The current state of the medical system is cause for alarm. No matter where you are in the world now chances are there has been a strain put on the system that is there to protect you. Over run clinics, and a lack of supplies are all taking their toll on the system. A simple trip to the doctor can quickly become a depressing adventure in the world today. This is especially true in areas like the United States where individuals rely on health insurance to visit a doctor.
A collapse of the medical system in these areas often means a collapse of health insurance coverage. Without coverage, a visit to the doctor can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Never mind the costs if you require intensive care. In fact, current reports on pandemic highlight the discrepancies in the health care system, from being under-funded to being over-run… a collapse of the system is not a far-fetched idea in the current global climate.
Related: The Most Common Plants Venezuelans Are Using To Treat Themselves After The Pharmacies Ran Dry
This pandemic shows us how precarious our healthcare system is and reminds us all why need to be prepared for the worst. Do not despair, however, there are things you can do to prepare and many ways that you can take care of yourself should the system collapse.
Build Yourself A First Aid Kit
A good first aid kit is essential. I am not talking about the cheap kits that you can buy at the dollar store. Instead, you should have a solid prepper kit that includes:
Bandages and gauze- Paracord
- Benadryl and Imodium
- Medical Tape
- Saline eye drops
- Safety pins
- Ibuprofen
- Gloves
- Scissors or trauma sheers
- Vaseline
- Hydrocortisone cream
- Antibiotics (Bactrim or Doxycycline)
- Thermometer
- Aspirin
- A good first aid guide
Bandages and gauzeGet An Advanced Supply Of Medicine
Being prepared means being ready for anything. It is possible for you to have the supplies you need if you simply think ahead.
If you currently take medications try to get in to see your doctor or get to the pharmacy for a refill a few days before your prescription ends.
If you can pick up your new prescription even a day or two before you run out, then you can save up a few pills at the end of every month and create an inventory over time. Saving even a few pills now means that you will have a stockpile should you need it later.
Make Your Own Medications
While you may not be able to get all your medications without a doctor, there are things that can help prevent infection or alleviate pain. The following list will help you find natural products that you can use in an emergency.
Natural Antibiotics
Garlic
Garlic is recognized for its preventive and curative properties. It is an effective treatment against many forms of bacteria and is used to treat infections or open wounds.
Garlic can be used when you have an abscess tooth, for example, by placing a cut clove on the infected area and leaving it there to help pull out the infection.
For a look at a study that reviewed the therapeutic effects of garlic, click here.
Honey
A well-known natural antibiotic, people have turned to honey to help heal their wounds and draw out infection for centuries. Even today, doctors use honey dressings to heal the wounds of burn patients.
Related: 23 Survival Uses for Honey that You Didn’t Know About
Echinacea
Traditional healers have used echinacea to heal wounds and treat infections. Echinacea has been shown to kill many types of bacteria and is readily available at health stores or online.
Natural Painkillers
Turmeric
Turmeric, the spice found in curry, contains a compound called curcumin, a known antioxidant that can help with pain, indigestion, or other ailments.
It is used to treat conditions like indigestion, ulcers,stomach upset, psoriasis and arthritis pain.
There are many options for using turmeric including Turmeric tea, Turmeric smoothies, or Golden Milk.
Willow bark
Willow bark helps to treat pain from inflammation. It contains salicin, which is like most over-the-counter pain medications. While people sometimes chew the bark, you can purchase it in a dried form and brew tea to help with pain and discomfort. Willow bark comes with risks, however. Possible side effects include stomach upset, and reduced kidney function, as well as prolonged bleeding. It is also harmful to children.
Related: How To Make Aspirin From Willow Bark
Cloves
Cloves are found in pill, powder, or oil form. You can use cloves to treat a wide range of ailments. They help to ease nausea, treat colds, and treat infection. Cloves have been used to relieve the pain associated with headaches, arthritis, or tooth aches and are often used as a topical pain reliever.
They have a natural ingredient that is also found in some OTC pain rubs, so it is a great all-natural option and should definitively be a part of your preparedness kit.
Heat and Ice
When all else fails heat and ice can help. Applying ice will reduce swelling and heat reduces the stiffness. An ice pack on your head will reduce a headache, and heat helps with arthritis. Always have these items on hand.
