Your tried and tested medicinal tips!

Tm02 - your vitamin story just reminded me of something that happened to me when I was a teenager. I started to get frequent headaches which evolved into one permanent headache lasting weeks. I was also lethargic and getting very moody. Ok, I know all teenagers are moody, but I was getting much more moody than normal, to the point where I was even annoying myself.

I decided enough was enough and went to the doctors. He did a quick examination and concluded I was anemic. This surprised me because I was eating well and I had colour in my face, but I went along with it and took the iron tablets I was prescribed. Very quickly I started to feel much better. The headache had gone, my energy was back, and I was no longer in a permanent bad mood.

It just goes to show how the simplest little things can have such a profound effect on your health.

 

I'm so sorry to hear of all of you that have suffered with this. The thing that annoys me is when people say they have 'flu' or now 'swine flu' and are fibbing (to put it nicely). Yes a cold or cough can knock you back, I know that but flu or swine flu can be really debilitating. I know a couple of youngsters that said they had it but were off in a day living it up - what a load of rubbish and if they did get the tamiflu they said they did then they were taking it from someone that needed it:(

Jazmine, I have heard of a bad reaction to tamiflu too. Shame but I'm sure it happens with a lot of cures so just glad your daughter is well now.

Touch wood we haven't had anything and are going to have our flu injections (plus pnuemonia) next week.

I like some of the suggestions on here, good to know thanks.

cheers

 

Thankyou everyone for your interesting comments.
Hi Borrowers, I get the flu jab because of other health probs but don't get the pneumonia jab-
my mum and dad get it thank goodness as my mum had a stroke last year. Touch wood dad seems healthy for his age.

I know what you mean about people saying they have had flu or swine flu but all they have had maybe is a cold.
They will know alright if they do get it.
I looked in the supermarket and was astonished at all the different vitamins etc you can buy today. There are tonics too - I remember having tonics more when I was younger and they tasted vile :hehe:

The thing by my bed is called a vaporiser and it is very good because you can either put menthol pads in or lavender relaxing pads.

 

Wow, Jaz those vaporizers take me back. There was one called wrights vaporizer which held a pumise stone where you put the oil and you lit a night light candle underneath. They stunk the house out but they worked wonders 02

 

I never heard of those Takemore- how interesting!
We never had the luxury of cough medicines when we were young-we got a spoonful of sugar and vinegar [sweet and sour for some reason] I can't say if it worked or not :hehe:

When I last looked in the chemists I was amazed at all the different vitamins and supplements you can get now. My OH snores and jiffles at night so I got him some herbal sleep tablets

 

Your herbal sleep tablets tale just reminded me of something. On one of my attempts to give up smoking, I went to what I affectionately call the witches shop. It is a proper old fashioned independent herbal shop run by an extremely knowledgeable old(ish) woman.

I told the witch (the old woman) that I wanted to give up smoking, and said that the biggest issue for me when I start getting withdrawal symptoms is that I become very physically tense. She sold me two products. I had to take a few drops of a potion mixed in water every time I felt the urge to smoke, and I had to take Valerian root capsules every time I got unbearably tense. Both worked to some extent, but alas not fully as I still smoke.

One night the tension and the craving hit me at the same moment, so I took both the potion and the valerian root at the same time. Within minutes I was overwhelmed by tiredness and quite literally struggled to make it upstairs to bed. I don't remember pulling the duvet over myself, or anything else for that matter until I work up feeling more awake and alive than I have in years. Since then I've taken both together a few times if I want a really good sleep, and it has worked every time.

The truth is I was probably poisoning myself. The witch did tell me not to take both at the same time, and never to drive or operate machinery while on either. Looking at the ingredients of the potion, it contains extract of nightshade and various other herbs I know to be toxic in high doses, but then tobacco is toxic too so I guess it balances out.

Incidentally, when I refer to 'the witch', I don't mean that in a bad way. She is a lovely woman, but quite eccentric, and with enough knowledge of her herbs to get her hunted down and burned if she'd lived a couple of hundred years ago.

 

the witch :lollol: it means "wise woman"