Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

A couple of the female teachers at my school have these little kits that look like what diabetics use for blood testing, and when girls are suffering from cramps they'll sometimes massage them down rather roughly, p r i c k them at the base of the thumbnails, and squeeze out a little blood. Apart from the psychological effect of a bit of acute pain distracting the mind away from cramping I can't for the life of me see what good this could accomplish. Is there some medical theory behind this or is it just medical quackery? I guess that for Korean parents and homeroom teachers (boarding school) trying their girls on the pill is out of the question?

Does anyone else work at a school where teachers do this?

[krats1976]

Good heavens!! I can't imagine how loosing even more blood at that time would do anyone any good.

I guess they need something though. Every time my girl friends complain about cramps and I offer some ibuprofin, they look at me like I'm nuts and insist they're fine. ...yeah... that's why you're doubled over???

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Yo!Chingo]

Welcome to the age of reason my friends. Blood letting is barbaric!

[JongnoGuru]

A couple of the larger Korean employers I've worked for had their own in-house dispensary run by a nurse. I'd go in very occasionally for an aspirin to deaden a throbbing hangover or if I felt if I were coming down with something. Rarely was I the only "patient" as there'd typically be three or four (all very healthy-looking) girls sitting around getting their moxibustion treatment, acupoint therapy, phlebotomy (blood-letting), etc. I remember an annoucement over the company PA system one morning that an acupuncturist of apparently no small celebrity would be working his jiggery-pokery... er, his scientific medical wonders free of charge at the dispensary (the company was picking up his bill) for a day or two. You never saw such a stampede out that door, and I wondered, "Can they really all have something the matter with them all at once?"

But the blood-letting, yeah. Almost every Korean woman/girl I know will have a this-ache, a that-ache, and she'll go to the doctor and they'll draw out the "bad" blood, which will inevitably not be red, but black. Always. Because it's "bad" blood, see.

[sistersarah]

it's not just women. my husband does that when he has an upset stomach. he insists it works. i will never try it.

[Don Gately]

At the moment my Missus is going the chocolate and soju route, but to each their own.

[AbbeFaria]

They did that in my office once. Wrapped thread around their thumbs and pricked right beneath the thumnail. They said it it was supposed to help circulation after a big meal and all of them submitted to it. It freaked me the hell out. I think they were tempted to offer to do me, but by the look on my face decided not to. I tucked my thumbs into my hands and continued my prep, but began to wonder what kind of freakish country I'd landed in. (I'd only been here about a month at the time.)

I'm not squemish, I watch when I get shots and when I give blood, but that doesn't mean I'm up for getting stuck just for the sake of getting stuck.

�S�

[Ya-ta Boy]

I often wonder how much of Western medicine is just bedside manner and all. Someone said 30% of illnesses are psychosomatic, which means medicine doesn't do anything to correct the problem, but may affect the symptoms. A confident doctor with an aspirin or a confident herbalist with a sharp pin jab...is there any real difference, except for the blood?

[crazylemongirl]

I much prefer my PMS cure all of chocolate and bad girly TV.

[JongnoGuru]

What's "bad girly TV"?

[Bulsajo]

[pet lover]

[crazylemongirl]

[gypsyfish]

Can bloodletting relieve cramps?

If you release enough! (Insert sinister laugh)