CAN I take paracetamol or ibuprofen if I'm on antibiotics?

Sometimes, an infection may cause you pain and discomfort.

Although antibiotics will help to clear your infection, they will rarely provide you with any pain relief.

You may therefore want to take some kind of painkiller to help relieve your symptoms. Paracetamol is one of the safest painkillers, and rarely causes side effects.

It is safe to use paracetamol at the same time as taking antibiotics.

Taking these two medicines at the same time should not cause any problems.

However, you must make sure that you carefully follow the dosage instructions provided by the manufacturer for both your antibiotics and paracetamol.

The only antibiotic, which is an exception to this rule, is isoniazid.

A small number of reports suggest that taking this antibiotic with paracetamol may increase the risk of liver damage.

Therefore, you should always consult your doctor.

Children should never be given paracetamol whilst being treated with isoniazid. Your pharmacist can help with all questions about medicines.

Information on pharmacy opening hours can be found on http://www.nhsinform.co.uk/

I RECENTLY burnt my arm on steam from the kettle. It turned into a blister and was painful. How can manage the discomfort ?

A burn occurs when something very hot or an irritant such as a chemical comes in contact with the skin and damages it.

You may have heard about full thickness or partial burns and this depends on how deeply the burn affects the skin layers.

The best thing to do first when you burn yourself is first cool the skin using cool or tepid water for between 10-30 minutes.

Ideally you should do this as soon as you burn yourself.

Cover the burn using cling film. A clean, clear plastic bag is suitable to use for burns on your hand.

If the burn is painful, you can also take a mild painkiller such as paracetamol or ibuprofen.

Do not interfere with the burn or break any blisters.

If the burn is very painful or gets worse, call NHS 24 on 111 or visit your GP for advice.

If you have a chemical burn then make a note of the chemical and tell the person you speak to what it was in case it needs special management.

WHAT is Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome?

Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome is a heart condition that causes the heart to beat irregularly fast for periods of time.

It's a relatively common condition, affecting between one and three in every 1,000 people.

Those with WPW syndrome will experience episodes where their heart unexpectedly starts racing before stopping, or abruptly slowing down.

Symptoms during a typical WPW episode can include fluttering heartbeat, light headedness, shortness of breath, and chest pain.

Each episode typically lasts for hours, minutes or seconds, in rare cases they can last for days.

A GP will assess you symptoms to identify the potentiality of WPW.

If the condition is suspected, an electrocardiogram (ECG) will be undertaken, and you will be referred to a cardiologist to confirm the diagnosis.

In many cases, episodes of an abnormal heart beat associated with WPW are harmless and calm down without any treatment.

If your cardiologist recommends treatment, there are a number of treatments to help stop, calm down, or prevent episodes from occurring.

These include lifestyle changes regarding strenuous exercise or alcohol intake, daily medication to help prevent episodes or catheter ablation, a procedure used to destroy the extra part of the heart causing the problems.