There are a lot of options available for treating common ailments. Your best defense is research. Start looking at ways to naturally treat some of the most common ailments and go from there. If you know that you have a specific condition or are likely to end up with a specific injury, you must arm yourself with knowledge so you are ready should the need arise.
The event of a medical system breakdown may have once been an unlikely scenario, but today it is a likely case. The strain of the ongoing pandemic and the precarious state of our current system mean that there will be an eventual breakdown of some kind. It is best to be prepared for the worst-case scenario so that the actual events do not catch you off guard.
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There’s nothing here for so many terrible ailments and devastating diseases which plagued our ancestors and are now irradiated and/or successfully managed by modern day pharmaceuticals. On the bright side, the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals is being brought back to the US. Hopefully, our critical industries are not going to be all screwed up again, leaving us once again truly high and dry.
A good first aid class and a CPR class would always come in handy. Basic medical knowledge and the material needed is usually covered in these classes. However, as time and circumstances change, additions to the first aid kit itself should be updated.
Some cities offer these classes for free or a nominal cost. It could save your life or the lives of loved ones.
If you take a first aid class, don’t bother paying the Red Cross for their first aid class. Unless you have been living in a case and have absolutely no idea how to stop bleeding or how to do chest compressions you won’t learn a thing that you should have picked up from every day living by this stage in your life.
When I was in boy scouts long, long ago, the boy scout merit badge required far more comprehensive first aid knowledge than the simple cub scout first aid that is taught by the Red Cross these days.
If you really want to learn some first aid, take a wilderness responder class. Yeah, it costs a lot more than the $50 or $75 the Red Cross joke costs, but you will be taught some life saving real first aid.
LCC: thank you for posting this! I have family on the snow rescue up in Fraser Valley, CO, and they say the same. niio
LCC, I took Red Cross classes many years ago. Some info was helpful, much was generic to the point of being useless. They also were years out of date with current knowledge. E.G. the incorrect, and very dangerous, teaching of clapping a child on the back to remove a choking object. That one was still being taught by RC 10 years after it was proven to be wrong.
I found out that I have beginning stages of Congestive Heart Failure. I recently read a book about on how a vegan diet can reverse a lot of ailments. So I went vegan. I feel great, I’m losing weight and I can breath better, all without man made medications.
I hate those medications. The doctors have no intention on helping you get well, they want a customer, and the politicians have their hand in the cookie jar, that’s why they made marijuana illegal, it cures you from ailments, but they want you to buy from big Pharma. Do you’re own research, if SHTF, you’ll die, or not.
Lisa – Look into the DASH Diet. It is the one most recommended for folks who have heart,, blood pressure, and lung issues. Compare it to the vegan diet you are on now to see if there are any important nutritional benefits you maybe missing! Then talk to your doctors as well to see what course of action he or she may recommend.
Lisa: If your congestive heart failure was due to a clogged left anterior descending artery, it is not without cause that it is called “The Widow Maker.” I would urge you to follow the cause of your congestive heart failure and assure yourself that your vegan regime really is making a difference and not just a relief of symptoms due to some wight loss.
Having had really significant cardiac problems in the past five years, I have a little first hand experience with the problem. With all the mechanical parts I now have, I am well on the way to being the million dollar man. Only all the parts haven’t given me superpowers yet. I still run like an 18 month old and have the balance of about the same. I don’t, however, still get chest pains when walking up my driveway from the street to the house. And the best part, it used to be every time I stepped on the brake, I could feel the bones grinding on each other in my right knee with concomitant pain. I don’t have that complaint any more after my bionic knee implant. However, I liken it to putting in a new u-joint in an 80 year old car. The clutch, transmission, drive shaft and differential are still 80 years old.
Lisa,
I had an MI in my late 30s. That was 21 years ago. I’ve used the same cardiologist. He does prescribe medication for me, but stresses the importance of exercise and proper diet.
One thing I’ve learned about the vegan diets is that you’re far more prone to bone fractures. “Food” for thought.
You know how you can tell someone is a vegan? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you!
I have no thyroid I have to have synthroid every day to survive. What could I do?
