Painkillers

Paracetamol relieves fever and pain but does not reduce inflammation. 

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) reduce fever and inflammation and relieve pain; ibruprofen can be bought over the counter, works faster than, and lasts longer than paracetamol and is just as effective in reducing fever. 

For toothache, a paracetamol / ibruprofen combination was most effective (e.g. Nuromol).

Baking Bread

When baking bread, put some ice cubes in an ovenproof serving dish in the bottom of the oven to create a steamy atmosphere and get a better bake.

Restless Legs

Restless leg syndrome affects one in 10 people and can make night-times a misery. Symptoms come on at night or if you're sitting cramped up and usually affect both legs. It may be hereditary. Here are some ideas that may help relieve the symptoms.

• Cooling your legs down can both prevent and relieve symptoms. Try a 5 to 10 minute soak in cold water before bed.
• Try cutting out caffeine and alcohol, especially in the evenings. Caffeine is found in coffee, tea, some cola drinks, and chocolate.
• Check wether medicines are causing the problem. A number of tablets, ranging from antihistamines and anti-depressants to blood pressure treatments can cause restless legs.
• Other possible causes are conditions such as iron deficiency or kidney problems. See your GP if symptoms persist.
• Up to one in five women get restless legs in pregnancy. The symptoms usually go away after the birth of the baby.

[Good Housekeeping July 2013]

Don't Flush Wet Wipes

Manufacturers are unfortunately marketing wet wipes as flushable, but in fact these products cause blockages in the sewerage network and, at times, sewage flooding inside homes. If you haven't suffered this, just imagine what it is like to have smelly water coming up the plug in the kitchen, or in the bath, or the toilet overflowing - not only disgusting but unhygienic.

And it's not just wet wipes. People are also flushing other inappropriate items down the toilet (or in some cases down the kitchen sink) and if they don't experience any problems, they don't realise they are causing problems for other people.

So the following items should be disposed of (appropriately wrapped if needed) in household refuse bins.

• Wet wipes
• Disposable nappies and incontinence pads
• Women's sanitary products (pads and tampons) - and condoms
• Cooking fat (mop up with kitchen roll and wrap before putting in the bin)

Wessex Water deals with around 1,000 blockages a month, many caused by flushing the wrong items down the toilet or put down the sink. Even if the items make it as far as the sewage treatment works, it still has a huge impact. All this can be avoided if the items are put in the bin instead.

Update 2016: Freshu is an antibacterial foam that can be applied to toilet tissue as an alternative to wet wipes, while fat traps (e.g. http://lessmess.co.uk/ and http://www.fat-trap.co.uk/) collect cooking fat.

Wessex Water has written to all leading supermarkets in the UK and manufacturers to raise concerns by the water companies and customers about problems caused by 'flushable' products.

Wessex Water Magazine Autumn/Winter 2013

Lemon Ice Cube Slices

Slice some lemons and open freeze the slices, then bag them. Add to drinks instead of an ice cube plus a lemon slice. Keeps for 6 months.

Cleaning Pots and Pans

If you have a pan with baked on deposits, fill with hot water to cover the stubborn areas, add 1 tablespoon of biological washing powder or a dishwasher tablet, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Leave to soak for a few hours, after which it will be easy to clean.

Oven needs cleaning? Loosen grease and grime in your oven before cleaning by putting an ovenprrof bowl of water on the top shelf and heating the oven.

Fluff up your towels

Towels can get hard and stiff when washed. When you dry yourself, hard water and soap residues cling to the towel and normal washing doesn't always remove these residues, so they gradually build up.

To get back soft, fluffy towels, soak them overnight in a water softener such as Calgon, then wash as normal, ensuring you use sufficient detergent.

Fabric conditioner added softness, but if used regularly it reduces the absorbency of towels, so use it only every three or four washes.

After washing, shake towels out really well before placing in a tumble dryer or on an outdoor washing line.

Tumble drying tends to fluff up towels better than line drying but either way, take care not to over dry.

