Speeding up a mediumtext search its sloooowww

I have a myisam table that has a mediumtext its so incredibly slow. I am on a dedicated server but not have access to edit the mysql back end settings.
1. the count distinct takes about 60 seconds
2. tmp copy table takes about another 60 seconds. I am using left join. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or suggestions? Even if I set a index on the column of say 300 it speeds it up by a few seconds but it still so slow. Any pointers would be appreciated.

thank you


EDIT: this is a mysql database.. I just realized its sort of in the wrong category.

 

If it helps any I found if you do a match against then it shaves off some time.. but its long..

 

How much RAM does the server allow to use?

What's the size of the table / index that you are querying?

Can you post the query you are using?

 

Actually I just removed a bunch of AND's that weren't being used there was a list of 10.