MEDICAL MATTERS

[EileenDavid]

Can't remember the Parkinson's pink pills. Our corner shop had alsorts of weird and wonderful potions. Parkinson's was very popular didn't they do an ointment called Germ Ointment smelt exactly like Germeline. The shop also sold a foot rub called Pickles dancing feet it was wonderful. My grandma used to use a heat rub called Buxton Rub this was prior to Fiery Jack.

I am sure you could by anything in the shop Eileen

[Stanley]

And before 1920 Dangerous Drugs Act Laudanum......
I think I should re-post Drugged to Death.

[EileenDavid]

Dave always reckoned poets of the day were on some good stuff with the laudenum for example" I wondered lonely as a cloud!!" I read somewhere that artist Branwell Bronte also liked it together with his brandy. Eileen

[Stanley]

Queen Victoria must have been full of it! Read drugged to Death.......

[EileenDavid]

A friend of mine has been struggling with pain for years with Psoriasis all over her legs and arms. She is now completely clear of the horrid scaly skin and sores which have plagued her for over 40 years. What is the cure 10+ manuka honey first being smeared all over the effected area's and now taken everyday is keeping it at bay. Also supposed to be good for your joints and tasty with it on porridge.

Eileen

[Stanley]

Honey is wonderful and little understood. Many uses in old fashioned medicine from wound dressing to cough cures. There used to be a bloke about round West Marton fifty years ago who had been written off by the medics because of severe arthritis. For some reason he decided that enormous amounts of honey would be a good thing. Got a seven pound tin and stayed on it the rest of his life. He rode a bike round and that's how so many of us knew him. Luck or inspired medication?

[Stanley]

I'm happy to report that my strategy of ditching the pain-killers for my legs has worked. The improvement has been gradual but I realised yesterday that I have got to the stage where, despite some residual pain, nobody watching me walk would guess that I had a problem. Wonderful!

[Stanley]

Update on me legs. Still off painkillers and much better now but I think I have to resign myself to the fact that I'm in the same boat as Richard Attenborough. I heard him being interviewed and he said that now he was over eighty he found that after half an hour's walk he was glad to sit down as the pain was starting to kick in. Very reassuring! I am not alone. No problem, I can still get my fresh air and have a set-off if I feel like it.

[Stanley]

I think me knees etc. have got about as well as they ever will be. As many of you know I don't like pain-killers but have to admit that of late I've been taking a 'wimp's aspirin' each morning, an 80mg aspirin coated with enteric protection. Usually used as a prophylactic against heart attack, one of these does the trick and stops the spasm in my back (which is the root of my problem) before it starts. My system is so sensitive to drugs that this is enough. Something to with my diet I think, I must be as detoxed as anyone!

[EileenDavid]

Stanley,

My mam was bad with her knees and so is Dave (ex Joiner) mam swore by cod liver oil and Dave 10+ manuka honey. When Dave's were really bad he was given some Volterol he was sceptical but he put it on before going to bed and touch wood he's had not problems since. Cold damp weather doesn't help though does it. Eileen

[Tizer]

My dad read in his Daily Express recently of a man who has put six 2p coins in the sole of each of his shoes to alleviate his arthritis. Dad said he's going one further than the man - he's going to put a 10 quid note in each shoe just to make sure it works!

[Stanley]

Thanks for the advice! I remember once reading an account of a West Country hunting parson who got through two bottles of brandy a week. He reckoned he drank one and a half and the rest was divided between his hounds and pouring in his riding boots, he reckoned it kept his feet warm!
Eilleen, I drink enough cod liver oil to oil the workshop! I'll give some though to the honey.

[Tardis]

Facilitate shared decision making, offering genuine choice for all treatment options

Taken from actual NHS documents

[EileenDavid]

Is the coppers in the shoes the same principle as the copper bracelets that people wore. I still see some people wearing them. Mam tried them as well, never knew her going to the doctors though. Died at the age of 95 and still not taking any medication. The 10+ manuka honey is expensive in most of the supermarkets but Aldi have some at around the £4 mark. How about the treatment for bad backs. My dad came home with siatica when I was young, said he couldn't afford to take time off work with all the mouths to feed so got mam to iron his back over brown paper. Should have been the old flat iron but the team did it with the electric iron so instead of going cooler it went hotter. We have laughed about it for years. Eileen

[Stanley]

I knew an old flagger who suffered from what was an occupational hazard, a bad back. When it got too bad he and his wife used to go down to the pen and she nettled his back by beating him with a bunch of nettles. I think the irritant in nettles is formic acid and so this was the same as the old Roman treatment of allowing bees to sting the affected part. Irritants like this were a staple cure in folk medicine and probably one of the reasons it worked was by increasing blood circulation in the affected area. That would be how the brown paper worked as well I think. 'Blistering' horse's legs used to be common and old Mrs Hanson once cured my carbuncle using Diatherm which was a horse medicine and did the same job.