Linda: Donno if this is what you’re looking for, but I hope it helps. niio
https://naturemed.org/faq/how-do-naturopathic-doctors-treat-hypothyroidism/
Call Health Masters, in Polk county, FL. Dr. Broir is an amazing naturopathic help. If there is a regime to help your problem, he will know it and get the product for you! Christian family business, honest and professional. Health Masters online also!
Dessicated thyroid supplement. Also, check out https://eastwesthealing.com/ lots of good natural thyroid healing stuff there from those folks
Ms Peterson, before long people will be sighing that you barely have any information. My take is, READERS ARE THE IN DEPTH PART OF THIS SITE. Thank you for the article! For those less than 1%ers who do not practice naturopathy, this is a beginning.
Garlic: Dried works as well as fresh.
niio
The problem with stockpiling your meds (I take a handful of cardiac medication daily, for example) is that they lose their potency. They’re usually completely impotent after two years.
One help? Get your pills in blister packs instead of bottles if you can. That can extend their life. Not certain how much longer, though.
Wow, you couldn’t be more wrong if you tried.
The Air Force did a study a few years back and found that other then liquids and one type of antibiotic that meds have a shelf life of decades, or longer, and that lost of potency does not occur.
MICoyote – The Army did a Study too a few years back and found the exact same thing. If stored with proper temperature, light exposure and humidity controls, the life span of most drugs is greatly passed the do called best by date with little to no effect on the efficacy of the drug. The only exception is any drug in liquid form. The study can still be found on line with a simple search.
Omega 13, go to the web sites of manufacturers of each medicine you take. There you can find the shelf life for each pill. You can also run a search online for “medicine shelf life” using the name of your medication. Many medicines in tablet or pill form can last for years. I take Amlodipine in tablet form for high blood pressure. Pfizer states on their web site that Amlodipine is good for 4 years, and does not spoil if kept dry, without extreme temperature changes, under 70 degrees, and in darkness. They also state that the medicine does not cause health problems beyond 4 years if suitable modifications to increase the dosage are made to offset the loss of potency. With high blood presure it’s failry easy to know if your meds are working correctly, even with out a pressure gauge..
Once it completely collapses, retired nurses and doctors will be a fine resource. Especially the older ones who don’t rely on pills to fix everything. Not to mention the skills we have will be wonderful bartering for our needs, especially as I am not able to bug out, having a permanent disability. Nothing wrong with my ability to take care of others, thank goodness.
Moral of the story, make friends with your local retired medical professionals. You will potentially save more than one life.
Good Luck. Almost all the medical people I know have been brain washed by the Big Pharma. Young and Old alike.
Spike: Agreed, but in my part of Arizona, most people prefer curanderos, healer. Doctors here are all up on naturopathic healing. niio
Kathysedai -Here in the big city, lots of folks in the medical field live in areas close by to the hospitals where they work, mainly nurses, lab technicians, EMS, or they have what they call crash pads there, mostly surgeons, doctors, and meds students. My neighborhood here is chocked full or medical and emergency services personal.
I have friends who are doctors and nurses. I’m trying to get them to set up Ham radio systems at home so they can offer advice in the future post collapse… eg. no cell phones, TV, internet. My first issue is to convince them of the coming collapse. The last year’s events have awaken many of them to just how fragile our society is. They’ll come around, hopefully before it’s too late.
“A collapse of the medical system in these areas often means a collapse of health insurance coverage. Without coverage, a visit to the doctor can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Never mind the costs if you require intensive care. In fact, current reports on pandemic highlight the discrepancies in the health care system, from being under-funded to being over-run… a collapse of the system is not a far-fetched idea in the current global climate.”
Please explain how the “collapse of the medical system” will invalidate insurance coverage?
I am not sure even what is meant by “the collapse of the medical system.” Are doctors going to blow away in some whirlwind? Are nurses going to suddenly say, “No mas.” and stay away from their jobs? Perhaps some of the more esoteric surgeries will have to be postponed. Perhaps it may be six months before you can get an appointment with a new doctor instead of 3 months. Perhaps it wouldn’t be an auspicious time to change doctors unless there is a very compelling reason.
If you mean an end of the world situation, then come out and say so. The politicians’ solution to this plague so far has been laughably ineffective. Perhaps next they will demand that we march naked through the streets, praying aloud and flogging ourselves with chains. During the Black Plague that was a seriously urged solution to that plague.
