The Basics Of Medical Preparedness

In a world rife with ready access to affordable pharmaceutical medicines and professional medical care, many people worry about how to handle their medical needs in an emergency or after a serious catastrophe when SHTF.

Even those who enjoy robust good health or the vigor of youth should be prepared to handle basic medical emergencies if necessary. Fortunately, most of the supplies you need to be prepared are compact and can be stored in a relatively small kit.

First and foremost, if you or anyone in your family has a life-threatening dependence on a specific medication, you should do all that you can to stock up on that medication.

Most medications will last at least 3 – 6 months, so if you can stock up on a supply of medication to last that long and then continually cycle through it to keep it fresh, that’s a good place to start. Not all doctors can or will write extra prescriptions for medication, but some will. In any case, try to stock a bare minimum of a 2-week supply of critical medications.

An alternative to pharmaceutical medications may be to wean yourself off of them in lieu of herbal alternatives or through adaptations to your diet. Changes to the types and amounts of medication that you take should only be carried out under the supervision of a qualified doctor, but many people have been able to find relief for their medical conditions via herbal means and even through specific nutrient supplementation.

medical_pA standard emergency medical kit should also contain most, if not all, of the following items:

– An emergency tourniquet or cuff to stop major blood loss from an extremity;
– Hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol and/or liquid iodine for use as a topical antiseptic;
– Burn salve or another medicated ointment for treating minor burns;
– Bandages in a wide variety of sizes and types, including bandaids, gauze bandages, pads, elastic ace bandages, and adhesive tape;
– Feminine hygiene pads can also be stored for emergency medical care, as they can absorb an immense amount of blood or other fluid (from a gunshot wound, for instance) and are relatively cheap and easily accessible;
– Splinting material or a SAM splint for immobilizing or supporting fractured or broken limbs;
– A supply of various painkillers, including aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen (Tylenol);
– Sturdy, sharp scissors, a thermometer and at least one good pair of tweezers;
– Suture materials for applying stitches and/or a medical stapler or steri-strips for closing minor wounds; some people even pack super glue (or equivalent) for this purpose;
– Cotton balls and cotton swabs for cleaning or dressing wounds;
– Common antibiotics such as penicillin and amoxicillin, both of which can be purchased from farm supply stores and at most local vets without a prescription;
– A quality medical field guide (and take some time to familiarize yourself with the material covered in your field guide, so that you know what it covers and what it doesn’t).

There are personal adaptations and inclusions that everyone will make to their medical kit, but the items on that list are a good place to start. Many people also include miniature fire-starting kits in their medical kit, while others include activated charcoal capsules. If you or a loved one rely on an inhaler, that’s another item you’ll want to add to your medical kit.

A lot of people include space blankets (also known as thermal blankets) in their medical kits, since such emergency blankets are compact, light-weight and reasonably cheap to acquire. You may also wish to include instant cooling and/or instant heating packs in your kit, and potentially a pair of warm gloves if you live in an environment where cold weather is a potential threat.

{adinserter survivalmd}A good medical kit may also contain a magnifying glass, in case you need to get a better look at a wound or potentially as an aid to fire-starting, and a small flashlight with spare batteries. If you rely on glasses or contacts for sharp vision, you may also wish to store a spare pair of glasses and/or a backup set of contacts in your medical kit as well.In the vein of eye care, eye drops are another popular item to stock in your first aid kit even if you don’t usually use them.

Outside of your well-stocked emergency kit, the best medical preparation you can make is to regain control of your health as much as possible. If you’re already in fairly good health, then take precautions to stay that way and to further strengthen your immune system and your body as a whole. Those who suffer from chronic or debilitating diseases, especially those who rely on pharmaceutical medications, are the most vulnerable if or when an emergency strikes.

The quality of the food you consume can go a long way toward determining the overall state of health you enjoy. Everyone knows by now that too much junk food is liable to make one obese, that too much sugar can swiftly lead one to developing diabetes, and so on. A lot of people have found that by adjusting their diet, they could reduce or eliminate their need for pharmaceutical medications, so this is another option that you may wish to discuss with your doctor.

In the absence of pharmaceutical medicines, there are also many traditional folk remedies and herbal remedies for less severe medical ailments. These range from teas with honey to get over the common cold, to poultices that can be made for topical application to wounds. A tea made with fresh ginger can even be made to alleviate nausea and sooth intestinal discomfort.

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This article has been written by Gaia Rady for Survivopedia.

Disclaimer: The opinions voiced by Gaia Rady, are her own and are not meant to take the place of seeking medical help from your healthcare provider. The practice of medicine without a license is illegal and punishable by law. Seek modern and standard medical care whenever and wherever it is available.

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  • I would also include Benadryl, ammonia inhalants, and Ipecac for poisoning.

  • What should be the firstaid and safe medicines to be given in case of suspected heart attack?

    • Your best option is to keep non coated asprin in your medical kit.

