How much do you trust the meds you get here?

Life Health & Fitness
1

Recently, about a month ago, I had a mild head cold, and all I wanted were some decongestants so that I could sleep at night. My girlfriend and I went to the pharmacy and she explained the situation. I left with something like five different pills that I was supposed to take three times a day.

Now, I was just looking for some Tylenol PM. You know, one pill, take it at night, badda bing. I asked my girlfriend a hundred times if she was at all suspicious that I had left the pharmacy with this ungoddly number of pills. She wasn’t.

I still was. Some of the pills smelled – yes, SMELLED – like algea, and after choking them all down I didn’t really feel any improvement.

Then, my suspicions were raised once more when I read an article in TaiwanEase called “Pill-popping Practices.” Without citing the whole are article, I’ll just note that:

Now, the reason I ask this, is that I think I’m coming down with the flu. I feel like absolute shit, but I don’t want to go to the doctor just to get some random hodge-podge of drugs. I’d rather just let it run it’s course, with the help of some tylenol and orange juice.

2

Take the powdered pills; they hit harder.

3

I always aske the pharmacist or doctor to write down the name of the medication and before I take it I look it up on the internet to see what it is.

Sometimes it is a Taiwan made medicine and there is nothing available on the net but most often there’s something. We are spoiled with the quality of healthcare and medicine in our respective countries.

4

I do the same as Lo Bo To.
I have refused a few pills as a result of my research.
We are much better off for it.

5

Ditto.

6

Same here, I have 0 trust in Taiwanese doctors and if I get a bunch of pills I certainly look them up. So far, I had one experience where I was told to take 5 different kind of pills at the same time, after lunch. I looked them up and found that 1 pill should not be taken with others and that 3 of the 5 pills should be taken before and not after lunch. I certainly would not have died, but I felt better not taking any pills at all!

7

With cold meds, just Google for and memorize the names of the most common 1) antihistamines and 2) decongestants, and check the English ingredient labels on packaged (boxed) versions in the drugstore to make sure you’re buying only what you want. Purchasing 1) and 2) as separate pills allows you to take only the one you want, or both together, as needed.

Here are the common names:

  1. antihistamines: chlorpheniramine (often ~ maleate) and diphenhydramine.

  2. decongestants: phenylephrine, phenylpropanolamine, and pseudoephedrine

The meds may also contain pain relievers and/or cough suppressants:

  1. pain: aspirin, acetaminophen (=Tylenol) or ibuprofen (=Advil)
  2. cough suppressants dextromethorphan

You can also show these names to the pharmacist and make a specific request. If your pharmacist doesn’t recognize these words, you don’t have a competent pharmacist and you should take your business to a different pharmacy.

8

When my girlfriend had some pills left over recently from when she was sick, we were trying to figure out if we should keep them. So I did just what y’all are telling me, and I had mixed results. For some, I was able to figure out exactly what they were. Others, I wasn’t.

Then again, I don’t speak Chinese, so I should get the ladyfriend to help me next time (er, tomorrow). I’m going to the doctor bright and early, because my condition is deteriorating.

9

With prescription medication, you get a paper slip stapled to the plastic bag. That has an abbreviated version of the medicine name, and the dosage. Looking up the abbreviated name sometimes provides useful info.

But it’s also important to try to find a good doctor who prescribes sensibly. They do exist.

10

And many of them can read English too. If they can’t, find another.

11

to me the healthcare is much better than back home. But then again…I had no health insurance!

These scarflets of pills…I’m usually sick for a week trying to cure myself or even by going to the pharmacists…but then I go to the doc and take these pills…I loose a day but I’m cured the next day. Sure I may be growing an extra limb, but hey, it’s cheap.

seriously…I also checked them out…online that is. I also find that when I ask the doc to give me meds that won’t make me drowsy, they arent as affective.

12

I also check medicines on the Net. Often people here go to the doctor for the most minor of colds (as anyone who’s been pestered by co-workers and in-laws to see the doctor at the first sniffle can attest), and usually the patient is prescribed some antihistamines, analgesics and cough suppressants.