And many folks followed that advice and still died.
So if we are talking about somehow hospitals can’t take in all the patients clamoring to get in, there will still be doctors in private practice who will see patients. There will be Physician’s Assistants who will see patients and personally, for any kind of injuries except catastrophic burns or crushing injuries, I would rather be treated by a combat corpsman than most g.p. doctors.
One of the reasons that doctors charge so much for their services is because they get charge-backs from the insurance companies and especially the politically funded “free” programs. MediCal is notorious for being slow pay, bad pay and no pay. At one time for me, any time a California state agency ordered work it was cash up front on deposit before the work started. Payment from the state was so bad that the Division of Highways had set up a secret off the books fund to pay for work they needed because so many vendors were demanding cash up front.
It certainly is well and good to be familiar with folk remedies and to that extent, this article again reiterates some of the more common folk remedy. The only drawback to every folk remedy is that lack of precision in the dosage.
Oh, and with regard to oil of cloves on a toothache, Yes, it will deaden the nerve that is giving you the pain. It won’t cure the decay in the tooth that caused the nerve to give you the pain. And be sure to not get the oil of cloves on your gums or cheek or tongue as it can blister those tissues quite nicely.
Same with garlic, while the garlic may kill the bacteria that are causing the abscess, it will in no way cure the defect in the jaw that resulted from the abscess and will continue to allow bacteria to gain entrance into your subcutaneous surfaces to once again present in the form of pain from an active abscess.
Please don’t confuse relief of symptoms with cure. They are two totally different things.
LCC: Post SHTF, no more insurance. No intensive care. Gangs will likely kidnap medical professionals and hold them to treat their own. As when our father’s were young, country doctors will take foodstuff in lieu of cash and sell bootleg on the side to pay for meds. Under the Hitler health care the dems want, no more meds for us older folks, anyway, or those on disability.
LOL, definitely right on how politicos have treated this plague that isn’t a plague. It’s an excuse and a lot of police chiefs and sheriffs are refusing to arrest people on the command of leftist governors. In fact, one suggested Kali should put out a warrant on Gruesome Newsom for violating his own law of distancing and mask.
Combat corpsman and RNs, no bs to them. Most of them, the older ones, can look at you and know what’s wrong.
Cloves are a hot herbal. They knock off any infection, like that tooth rot. Use too much for too long and it can cause heart issues; it makes the heart skip a beat and eventually stop. 20 years ago I went vegan just to see what would happen. I was hospitalized 4 times and gave it up. While into this experiment, the right lung got an infection. Smoking powdered cloves, a few a day for several days, killed it. Infection in a gum around a bad tooth, mixed some cloves in chew and held it over the swollen place. It was gone the next day. Bronchitis, common in the northeast, happened once or twice each winter. One time it cost me a week of work. After that, I started to smoke cloves when the symptoms came on. No bronchitis. Same for bacterial pneumonia. Any more, I ask what my great-grandfather would do. He was a braukor, an herbalist, who started practicing medicine when the AMA were little more than witch doctors. …Not that they changed all that much.
Garlic kills infection. Tobacco kills infection. A lot of things do. This is how humanity survived and even thrived for thousands of years. Used hot and wet, tea leaves will draw out an abscess and help sterilize it. Salt water (sterilize it) in a wound will sterilize it. Calèndula petals were used to pack wounds on battlefields to prevent infection, and they work. Powdered alum when darkened in a hot pan is supposed to work to prevent gangrene. All in all, the article was right and informative. niio
Red – We don’t have to wait! If Biden gets in they’ll be no insurance. It’ll all be free except for folks like you and me and no one will be making medicine a career choice.
CC: My ins is the VA. Right now, if the VA slumps back towards the Clinton era, Trump’s people nail them for it. Right now, I’m better off than most who were never in the military, but I remember when Carter was in, I took Dad to the Wilkes-Barre, PA VA, and we sat waiting for his appointment for over 12 hours. Under Oama, a cousin studies phlebotomy and when he had to do days at the VA in WB, he said the way things were run and how dirty it was made him puke. Thanks to Hitler health Care. is biden does get in, medicine is cursed. We have a Wicca in town who’s studying wholistic, and I think I better make friends with her 🙂 Well, I am, already. My folks used to say I never met a stranger. then groan 🙂 Stay safe. niio!
