Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kain067]

Well I have felt like absolute crap these past two days. Yesterday I made a total of 15 trips to the bathroom, two to throw up, and the other 13 to, well... let's just say I can now sympathize with the people on the Oregon Trail who regularly died of dysentary. I don't think I've been this sick in years. Even lifting my head off my pillow resulted in a sudden flash of severe headache. And I'm a really healthy guy -- usually get sick only once or twice a year. So whatever I got is something not pretty.

And apparently that is Air Conditioning Sickness (shortened to ACS by both the Mayo Clinic and the CDC in Atlanta). From the first moment I mentioned I was feeling a little weak and tired at work, the VERY FIRST thing a co-worker said was, "Oh, Air Conditioning Sickness".

My co-workers have all been very nice, within their (I'm now starting to realize) disgustingingly Korean-limited medical knowledge. I have been given such sage advice as: use an umbrella in the sunlight, use only a fan at night (no AC), drink some kind of herbal well-being concoction, eat vitamin C tablets, and drink more energy BEETAMEEN drinks.

I have always been somewhat amused by the Korean (and lots of the East) medical beliefs. You know, well being, energies, natural rhythms, that hippie shlit. But being this sick and seeing the complete inability of any Korean to do anything about it (or even know what the hell it is) drives this home in a more serious manner. My boss knows the owner of the biggest drugstore in the city, and she said to drink an herbal concoction (that most people drink everyday anyway) and not use the AC. What the hell?

So I guess I can expand this a bit more. Just recently (seems ironic now) I had a discussion with a Korean girl. Her brother apparently is getting into some kind of hand energy thing. Where he rubs parts of your hand and then it affects other parts of your body because their "energies are connected". Not being the culturally-sensitive washrag that is most ESL teachers, I told her I did not agree. I said that there simply is no direct connection between your palm and your stomach. Up to your brain, then down to your stomach, maybe. But that would only be a psychological connection. And people probably only think the hand has "energies" because it has the most nerve endings in it. I said most of that stuff is psychological anyway.

Eh, I can type for nine more pages before completely describing my current feelings on it. So I will let others reply and then maybe go into more in my later replies. It just all reminds me of a picture I saw from Korea in the early 1900's. There was an epidemic going around and thousands were dying. So the Korean medical gurus found the cure: writing the infected person's name on the bottom of their own foot. The picture I saw was of a huge pyramid of bodies, each with a name written neatly down its foot.

Closing quick comments showing my feelings that I can elaborate on later: Western medicine is inherently, by philosophical definition, superior to Eastern. And Eastern medicine itself is perhaps the single greatest known example of the "placebo effect".

[phaedrus]

[Kain067]

I'm saying I've used air conditioning my whole life. I have never in my life heard of anyone getting sick from air conditioning. It's just that not many people in Korea have it - people are ignorant of it, so they come up with yet another of the old wives' tales that run the collective logic of the country.

Only way someone could get sick from airconditioning would be to be very very hot, then douse themselves in water, and stand in front of the full fan. And do this several times a day perhaps. Plus, that would give you, at most, a cold. Sniffles. I had a full on flu virus, with some other crap thrown in for measure. You would think this would be a full scale epidemic in places like America where air conditioning is everywhere, wouldn't you?

The girl foot massage thing has nothing to do with energies or healing. I have no idea why you even brought that up. Does that mean when a girl kisses you and it turns you on there's some direct connection between your mouth and your dong?

I mean the girl said when her brother pushes a part of your hand your stomach will rumble. This kind of crap. Really, what was your reply aiming at anyway?

[Ya-ta Boy]

My diagnosis is that you don't have AC Disease, but a mild form of Fan Death.

[pet lover]

Ya-Ta Boy, That is by far my most favoritest post in the entire eslcafe!

grammar people: that was on purpose!

[yangban]

Dear Kain,

That happened to me. I got sick from my a/c in Korea. It started to go away, then I went to Japan in the summer, when it was rainy and hot on the outside and extremely cold on the inside. By the time I came back, I was so sick... 4 days in the hospital with pneumonia. Painful IVs. It sucked ass. They meant well, but the doctors were so cold and clinical. I liked the small clinics better, they are nicer and warmer. Anyway, it was the a/c, but it gave me pnemonia. You might want to have it cleaned, and also get fresh air into your place. I work in the a/c all day at work in the US now, ironically for a health food store and never get sick. But here they clean the hvac system regularly.