    • Aspirin. Plain aspirin. It doesn’t taste very good, but who cares at that point!
      In case of a heart attack, chew a full sized aspirin. Then get to an emergency room and tell them about the aspirin.
      After having my heart attack, now, if I feel like I might be in danger of having another one ,I’ll chew two. I don’t monkey around with with it.
      But, and a big butt, I have no bleeding problems of any kind, and take no medications that cause bleeding, or that caution against thinning the blood. That’s one of the things that aspirin does. It thins the blood so it can get through smaller places in the artery.
      And I have no liver problems.
      It would be a good thing to speak to your doctor about this now to get all the facts.

    • Cayenne powder or tincture with very high btu may stop a heart attack, according to herbdoc.com

    • Cayenne peppers can stop a heart attack in 5 minutes. The powder or the peppers themselves. Grow your own, dry them, keep them around.
      DMSO, which can be purchased on Amazon.com, can stop and reverse a stroke, by applying drops to the side of the throat. Have done it with pets, have seen it done on people. Legal for pets, no longer legal for people since it would wipe out drugs which make big bucks for drug making companies.

  • Don’t forget water purification tabs, a small surgical kit including sutures with needles. Also, syringes from 1cc to 60cc to be used for injections and irrigation of wounds. And most important, a high powered hand gun like .357, .44, .45ACP plus enough ammo, about 200-300 rounds of hollow point or heavy powder loads, Armor piercing rounds too, bcoz that’s what the enemy will be using against you. Most military rifles have light armor piercing ability. A few military assault weapons wouldn’t hurt either. Make sure you purchase at least 10 high capacity, 15-30 rounds or more, clips. You don’t need expensive clips just get what you think is needed. You may want to keep them loaded just in case the SHTF while you are sleeping.

    Otherwise, make practice runs to your bug out locations.

    Good luck and happy hunting??!!
    Jim

  • Families especially should learn to make colloidal silver, a antibiotic.

  • Jim, you need to slow your roll up a bit there buddy. You went way outside the scope of this article, unless you were suggesting that people without medical training use surgical kits and start giving injections (of what?), and to have rifles with magazines in a first aid kit. A hammer can be an ‘assault weapon’, and only bolt action rifles, M1 garands, and revolvers can be reloaded with clips.

    Upper respiratory and minor cuts/sprains will be some of the biggest problems if you don’t have access to modern conveniences/professional medical attention.

    Giving bad advise to someone could cause them to fail later when it counts.

  • Wild organic oregano oil.
    I was told by a military guy to put twenty drops of oregano oil into a gal of good water and everytime you need to drink, shake well and drink that for respiratory infections.
    I’m just passing this along. He said he cured himself of pneumonia with this mixture.

  • A teaspoon of strong cayenne pepper has been know to naturally stop a heart attack if you put it under the tongue. Some natural doctors even carry it on them for that reason. Oregano oil for flus & colds– 3-5 drops under the tongue, couple times a day. And especially garlic!!! Growing up in the poor country, we used the thin white lining inside a raw eggshell (homegrown eggs) to close up wounds, since we didn’t have access to stitches. Keep the area dry, and you have to apply a new one every time the old gets worn out, until it starts closing up & healing. We didn’t use this method on major, extra large cuts though.

    • You can buy staple sets and suture sets on amazon.com, along with splints and other such items, and most of them will ship free if you buy a total of $35 or more at one time. The staple sets and staple removal sets are sold for veterinarian use, but of course, can be used on people in an emergency. and if you can sew, you can suture so long as you do not make a continuous suture. you do not want to run the sutures in and out of the skin in a line, you need to tie each one off individually so that you do not risk introducing germs into the skin on continuous line of sutures. Probably better to use the staple method if you are in doubt. They are very inexpensive on amazon.com.
      Be sure to have triangular scarves or bandanas that you can use for slings, and safety pins to hold them in place. You might consider finger and thumb splints, eye patches, finger tip bandages, hand, toe and body warmers, lots of different size gauze pads, some for cleaning wounds, some sterile for dressing wounds. Epson salts. And a nice thing to have on hand is a water BOB or two, which you can store up to 100 gallons of water in your tub in an emergency situation.

      • You might also want to have on hand knee, ankle, wrist and elbow braces in case of injury to you or people staying with you. And take into consideration the different sizes you might need for the various people who might be staying with you. If you can keep them as well as yourself from becoming incapacitated, you don’t lose use of them as a helper.

  • Is there another type of antibiotic you can buy at farm stores if you are allergic to cillins?

  • No one can be up to speed on the wide variety of information needed to react to every emergency possible, and all the info listed above is great – for emergency first aid, and some other things. I would like to suggest adding one book to your first aid kit AND your bug-out bag. Get a copy of the current Boy Scout manual. As a Scoutmaster I have used that book to teach my boys not only first aid, but a multitude of camping/hiking/orienteering/etc. need to know information for multiple scenarios.

  • Great article.
    Super important topic.
    Even comments were helpful.
    Thanks!

  • I finally told my doctor that I was a prepper and would need access to medications and if she would write me longterm ‘scripts for the medications needed.
    Not only did she write me longterm ‘scripts… but she said “I hope you have ammo and guns too!”
    You gotta love Texas doctors.

  • Truly when someone doesn’t understand then its up to
    other visitors that they will assist, so here it happens.

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