[Stanley]

Isn't it funny how a long term problem like me knees and back can suddenly improve for no apparent reason. I'm enjoying a better spell at the moment and while I am trying to identify why it has happened, I am quite content to enjoy the respite!

[Tizer]

Yes, the copper in the shoes was simply an extension of the copper bracelet idea Eileen - someone who'd heard about the bracelet and wanted to treat his feet. If using copper objects to treat arthritis ever has success I would expect it to be due to a placebo effect. If copper metal in contact with the skin could reliably cure or relieve arthritis pain then there wouldn't be anyone suffering from arthritis, it would be so simple to cure that all sufferers would use copper.

[Whyperion]

I think the modern copper amount in 1p and 2p coins is quite small , if any , due to cost. As its illegal to melt down my old farthings and ha'pennys for metal content I wonder if there is a market for selling them at some inflated price.

[David Whipp]

Tom has a rather fine sore on his face near his mouth. I'd put it down to being some sort of adolescent eruption and politely ignored it.

Last night, however, the story of how Tom got his sore came out...

At the risk of attracting attention from ambulance chasing, no win no fee lawyers, I'll recount the snippet.

Me and Alison have always stood firm on the kids having school meals, no matter the pleas and protestations that everyone else is eating packed lunches.

The system at the high school is that you put credit onto a pupil's account and they choose their meals from the cafeteria. Whenever I've checked, there's always been a reasonable choice for veggies.

Tom's choice on Friday included a cheese pasty.

No doubt such incidents are 10 a penny for folk more worldly wise than me, but biting into the pastry, Tom squirted molten cheese onto his cheek, leaving him with the first cheese pasty burn I've heard of.

I doubt Tom reported the matter and would wish to spare folk the re-writing of the risk assessments, display of 'Warning, these pasties are hot' signs' or a reduction in temperature of the offending hot plate, but is the lesson learned by Tom worth a wider warning to unwary pasty eaters?

[Tizer]

Living in the south-west as I do we all regard the dangers from eating hot Cornish pasties as well worth the risk (treatment usually involves a liberal application of cider). Mind you, if he will eat those ones contaminated with cheese then that's asking for trouble. (NB the window fitters who worked in our house last week ate Cornish pasties for their breakfast.)

[Tripps]

I would guess they were heated in a microwave oven, and being high fat, the cheese became hotter than the case would lead you to suspect. Macdonalds apple pies are another delicious, but high risk food

[Stanley]

Just one small thing, I have suffered from cold sores all my life (although as I get older they seem to have gone away) and two things would trigger them, a sharp blow round the lips or cheese, cauliflower cheese was deadly! I have a friend who did a lot of research into Herpes and she told me that this was quite common. She also said that the only easily available pain relief for them was Paracetamol because it acted directly on the nerves.
On another matter, I have been experiencing what feels like the onset of a cold but I'm pretty sure it's a reaction to the annual flu jab 14 days ago. Whatever strain it's aimed at must be one I am sensitive to. A small price to pay....
Have you noticed the news about the increase in Whooping Cough? There was an interesting interview on R4 a few days ago and the researcher said that it wasn't because people were avoiding immunisation but simply a natural spike and that the carrier for the infection was adults who are hardly affected but can pass it on to babies and the young.

[Tardis]

Had my flu jab Tuesday, and the top of my arm was quite sore yesterday. Today it is a dull ache

Much rather have it though and save the trouble of the NHS looking after me if I got flu.

[Tizer]

I usually get slight cold-like symptoms shortly after my annual flu jab but this year I was given the flu jab in one arm and the pneumonia vaccine in the other. About 24 hours later I had severe pain in the gut and had to lie down until it went away. I suspect it was an autoimmune response due to my gut lining having some similar molecular structure to the components of the pneumonia vaccine which contains polysaccharides from about 20 strains of pneumonia. At least you don't have to be given the pneumonia jab every year!

[Stanley]

This year's flu jab gave me mild cold-like symptoms which lasted over a fortnight. Must be a strain I am vulnerable to and augurs well for this winter's protection! Last winter the jab failed me, I had a proper dose of old-fashioned flu!