PS. Don't laugh at their remedies. They work. Most of them are preventative, but herbs are a more natural, inexpensive way to keep you healthy. We sell green tea (nok cha), green tea extract and Korean ginseng here like crazy. The big selling herbs like gingko and (general) ginseng come from China and Korea. Sure you didn't get sick as much in the US or Canada, but we have different illnesses: heart disease, cancer, obesity, the stuff that will kill you, not just make you feel bad. Turn off that a/c and let fresh air in daily. You aren't home anymore!

[djsmnc]

[djsmnc]

[ajuma]

Sorry to burst your bubble (the "mild form of "fan death" was priceless, though! ), but you CAN get sick from your air conditioner! AC harbors molds which can do nasty things to your body.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/cd-fact/0191.html

http://health.msfc.nasa.gov/tips/air.html

[Kain067]

OK, buckshot reply:

yangban: i don't really think i got sick from my a/c. it would make no sense at all. i clean my a/c regularly. i am in less a/c here in korea than i am in the states. it is hotter where i live in the states than here in korea (though less humidity). it is exactly like what ya-ta boy says, the same philosophy behind this bs sickness as that beyond-bs coroner report. that's exactly what i'm afraid of: i'll die in my sleep here (for any number of reasons: carbon monoxide, pulling a jimi hendrix, heart attack, stroke, heck even murder) and the only thing my family will ever hear is that i died of fan death. hopefully that would spark some kind of american controversey to finally kick this damn 3rd world, back asswards (at least medically, put away your guns) country into gear. though i heard of this same thing happening to another esl teacher, and his country did nothing. ah well, was probably canadian.

djsmnc: what is a flat rock mattress? just what it sounds like? where have you seen it and what is it supposed to do? all i know is that my mattress here feels like a flat rock. and what are the beliefs behind them?

[Kain067]

ajuma: those studies are about much more serious things, like mold and viral infectants. I don't see a/c mentioned in there. I see things like wearing long pants and a mask when disinfecting a closed room.

and my a/c is cleaned regularly. along with my apartment. and i always have one window open.

and why is that only foreigners seem to be the targets of this mysterious sickness? and why only when they're in korea? those studies really don't show anything.

and give me a university of iowa study laying out the causes and diagnoses of fan death and i'll start to give a spankling of credence to one word one doctor in this country says.

and one more thing: if it was the a/c causing this, how could i ever get better? how come i have spent the last two days IN THE A/C without leaving once and have recovered?

[matthewwoodford]

So have you been to a doctor? Did they also tell you you had 'A/C sickness'?

[Kain067]

no, thankfully i dont need to go to one (yet). but the owner/prescriber of the largest drugstore in the city probably qualifies as more of an "expert" than a normal doctor, and that's what she said.

i don't think i'll ever go to a doctor in this country. i heard from someone that an esl teacher went to a clinic for some flu or other, and the doctor asked him to clasp his fingers. the doctor then proceeded to pull them apart, and diagnose the patient with having a small wee-wee. which of course was then prescribed with mushrooms and all the other food that koreans all know is good for male fertility (which i guess makes your doodle grow bigger too).

i will go in the clinic with a gunshot in the gut and they will prescribe me some herb medicine and beetameen drink.

[yangban]

Kain,

I know I got sick from a/c. My a/c was messed up and those very cold a/c dept stores in Fukuoka put me over the edge, and I'm sure those are clean.

Go to a doctor, just don't go to the traditional med ones. You should be in and out of there in 10 minutes with the right medicine to knock down your affliction. You will know the trad herb ones when you walk in and see the little brown drawers with the Chinese characters on them. Don't go to a pharamacy, go to a doctor. I am assuming you haven't been there long, so don't think I'm being insulting, but the docs are the ones with the green crosses on a white background.

Anyway, go in and see one, being sick is bs, don't be miserable one minute longer. Go to a bigger city if you have to.

[On the other hand]