Toothache is a fact of life. This means it can affect everyone in the family, from the new baby, Doli, to granny Bibi and all the family members in between. This presents a problem for you and your medicine cabinet. You like to be prepared so rather than having a lot...
The odd ache and pain is a fact of life which means that most people have one or other over-the-counter (OTC) painkillers in the medicine cabinet. The question is: which one to choose and why? Especially when people tell you that paracetamol and ibuprofen are the same...
With the festive season done and dusted, Rafiki’s New Year’s resolution involves getting fit. Again. Money’s tight, so he’s not going back to the gym. Instead, he’s going to start walking and hiking. These are exercise activities he can do alone or, best of all, with...
It’s been a long day at work, and you have a splitting headache. The kids are yelling, and supper must just, somehow, have to miraculously arrive on the plates. And you have to check their homework. The solution, you do know, is paracetamol, but which one? The...
The universal truism, there’s a first for everything, applies to a lot of things in life. Things we look forward to, and things we don’t. Some things, though, we simply have no control over. One thing that females have no control over, is their period. Mandi has...
For many parents, their children’s adolescence gives them headaches. However, the reality is that adolescence can also give teens headaches, too! Before we get to the specifics of headaches in adolescents, let’s look at a brief summary of what headaches are, and how...
Many women, like Mandi, who suffer from really, really bad period pains just want to curl up and die. The last thing they think will help, let alone feel like doing, is exercise. As a rule, we should listen to our bodies, but sometimes not. There is new research that...
For many people who menstruate, their hormonal cycles have an enormous impact on what happens in their daily lives. To cope they often keep a calendar. Sometimes women know the signs that their period is coming and sometimes they don’t. One of the reasons that some...
We met Mandi when we discussed what period pain feels like. When she told us her story, she mentioned in a matter-of-fact way, that when she “saw the blood in my panties, I realised that my periods had arrived”. At the time, she didn’t mention three things. Firstly,...
Pregnancy can be a confusing time. Usually, and for most women, the first sign that they are pregnant is when they miss a period. This also means that most women don’t expect to have any bleeding when they are pregnant. Best of all for some, they don’t experience...
Spring and the change of seasons often bring a dose of the sniffles with them. Sometimes, it’s difficult to decide whether you have hay fever or developing a cold. Simply, when you catch a cold, you’ve been infected by either a rhinovirus (which means nose1) or a...
When most people get scratchy or sore throats, they often do one of three things: ignore it, believing it’ll go away, head for the home remedies or open the medicine cabinet, and only head to the doctor if their sore throat doesn’t get better. What causes a...
There’s a mid-70’s song from Paul Simon that talks about Fifty Ways to… in this case, …leave your lover. When we think of different ways to take medicine, we tend to think about medicines we swallow like liquids or syrups and pills. There are other methods and...
Before we look at how much paracetamol you can take or give your child, let’s briefly summarise what it is: paracetamol is the common name for a painkiller that you can buy from the pharmacy to treat mild to moderate aches, pains and fever. Sometimes it is combined...
Women indeed get more headaches than men, and one of the reasons for this is hormones. So, this is a long way of saying, yes, periods can cause headaches. Before girls and boys get headaches for about the same amount of time until they reach puberty. When girls start...
Paracetamol is the generic name for a medicine that you can buy over the counter to treat mild to moderate pain and fever. In the United States and Japan, it is also known as acetaminophen. You can buy paracetamol or acetaminophen from different brands like Tylenol...
Nuru’s come home from school, running a bit of temperature. “Ma, my head is sore,” she whines. “Oh, dear,” you think to yourself,” she’s probably caught a cold that’s going around.” On top of that, she’s making everybody miserable with her whining. Especially you...
All mums hate it when their babies get sick and have a temperature. A fever is the body’s natural way of fighting infections, so a temperature isn’t always something to worry about. However, in very tiny babies – under three months old – if your baby has even the...
Not all women experience pain when they menstruate – have their periods. Some pain or discomfort when you have your period is not uncommon. What is a period? Women have periods roughly once a month as part of the menstrual cycle and this is when they bleed from...
We talk in general terms about headaches, what they are, and how to deal with them here, but headaches in small babies and small children deserve special attention. In this article, we will look at the symptoms and causes of headaches in children before the hormonal...
Pregnancy, for most women, is a very happy time. It does, however, come with a number of worries. One of these is about being sure that any medication you take will neither harm the baby nor cause you to miscarry. In reality, pregnancy does come with the odd ache and...
Women have been menstruating – having periods – for as long as history. In many cultures, a girl’s first period is an important rite of passage and marks her transition to womanhood. For centuries, what girls and women knew about menstruation and their own...
Whether it’s sharp and sudden or dull and constant, tooth pain is difficult to ignore. This kind of pain in the teeth or surrounding areas, like the gums or jaw, is often caused by some kind of dental disease or ailment. These are commonly the result of poor or...
Over half of women who menstruate experience period pain for around one to three days each month. While many will also experience headaches and other discomforts during this time, the term “period pain” is specifically used in relation to the aches caused by menstrual...
There are several types of migraines, and many of them share some of the same symptoms which can vary in intensity and typically include nausea, vomiting and dizziness, as well as sensitivity to touch, smells, and light. Some unfortunate people will experience...
Most people will experience a form of backache at some point during their lives. This type of pain can be uniquely complex and difficult to diagnose and treat. This is because there are many different reasons for discomfort and a wide range of treatments that may or...
A fever is a temporary increase in your body temperature, often due to an illness. Having a fever is a sign that something out of the ordinary is going on in your body. This is because your body’s normal average temperature is around 37°C. However, the exact...
Did you know that tension-type headache is the most prevalent neurological disorder worldwide with over 2 billion suffering from this headache.1 Unfortunately, even though these types of headaches are common, frequent tension headaches can have a very negative effect...
Many women consider cramping and pelvic pain to be signs that their period is on the way and will reach for trusted over-the-counter painkillers like Cipladon effervescent paracetamol. However, these symptoms, which are commonly considered to be period pains, can also...
Paracetamol is a widely-used over-the-counter medicine that’s effective for the treatment of fever and mild to moderate pain. Given its ubiquity, it’s common for it to be thought of as unreservedly safe. However, as with any medicine, paracetamol needs to be used as...
Joint pain is often associated with ageing and around one-third of adults experience some degree of pain in their joints every month. And while knee, shoulder, and hip pain are the most common sources of complaints, this kind of pain can affect any joint in the body...
Migraines are more than just strong headaches. While the underlying causes of migraines are somewhat nebulous, it is commonly thought to be a debilitating neurological condition that can be passed on genetically. While this is a common phenomenon, migraines are a...
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