I thought this might interest you. https://www.prageru.com/video/americanos-farah-jimenez/
Red, many years go my dad had a hip replacement done at the VA hospital in Alexandria Louisiana. The doctors and nurses were very professional and his surgery was a success. However, the office management was ridiculous. On Thursday he was notified he could check out the next day. Friday morning, he got up early, dressed, and packed his bag, ready to go home. I was there with him from 7am on, periodically asking at the nurses’ station desk when we could be checked out. After his waiting 12 hours, and still no check out, at 6pm I retrieved a wheel chair, got him in it, wheeled him past the nurses’ station and put him in the car. I took him home to my house to stay with us while recuperating. The following Monday a fellow from the VA called my house and told me there could be a problem. He him-hawed about, finally saying “we’ve misplaced your father”. LOL. I let him twist in the wind for a while, then told him my dad was sitting at the breakfast table looking at me as we spoke. I explained about the 12 hour wait to check out. An hour or so later a woman from the VA office staff called me and began to lecture me about “not following proper protocol” in removing my dad without her permission. That was her first mistake. The second one was giving me her name. Dad was treated like royalty when he went back for a follow up visit a month later.
Oracle: That was great. the last few times I was at the Wilkes-Barre VA, the doctors were overbearing and not too swift. When in PA last September, I got nailed by the allergies and serious ear infections. Facing a 2,400 mile drive, I had no choice but to go to a VA clinic. They gave me an antibiotic with potassium. Yeah, how sweet 🙂 But, I used to drive truck. Tank up on coffee and save juice jugs. I took a half-dozen empty ones with me, and a dozen full ones, plus coffee. When I got home, I called and thanked them for helping. Uneventful trip and said but I think I’m a little dehydrated from that potassium. I was and the VA here sent a nasty email to the doc in PA.
Word is that Trump met with the military and one topic was insurrection. He’s supposed to have signed the order. Pray to God he did.
niio!
I’ve never heard about smoking cloves. I have smoked the clove cigarettes but I’m guessing thats not the same thing you’re talking about. Is it good preventative or just for lung infection. Would love to hear more. Blessed to have so much info, especially passed down to you!
Suzi: Cloves are a hot herbal, meaning too much, it can cause heart problems. I do no more than 4 a day for a few days. If I have to use the oil (as for bad teeth), the number gets cut down. I might be a worry wart, but anything should be used with caution. It’s like rosemary. One or two cups of tea will stop (not just mask) food poisoning. More than two and you could get sick from the herbal. It can be used (and is) to prevent food poisoning by restaurants.
BTW, Germany did a study and discovered tobacco smokers only had a 0.01% chance of getting sick with corona, where 36% of non-smokers did. Russia, China, and Japan followed the study and say the same thing. niio
LCC, all logic and reason will be thrown out post societal collapse. Most doctors and nurses only work to pay their bills and gym fees and will stay home when things get really bad. The days of Dr Kildare selling drugs on TV while adorned in his official lab coat are over. We now know that doctors are just ordinary people and not saints dedicated to the good of mankind. Insurance coverage will end long before the banks collapse and chain their doors. Hospitals will close with out paying customers, they’re business ya know.
Oracle: One thing about Mexico, they recognize medicine as a business. A lot of doctors own their own pharmacy. In rural areas they always have a surgery as well. One more thing great, the nation pays doctors’ schooling, then the doctor has to work it off working for the state. Assignment might be a city hospital or some village glued to a mountainside. No one gets away without paying school debts. niio
Red, yes, for many years we used a doctor/pharmacist who had an office and pharmacy near us in Ajijic Mexico. My first visit there for a blood pressure medicine prescription required a thorough physical examination… took about 3 minutes. No further examination was ever required, regardless of the meds needed. ANY medicine could be had. If he didn’t have it in stock he’d order it or write a script for it to be purchased at the big pharmacies in Guadalajara. Funny thing was, not much street dealing of drugs in the small villages. Everyone could just buy it at the private pharmacies at retail cost. Same with marijuana, as I’m sure you’re familiar with, it’s grown in yards, gardens, fields and on balconies. I saw the hard stuff, like black tar heroin being sold within view of cops . Opium was available at the “casa de opio”, a big hacienda lakefront in Jocotepec. A different world.