Keep your washing machine running smoothly by running it empty on its hottest cycle once a month with a dose of Calgon or a cup of distilled white vinegar in the detergent drawer, to remove any limescale and mineral salt build-up.

Bamboo towels (30% cotton and 70% bamboo) are three times as absorbent as cotton towels. Launder before use on a delicates wash.

Good Housekeeping 2013 and 2019

Making a Crumble?

Make twice as much topping as you need, then freeze half. It can be pulled out of the freezer, sprinkled on the fruit and put straight into the oven - no need to defrost.

Good Housekeeping, 2013

Sleep Well

Here are some tips on getting to sleep and having a good night's sleep.

1. Have a regular bedtime. Don't go to sleep with the lights on or watching TV.

2. Gentle exercise from 3 to 6 hours before bedtime will help you sleep; closer to bedtime can make it harder to sleep.

3. Warming your body with a hot bath or shower two hours before bed can help induce sleep, as long as there's time to cool off afterwards. Body temperature plays an important role in regulating
circadian rhythms and heating your body up actually helps it to cool down more quickly, preparing you for sleep.

4. Avoid coffee, tea, cola (and nicotine if you still smoke) and heavy meals just before bedtime.

5. You can read for up to 30 minutes after getting into bed, but no longer. If you don't drop off within half an hour (on going to bed or after waking in the night) go into another room and read a book or watch TV until you feel sleepy.

6. Try muscle relaxation exercises or deep focused breathing. Practise daily for 10 minutes before trying out in bed.

7. Decide how many hours you want to sleep (e.g. 7 hours) and then concentrate on 7 things you can see, 7 things you can feel and 7 sounds. Now close your eyes and recall them. This blocks intrusive thoughts for the rest of the night.

8. Get up at the same time every day (even after a bad night) - if necessary use an alarm clock.

9. As soon as you get up, go outside for 10 minutes. Sunlight tells your body its time to wake up and will set your body clock to tell you to go to sleep around 16 hours later.

10. The more sunlight you are exposed to during the day, the higher the output of the hormone melatonin at night. Melatonin enhances sleep and we produce less as we get older - which is why adults have more sleep problems than children.

11. You can take a nap in the day, but it must be before 3pm and for no longer than 45 minutes.

12. Not everyone can sleep well with the same duvet all year round. The tog rating tells you how warm it will be on a scale from 1 to 15. Typically 13.5 tog is designed for  winter and 4.5 tog for summer. Some duvets can be attached/detached to give different tog ratings. If you and your partner can't agree on one rating, consider a split tog duvet.

13. Over time, duvet fillings lose their springiness and ability to trap air to help you maintain a comfortable body temperature. The Sleep Council recommends a change of duvets every five years, depending on quality.

14. Duvets need washing every few months; at least twice a year. This is especially important for people who suffer from asthma or other respiratory ailments in order to keep dust mites at bay.

Various sources

Grapefruit and Medication Interactions

Grapefruit and its juice (along with Seville oranges and limes) contain chemicals that prevent enzymes in the gut from working properly, with the result that more medicine is absorbed by the body. This can result in overdoses and serious side effects.

Taking one tablet with a glass of grapefruit juice can be like like taking five or even ten with a glass of water. There are currently 43 medications (March 2013) that can react with the juice. Almost all of these are available on prescription (they include statins, blood thinning medications and painkillers), so you should receive information from your GP (and your medication's leaflet) about the risks. If you are concerned about your medication, speak to your doctor or pharmacist.

What's this blog all about?

I was always making notes on scraps of paper about tips and facts I'd read in books and magazines, seen on the Internet or on TV. So this is my paperless filing system for all those bits of information I want to access easily. What information? It could be anything that interests me, so it's going to grow over time and branch out in different directions. 

Since it depends on me coming across a new fact, I won't have a regular posting schedule. However, initially I have a hoard of bits of paper to transfer, so there should be new facts on a reasonably regular basis. I'm happy about this since the blog is primarily for me to keep track of this information. If someone else comes across the blog and finds it useful that's a bonus.

I'll try and record where and when I found the facts, but in the past I haven't always noted this.