Each week we post an article or paper submitted by a member or "silent participant" of Guyana Caribbean Network. The featured article runs from Monday to Sunday each week. To submit an article for feature of the week contact us at admin@guyanacaribbeannetwork.com This week's feature is brought to you by "Dougs".

Take 2 Herbal tonics and call me in de morning. by "Dougs"

I know most of you will be able to relate to this. As a child growing up, I was forced to drink a dose of either castor oil, senna pods or some form of bitters whether carilla, bitter cup or bitter stick every Friday night or Saturday morning for the weekly cleanout or when school would close for the Easter and summer holidays and then again before school reopened. If I only tried to spit it out, was a cut-ass waiting, my mother made sure I swallowed all of it in front of her and when you were done, you had to open your mouth and stick out your tongue to show that you didn't have any leftovers hiding. I grew to dread these events and wanted to know why I had to drink these terrible tasting medicines. My mother said it was good to keep away colds and to clean your blood. My father said, "When you get sick it's not what you eat today or tomorrow that would keep you strong, it's what you were eating all along". "You got to build your constitution up". I wondered what "constitution" was. Every morning was a dose of cod liver oil with honey, SSS tonic or Haliborange. These were for the "constitution" which I later came to realize was your immunity system and not a piece of paper.

As I grew older, I was not prone to the common cold, the most I would get is "growing fever", at least that's what I called it because next day it felt as if you had grown an inch or two. Roasting fever in your skin for a day, then around evening time, it would cool off after drinking your "fever grass" (lemon grass) tea all day long and being rubbed down with Limacol. If I got a headache, maybe I would take a "Whizz" or "panadol" tablet. If I did manage to catch a cold, it was some "Buckleys" in your skin along with whatever concoction my mother boiled up. I don't recall being really sick as I wanted to avoid those medicines at all costs.

Nowadays, every time I turn on the TV, radio, or open a magazine I see so many advertisements for this medicine and that medicine, they have a quick fix for every ache and pain, but with the amount of side effects that you would get from taking these medicines you rather stay with your ache and pain. I smile broadly whenever I hear "de Bush song" by Mighty Sparrow and silently thank my parents for performing those weekly medicine routines on me as it not only gave me nice smooth skin, healthy hair and bright eyes but free moving bowels and a strong immunity system. I try to keep up this routine of drinking bitters or castor oil but not on a weekly basis though I do drink my cod liver oil tablet every morning along with a teaspoon of Malt extract - got to keep the "constitution" going strong.

After becoming a mother, I followed that same routine with my daughter, she has had her fair share of castor oil, cod liver oil and bitters. Now that she is a mother, well it has become a cycle, her daughter now gets the cod liver oil and the tonics, she's too young for the bitters, but some DeWitts worm syrup will work just as well.

Even now when I return home to Guyana on visits, I go to either Big Market or Bourda market and buy my bush to bring back with me. Looking back, I can see why the older folks at home lived up until their late 90's and 100's. They had the natural stuff that they were using and the fresh foods that they were eating. When an older person died, it was actually of old age and not all these sicknesses that you are hearing about. Now it's cancer this and cancer that. You hardly heard of cancers back then (maybe they just didn't diagnose it) and our old folks were running around strong and healthy. Now it's a different story.

In the highly developed countries, holistic or alternative medicine is growing as a medical alternative. A lot of people can't tolerate prescription drugs because of the numerous side effects and so they are looking for other options. These options have created a billion-dollar industry. Just take a look around in those nutrition stores and you will see that are now all selling either in a pill, liquid or powder form most of the bush that we are familiar with and we used to drink.

So for all those good folks out there, who needs an alternative, remember them small days, tek 2 herbal tonics and tell me how you feel in the morning.

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