Oracle: Yeah, pot grows wild all over, but for most, the only ones diving into the dope are non-Mexicans. Most are traditional enough they scorn teens who are abusers. Donno why anyone would buy opioids, either, when the flowers grow in most gardens, and get tapped in case of need. Again, thanks for uptick on iodine. Got a gallon coming. niio
Red, my son’s in-laws are very traditional Mexicans. Good, kind, hardworking, and very honest people. No drugs in that family. Yeah, the opium gum collected from the scored poppy pods only needs to be boiled with water, strained, heated to evaporate the excess moisture, and dried in the sun for a few days and it’s ready as is. Whereas, to get down to the other well-known opioids takes a lot of work and a bit of expertise so as to not ruin the batch. The use of calcium hydroxide and water to acquire calcium morphenate, with which codeine will be carried over is fairly simple. But then adding the perfect amount of ammonium chloride to the morphenate sludge to adjust the alkalinity to a pH of 8 to 9 is tedious, and that is needed to extract a rather crude form of morphine. Further purification by dissolution in hydrochloric acid, the addition of activated char-coal, re-heating and filtering, rinse and repeat, only to find that somewhere along the way it all went to crap, results in most people buying it from a dealer who imported it from Asia in bulk. Sort of like how we buy most of our medications instead of making them ourselves. I won’t discuss the further refining process to achieve black tar heroin from the morphine. That is some soul destroying stuff.
Oracle: I think that’s more than I needed to know, but thank you. Knowledge is power. If there’s something I can help with, but I doubt there is, ask. Bad enough I was taught how to make coke from la coca leaves.
My Maria is in the Tubisi clan. I can’t recall what line her father belonged to. She ranches near Las Sietes Palmas in the Sierra Madre Occidental. Cattle (creollos), some sheep, and brush goats. And kids. Johnny, our son, gave us a half-dozen now, so her family line is assured. They have about 5K hectares, mostly mountain and canyon, but it works. And, it’s not tempting to tzabotsi, bearded demons (outsiders), looking for a cheap ranch to hunt on.
Johnny wanted to build a real house. They want me to come down and I cannot free-climb any more–their home is in a cave partway down a cliff. That’s traditional. They’re all fresh air fanatics. I put my foot down and said no, even a mud shack would tempt some land fraud government official. Aside from that, a house is easy to bomb where the cave isn’t easy to see.
Indians are changing their ejidos, communes, back to private ownership because the PRI kicked thousands of Tohono O’odam off their lands and sold it to Germans and Japanese to build factories. After being self-sufficient for thousands of year, the people were left to starve. It’s a lesson we need to learn. The PRI does nothing without consulting their sister party, the DNC and soros. The DNC wants to outlaw private land ownership. If a mud puddle collects a gallon of water, it’s a wetland. Dems in AZ want to keep ranchers from using even brush in arroyos, though that’s always been emergency feed. I can hear Hillary the Genocidal Beast screaming for them to save money by firing their cattleguards 🙂 Look forward to the fat tax back and all the stupid things Hitler demanded be done. He was an Eco-fanatic/ecofascist.
niio
There was an article here a while back on sugardine, a mix of sugar and betadine to treat open wounds. I think it should be republished once a month, I have not used it but it has a long history with Farriers and there is a lot of info on its effectiveness. Here is an interesting article on it.
https://www.americanfarriers.com/articles/5090-sugardine—a-stinky-gooey-mess-that-works-when-treating-wound-injuries
Read the interesting article about sugardine. That’s okay, but after the world ends, where are we going to find iodine in order to make betadine in order to make sugardine?
The one post left me puzzled. the greeks (lower case) used it to treat battlefield wounds centuries ago. I may be wrong, but I believe it wasn’t until the 19th century that iodine was isolated as an element. If that is the case, I doubt that greeks or Greeks used it as a battlefield wound dressing. I think I have read that they did use tar as a battlefield wound dressing. Tar has some medicinal properties. The Chumash indians used tar from the natural oil seeps present on the central coast of Kallyforniya to treat wounds among other things. Ichthamol ointment which I have used for decades to draw infections and splinters smells just like an open pool of tar and looks like tar. And, whodda thunk, it’s petroleum based.