For a cold or flu, I go to Watson’s and pick up some non-prescription 斯斯 capsules.

But I’m still kicking myself for not bringing Tylenol PM from my last visit to the States.

13

Can’t you get Tylenol at Cosco?

14

The doctor said I have bronchitis.

So here’s what they gave me:

Erythromycin
Tinten
Cabosistin
Sou-an
Strocaine
Coldan
Panadol

The panadol is only for if I get a fever again. One is a cough syrup, and another is for sleeping.

15

Does anyone know anything about Antibiophilus (lactobacillus) or Parasitin? My wife’s brother in law is a pharmacist and he and his wife own a couple of drugstores in Tainan. They keep giving my wife drugs to administer to our 3 year-old daughter.

Each time I have no idea what the drugs are and I’m adamantly opposed to even opening the bottles as: (a) there’s nothing wrong with our girl’s health, and (b) the drugs have no English explanation, and (c) I have no confidence whatsoever in my sister in law or her husband. No, that’s giving them too much credit. I think they’re complete morons and incompetent parents. (They left their daughter FT with the grandparents for the first 3 years, rarely visiting, they haven’t done such a swell job since taking her back, and their daughter consequently has serious behavioral problems, but that’s another story.)

Fortunately, my wife recognizes that her brother in law’s a dummie and she has some respect for my healthy suspicion. So I believe she’ll refrain from feeding the unknown, unprescribed, unneeded drugs to our girl until I report back. So that’s why I’m here.

My initial research reveals that antibiophilus, of which they gave us 2 bottles of 250mg capsules is for acute diarrhea. In other words, it’s completely off base; our girl is not suffering from diarhea at all. :loco:

But apparently Taiwanese have a thing for it, as a google for antibiophilus 250mg turns up almost all Taiwan websites:

google.com/search?q=antibiop … &hl=en&lr=

What’s the deal? Why are Taiwanese fixated on this anti-diarrhea medicine?

As for Parasitin, here’s a dealer selling the exact stuff they gave her and what that dealer says about the stuff:

[quote]It is highly likely that you are infected by one or more of over 1000 known parasites. Unfortunately, most parasiticides are highly toxic and specific for only one particular parasite. The ingredients in this Multi-Dimensional formula support the bodies abilities to naturally:

  • Help attack and remove most major gastro-intestinal parasites, including tapeworms, roundworms, flukes and protozoans
  • Help remove the temporary and toxic levels of ammonia secreted by dying parasites
  • Help alleviate any feelings of nausea or headache caused by dying parasites. [/quote]
    discount-herbal-nutritional- … ctions.htm

WTF? Sounds like complete BS. And again, another intestinal disorder elixir? Is this a common fixation of the Taiwanese or a madness particular to my inlaws? :loco:

Now I just hope I can convince my wife to respect my better judgment and inquiry over that of her wacko relatives (always hard to know). Or at least for now I can just throw out the drugs.

16

It’s the same sort of probiotic bacteria that is in yoghurt (not the cheap sugary crap) and is supposed to aid digestion. It’s not dangerous at all but maybe it would unbalance her if taken in high doses? I don’t know if this is a high dose.

If she eats plenty of fruit, vegetables and grains, she DOESN’T have a problem. At a young age, she needs to develop a strong natural gut which cleans itself, not rely on added medications. Healthy kids aren’t full of dangerous parasites.

17

are far as the lactobacilli, it is to prevent yeast infections. I know that in Louisiana we give babies that because of the humid climate. Otherwise they have a tendency to get yeast in the diaper area. Kind of problematic. I somewhat doubt you would need it in the winter, though.

18

When I am seriously ill, with fever , I go to the hospital to see Doc who studied in the States. He prescribes all well known Western medecine.

For a cold, or other small symptons, I ask my GF to go to the Pharmacy.
It is playing like Russian roulette when she comes back with all those different colored pills.

19

Deleted.