It's time to remember "What we used to do!"

[Dutto]

As a young lad I virtually lived in the local swimming pool and often picked up "athletes foot" no matter how scrupulous I was with drying between my toes.

I decided that I must have the same problem today (either that or fungal nail infection) so I went on to the Internet and discovered this ...

https://www.boots.com/boots-advanced-footcare-fungal-nail-treatment-solution-4ml-10170874

After my good lady had brought me back to consciousness (apparently she knew the cause when she heard me muttering "Eighteen quid? Eighteen fecking quid?") I decided to look up what we used when I was a lad and discovered this ...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07H3NKJL4/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

... for £2.90!

Soaking both feet, there is enough potassium permanganate in 20 grams to make up 20 solutions strong enough to kill off fungal infections at 14p a time! (BTW, unused crystals don't have a "Use By" date and can be kept in a sealed container without deteriorating!)

I'm sure that, like myself, many of the older Forum Members have effective remedies for a variety of ailments and illnesses that are readily available without us all having to pay through the nose and swell the profits of major corporations.

"Eighteen quid?" I think not!

 

[Gunge]

Epsom salts for constipation and tired feet. Mustard baths for aches and pains. Saline for sore throats / mouth infections. Milk for sore, gritty eyes / conjunctivitis. Olive oil for ear wax. There's loads really.

 

[MyQul]

Bicarbonate of soda and vinegar for unblocking the sink or cleaning the cooker

 

[Clint]

Does it turn your feet purple? I'm just done treating a dodgy finger nail that would grow detached from the nail bed. I had to cut it back to the quick then use a kit I bought to file it,clean it then paint it...no not red! It's taken over 6 months at once a week to sort it out. The kit cost...£23...which I bought with a shopping voucher I had from work.
How long does the other stuff take?
I've had a read up on stuff...the potassium permanganate is great for athletes foot but variable on toe nails. It will give you brown feet. If you have fungal infections in the toe nails there's nothing 100% effective for 100% of cases. Tablets can be given but they hammer your liver and kidneys...creams and other applications have less than 70% success but Lazer treatment is around 80% with one session. Some have used cider vinegar which seems to be very good..
Lazer treatment...both feet £500,finger nails £150 each or hands and feet £1000,repeat treatment £250....

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Caustic soda for removing carbon build up in your two stroke motorbike exhausts (block one end and fill exhaust to the brim with diluted caustic soda), the first time i used it was on an old Suzuki GT 250 (remember when you could ride a 250 on L plates) and i couldn't believe the crap that came out.

 

[Slid]

Does it turn your feet purple? I'm just done treating a dodgy finger nail that would grow detached from the nail bed. I had to cut it back to the quick then use a kit I bought to file it,clean it then paint it...no not red! It's taken over 6 months at once a week to sort it out. The kit cost...£23...which I bought with a shopping voucher I had from work.
How long does the other stuff take?
I've had a read up on stuff...the potassium permanganate is great for athletes foot but variable on toe nails. It will give you brown feet. If you have fungal infections in the toe nails there's nothing 100% effective for 100% of cases. Tablets can be given but they hammer your liver and kidneys...creams and other applications have less than 70% success but Lazer treatment is around 80% with one session. Some have used cider vinegar which seems to be very good..
Lazer treatment...both feet £500,finger nails £150 each or hands and feet £1000,repeat treatment £250....

Not purple, but if it soaks in it turns skin brown. I recall this from childhood chemistry sets that no doubt cannot be given to 9-10 year olds any more, in case they decide to eat the chemicals. Did electro copper plating in the bedroom, etc.

 

[foxbat]

Does it turn your feet purple? I'm just done treating a dodgy finger nail that would grow detached from the nail bed.

Get some leeches on it!

 

[Ajhutch]

Epsom salts for constipation and tired feet. Mustard baths for aches and pains. Saline for sore throats / mouth infections. Milk for sore, gritty eyes / conjunctivitis. Olive oil for ear wax. There's loads really.

My wife has got a big tub of Epsom salts on the side of the bath. She told me it’s supposed to be very reviving but maybe she’s actually bunged right up

A wet towel on the radiator overnight if you have a cold or congestion is a good one, especially good for kids.