LCC, you ask, “where are we going to find iodine in order to make Betadine”? In our medical supplies storage. Betadine and iodine are available now, it’s sold by the gallon online, stock up. It lasts for decades if stored correctly. Unless there is a slaughter, a gallon of Betadine should last the average family for many years.
Oracle: got it, thanks.
Mike: One thing to add to LCC’s comments, iodine will evaporate, so it’s useless to store it long term, but man, I was glad to see your article. Most of us are low in micronutrients, anyway. Much thanks! niio
Limited shelf life is a problem for everything, honey or sugar slurry w/o Povidone are still useful for wound treatment. The best advice I read on Povidone is to buy it in single use packets, left sealed they can potentially last 2 years. A true EOTWAWKI will see descendants of survivors struggling to live past 50, and women will go back to the fun of bearing 10 children, for the free labor force, and to insure a few survive to adulthood. The 19th century sucked.
Mike: 10 kids by age 30, no teeth left because of a lack of calcium or too much (too much actually causes the body to flush as much calcium as possible, resulting in dowager hump).
TANSTAAFL, not free labor but kids who earned their keep as young adults. niio
Red, I have iodine in sealed bottles 8-years-old, I don’t see any visible loss from evaporation. Are you speaking of open containers?
Oracle: Sealed, yes. But, iodine has to be cared for or it’s lost.
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=3869&page=2
Red, I store all of my medical supplies and most other perishable items in the original factory sealed containers, in larger sealed and de-oxygenated containers, in total darkness, dry, and at near constant temperatures under 70° F. Smaller containers for regular use are stored the same but may have the seals broken. Degradation of iodine is associated with a fall in pH which might come down to pH = 2, but it will still be functional far beyond the stated 3-year shelf life. As a side note, Iodine can be very dangerous if stored incorrectly. It should NEVER be stored near or even in the same room with acetylene or ammonia. Iodine is not combustible, but is a strong oxidizer that will enhance the combustion of other substances. Iodine reacts violently or even explosively with acetaldehyde, metal azides, metal hydrides, and metal carbides.Iodine forms explosive or shock-sensitive compounds when mixed with lithium, sodium, aluminum powder, and liquid ammonia. Iodine will ignite powdered antimony, magnesium ,and zinc if it gets wet. Nothing like inadvertently turning our storage rooms into a bomb.
Oracle: Sometimes that happening in the storeroom is a good thing.
Here’s some for you. Hope it’s real.
https://www.facebook.com/wademckinney/videos/10217568007693556/
Hi IvyMike,
Thank you so much for your comment.
Here’s the article on how to make sugardine:
https://www.askaprepper.com/how-to-make-antiseptic-sugardine-to-treat-wounds-and-inflammation/
God bless!
IvyMike, using a equal mixture of betadine and fresh honey will clear up an infected wound in just a few days.
Ichthammol ointment/salve is great for drawing out boils or infection from spider bites or other bites.
google it.
My family and I have been using it for over 70 years!
It is black and has a strong odor…. cover with a bandage.
Best thing of all for any bug bite or sting … good ole’ clayish mud. I smear it on and leave it for hours. Almost always, my skin is clear of any affects the next day … or it’s diminished. Putting mud on ASAP has the best effects. I’ve been doing it for years now. It’s better than any store bought med. And .. it’s free.
ROSH, a brewed tea bag works too!
The Bactrim and Doxycycline you listed for antibiotics are not over the counter. Maybe you can get your doctor to prescribe some, but I couldn’t unless I needed them for treatment.
As far as I know, the only OTC antibiotics available are things like Neosporin and Proactiv. Both are topical, not oral.
I’ve bought antibiotics for my “fish” without a prescription. On chewy, most cost less than a copayment for the doctor. Just be sure you are using the correct type for the ailment the “fish” has. And I would also print out a bullet point sheet for each one as a reminder. Fish Aid antibiotics surprised me, they were the exact same ones my doctor prescribed for me. Same exact pill.
“Same pill” ? Do they have the same major brand drug company ID numbers on them? Or are the pills just shaped the same? You have my attention here. I’ve heard of using fish antibiotics, but just brushed it off as being a fringe thing. I’d like to know more.