Thank goodness for the NHS!

Apart from one serious glitch that threatened my health, the NHS has been
wonderful. For me, their greatest achievement was eradicating diseases such as polio by vaccination. I remember children disappearing from school due to polio. They were often sent to centres hundreds of miles from home. Vaccination greatly reduced the death rate from diptheria, smallpox, measles etc.

These are two of the self-help medicines our forebears relied upon.

"Seidlitz powders is the generic name under which a commonly known laxative and digestion regulator was marketed and sold by numerous manufacturers under names such as "Rexall Seidlitz Powders", particularly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries."


"Since the 1890s, cascara sagrada has been listed on the U.S. Pharmacopeia, which contains standards for medications and supplements. It received initial approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use as an over-the-counter (OTC) laxative for constipation. However, the FDA reversed that approval in November 2002 due to concerns about long-term safety and the lack of research on its effectiveness."


I particularly like the fact that though a tonic laxative, it nevertheless has no unpleasant side-effects!