It’s not strictly answering the question but I absolutely hate all the premium priced branded cold and flu medicine. I will only buy the cheapest basic paracetamol and l ibuprofen. That’s the active ingredient in the expensive stuff anyway.

 

[terrym]

Bread and dripping anyone (with lots of salt of course). The alternative to dripping was lard. White sugar sandwiches. Treacle sandwiches. Condensed milk sandwiches. Senna tea on a Friday evening to 'clear you out' , I hated it but I was told it was good for me .

 

[Dutto]

With regard to the properties of Potassium Permanganate:

• It's a formidable fungicide for anything that's living and growing on your skin.
• It does turn your skin brown; which is how I know that it is doing its stuff.

A couple of other things that spring to mind are:

• Olive Oil. Heated slightly and poured into someone's ear it can be used to lessen earache, loosen wax build up and even float out insects that have wandered in there. (I remember once complaining about having earache and sister (a trainee nurse at the time) heated up the spoonful of olive oil over a gar ring and poured it into my ear. If nothing else, it stopped me from ever complaining about earache ever again!)
• Mustard Poultices. Used for all kinds of aches and pains or even to relieve a "chesty" cough. Mix the mustard powder into a paste with warm water, smear it on a bit of muslin and then lay it on the patients chest or bandage it on to a joint or muscle that is aching. (A Mustard Poultice was much preferred to a Kaolin Poultice prepared by my Mum and then heated to the consistence of molten lead by heating it up under the gas grill in the kitchen!)

Enjoy and keep 'em coming!

 

[stevic]

Jumpers for goalposts. Isn't it!

 

[Clint]

Til my early teens I had a pound of tripe for my tea on a Friday night. A regular feature was also duck eggs. We'd also have rabbit quite often and I'd always have a trout or ten,in season,from the local river....all caught on the fly that looked mysteriously like worms!

 

[Ajhutch]

My mum had a metal cup in the fridge with fat in it. No matter what was cooking, the fat came out of the cup and went back in afterwards. Does anyone still do that?

 

[Dutto]

......... It will give you brown feet. If you have fungal infections in the toe nails there's nothing 100% effective for 100% of cases. ....

May I ask which catwalk you will be parading along that makes brown feet a "no-no"?

Agreed, fungal infections are murder to get rid of, but a lot of people don't apply a strict enough regime to allow a treatment to work.

 

[Dutto]

My mum had a metal cup in the fridge with fat in it. No matter what was cooking, the fat came out of the cup and went back in afterwards. Does anyone still do that?

I use olive oil for cooking as the dripping from roasted pork or beef is too precious to waste!

After roasting I pour the accumulated fat from the bottom of the roasting dish into a saucepan, add a little water, bring it all to the boil, pour everything through a sieve into a mug, chill the mug in the fridge and then use the resulting dripping (along with the brown jelly that accumulates underneath the fat) on toast with some salt and pepper.

My wife is Scottish and thinks that this is a disgusting habit because apparently they never did that when she was a lass!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

My granddad used to eat trip he also loved peas pudding i hated both.

 

[Victor Churchill]

Bicarb of soda in hot water as a fix for heartburn. Tastes yuk but does the job. And doesn't cost the same per volume as a bog standard gin/vodka, unlike this sticky gloop
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003L78BD2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Lawrence22]

My mum had a metal cup in the fridge with fat in it. No matter what was cooking, the fat came out of the cup and went back in afterwards. Does anyone still do that?

My mother did this too, I had totally forgotten about it till I read this.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

My mam always had blocks of lard in the fridge the chip pan fat only got changed when it looked like used car engine oil.

 

[DavieC]

Fast bike the Suz gt, I had a gt250 x7,I can smell the two stroke smoke! My mother makes
Glycerin,honey and lemonjuice in equal measure ,its a wonder cure for any chest infection,cold, flu ,anything!

Caustic soda for removing carbon build up in your two stroke motorbike exhausts (block one end and fill exhaust to the brim with diluted caustic soda), the first time i used it was on an old Suzuki GT 250 (remember when you could ride a 250 on L plates) and i couldn't believe the crap that came out.

ppl