baby ourselves from germs.

It's actually similar to the way glasses and contact lenes are. We baby our eyes with contacts and glasses so that our vision becomes handicapped more and more. For a lot of people, it is possible to excerise out of short sightedness with exercise but we have this whole money making exploiting industry making dollars off our handicaps. So a huge portion of our species have to wear glasses and think of it as a necessity. We are essentially making the human species weaker

Same as dentists. We didn't have dentists in medevil times... did everyone just lose their teeth and eat porridge? I'm going to share a very dark secret I have kept for years... I don't brush my teeth. Maybe once a month if I eat a lot of chocolate. Know what happens when I go to my dentist visits? They always suprisingly say. Your teeth are really healthy your teeth they (are... a tiny bit yelllow), healthy and the enamel is intact! (I obviously don't tell them I don't brush my teeth, but I still get comments about how healthy they are) You know why? Because I don't brush down enamel, I don't "baby" my teeth by removing all the bacteria. I subject it to the harshest elements of nature and they have adapted. Does that make me dirty? Probably... Do I care? Not really because my teeth are stonger than most people. I don't have cavities, and I don't suffer pain. In fact, I let my wisdom teeth grow out naturally. It's a bit bothersome and I had a lot of warnings against it, but if nature designed me to have extra fangs... let them come.

I think our species with all this technology is making our physical aspects weaker and weaker. Think about it this way, what if meteors came down and destroyed all our technology. Do you think we could survive without our modern day "conviences"? How would we get food? How would we survive? Most of us wouldn't know to survive.

Sorry for ranting about my "unorthodox beliefs". I don't expect a lot of people to buy into it. But it's a refreshing new way to look at how we live as technological humans.

[vampirepirate01]

i mean I wouldn't go as doomsday prophecy as the above post. However giving antibiotics for a simple cold, is going overboard. When you get rid of all the bacteria, that also means your immune system is back to zero.

[Zantetsuken]

[bedhead]

yeah, i'll ask a doctor to prescribe some of the acidophilus, so hopefully i can get it on the cheap. thanks for the info.

and in terms of living closer to the earth, like the others on the post- yes. i wholeheartedly agree. i just wish they did health food here like in north america. thats part of it. they're still about a century behind on that one (unless anyone knows a real health food store in seoul???).

[Ruthdes]

After an unfortunate run in with camel's milk in mongolia, my gut wasn't operating properly for over a month! A trip to the doc back in Seoul gave me THREE different antibiotics, prescribed for only 3 days. A helpful pharmacist and a quick surf of the web told me that one of these was a particularly hardcore one that is one of the few that actually really SHOULDN'T be combined with alcohol (most antibiotics are ok with a small amount of alcohol). Anyway. I took the antibiotics for the 3 days. It cleared up the problem, but it came back within 2 days of getting off the antibiotics .

I wasn't going back to that quack again, so I started drinking pro biotic yogurt every day and eventually my gut went back to normal (it did take a couple off months to get to 100% though). The brand of yogurt I bought is 쾌변 in a tallish single serve white and gold or silver (depending on the flavour) bottle. It also has HOWARU written on it in English. I like the apple and kiwifruit flavours. I wasn't a fan of pineapple or grape, even though I usually like these fruits. It's a little expensive to drink every day, but if you buy it each day you hardly notice it. It's about 1300 won per bottle, in the drink fridge of any largish convenience store. I'm on antibiotics myself at the moment, so I've started drinking it again for the time being.

One more point. I developed a pretty nasty cough a couple of months back that I couldn't shake. After a month I went to Samseong MC, on the chance that maybe it had changed into bronchitis and I actually needed some sort of treatment. To my amazement, the young, female doctor didn't give me antibiotics, and told me to do what I figured all along: drink fluids, rest, avoid smoky places, etc. I was pleasantly surprised at her sensible treatment.

And just a quick question for the non-teeth brushers: do you use mouth wash or brush your tongue to keep your breath fresh? Do you floss to keep the gaps clean? Do you chew gum? Do you just put up with the furry feeling or do you have another way of removing it? Just curious.

[Ultimo Hombre]

[Robot_Teacher]

To my understanding, antibiotics need to be taken for a 10 to 14 days; not 3 in order to be effective. If you get a cold and you still have runny nose and congestion 2 weeks later, you have a bacterial infection that 10 days of antibiotics can usually help cure. This happened to me recently.

If you get ear infection, 10 days of antibiotics can help. I got 14 days of antibiotics and feel normal again after a week, but keep taking until used up.

[English Matt]

[Tommy]

Goku and Zantetsuken.. I hope you guys use mouthwash or something!

About a year ago I was reading up on tooth care and came across something called Tooth Soap. I never got around to looking into it but the one's advocating it were saying the same things you're saying about wearing down the enamel, and the dental industry being overblown and money hungry. I'll have to go back and look into it now...

[Zantetsuken]

[Goku]