Medicine

This time we are going to talk about medicine. What I mean is that I think that we need to cover the topic of prescription medicines and what we would do if a time came that you could not get them. Many people in today's world, especially those of us who are considered to be past middle age, are on prescription medicines. Heart and cholesterol medicines are the most common and pills to cure depression are right up there. What happens if the SHTF and you cannot get your regular medicines? As I have alluded to in the past, I have done a quite a bit of research on the use of vitamins and supplements in place of prescribed medications. There are natural vitamins and supplements for virtually anything that there is a prescription pill for. The only other way is to get as far ahead with your pills as possible. Get them by the three month supply if possible and try to keep a couple of prescriptions ahead. This is not always possible, which is why I am suggesting vitamins and supplements. Even though you stay on your prescription now, you may want to stash some vitamins and supplements away for emergency use. Now let us take a look at some of the ones that I know about. All of the vitamins and supplements that I name here I have taken or am currently taking.

First we will look at the heart. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other heart related problems. Garlic is one of the best supplements for the heart. Garlic both lowers blood pressure but also lowers cholesterol. If I took no other supplements, I would include garlic in my survival supplies. The one vitamin that is good for the heart is vitamin "E". Vitamin E has other uses but is a help for the heart. Fish oil is another supplement that is good for keeping a healthy heart. Niacin, Iron and Hawthorn Berries are three more heart health supplements. Some of these supplements I would advise even if you never had a heart problem. Just as a preventative you could take these as they will not hurt you and may help. Here again, garlic is the one I would take other than vitamin "E".

Keeping your immune system in shape is important. This allows you to fight off things like the common cold, flu and other immune system attacking viruses. Here you also have multiple choices. Cod liver oil is one choice as is zinc. There are also two vitamins that are essential to immune system health. These two are "C" and "E". Cod liver oil contains vitamins "A" and "D" and I believe that these are better taken into the system than the vitamins in tablet form. During the summer I take enough cod liver oil to gain 100% of my A and D, 50mg zinc, 400iu vitamin E and 1,000 mg vitamin C. In October I double that and continue the double dose until the end of March. I never get flu shots and have never had the flu. Even my colds are less severe than some of my friends.

Those of you with joint pain from arthritis or some other natural cause might want to try Glucosamine-Crondroitin. If you have liver problems try Milk Thistle. To keep your metabolism up take a good powerful B-complex vitamin. Depression calls for St. Johns Wort, while allergies call for bee pollen and/or honey. If your memory is not too good you may want to try Ginkgo Bilboa. One thing that I feel that a survivalist needs is good night vision. I use a Billberry/Lutein pill to keep mine up and it seems to work for me.

As you can see, this is quite a list and it could be longer but I hesitate to recommend something I have not personally tried. Besides the vitamins I take, which I have listed earlier, I take a multiple vitamin/mineral pill. I feel that these vitamins and supplements have kept me healthy and feeling younger than I am. So, by all means, keep on your prescriptions and try to have somewhat of a supply ahead. At the same time begin planning for the worst case scenario. If you are taking the vitamins and supplements having a two year supply on hand at all times is the best way to go. Most have at least a two year shelf life, so if you have a two year supply on hand you can just keep taking them to rotate your stock. When you finish a bottle, buy a new one, put the new one in storage and use the oldest one from storage. This should leave you in pretty good shape.

Remember, the healthier you stay in a survival situation, the better off everyone around you, (yourself included) will be. We owe it to ourselves to be at our best in a survival situation.

Until next time check out my other blog at:

http://www.therealamericanpolitics.blogspot.com