I found a great series of articles regarding the medical aspect of prepping or just knowledge that is useful. The author, @Flight-ER-Doc who is a member here, did an amazing job. He says to take what you need from the information. I agree with that. Some of the information was above my comprehension but I found some amazing tid bits and knowledge that will help me, adding to my preps in the medical aspect. This is a series that was posted on Western Rifle Association- Part One- Grid Down Hospital – Part I Here are links to the rest of the series: Grid Down Hospital – Part II: Hygiene & Sanitation Grid Down Hospital: Part III – Tools Grid Down Hospital: Part IV – Medical Books For Your Hospital Library ( great comprehensive list) Grid Down Hospital Part V: The Pharmacy Grid Down Hospital: Part VI – Patient Assessment Overview (definite read- this added to my knowledge) Thank you @Flight-ER-Doc for giving me the nod to share this.
A really good resource and an outline to follow to develop enough knowledge to survive. Emphasis on longer term and importance of preventative, pure drinking water etc. In the short run if the grid goes down, most people will die due to water, insect, or food born diseases rather than starvation etc. Old enough to remember quarantines, spraying oil and kerosene on the swamp as an ex soldier lived nearby and he had an active case of malaria, taking water with us on a trip so we didn't have drink "their" water, having guest towels, bedrooms, etc to limit danger of bugs etc. Almost all of that knowledge is gone and now we depend on public health, government, schools, etc to insure our health. Thank you and I am putting that on my survival hard drive.
One of the MOST IMPORTANT things you can do for your Preventive Health, is use Hand Sanitizer, liberally AND often... What is often the case is, one infects themselves, with external Bugs, and Virus, picked up while just living...
I have heard that hand sanitizer used in excess can actually weaken your immunity. When someone uses hand sanitizer all the time, their immunity is not strong enough when they do get sick. They same building your immunity, your bodies natural defense is good but hand sanitizer interferes with this. I have heard that plain soap and water is very effective. I do not own any hand sanitizer.
That is what I heard and practice. I was told sanitizer weakens your immunity. You are supposed to use soap and water and sing Happy Birthday (for a time frame).
Oh, I thought soap was soap and hand sanitizer was that stuff kids were getting drunk on when they licked it off their hands. Few years back there was an issue. That hand sanitizer smelled like bubble gum and candy so kids would lick their hands and then fell out of their desks.
And bacterial resistance to Triclosan (the most common active ingredient in antibacterial soaps) is increasing.... Just plain soap and water works too. We did a (fairly common) experiment in my microbiology class: Everyone came in and had some petri dishes with agar (a common growth medium). We put our fingers on the agar in one dish, then just vigorously dry-scrubbed our hands and fingerprinted another, then rinsed with water and dried with paper towels and printed another, and then washed with soap and water and dried with paper towels another... The dishes went into the incubator for a couple of days, and we got to see what came out..... First of all, hands are dirty. The first set had ALL sorts of bacteria and mold colonies. The second (dry scrub) had far, far fewer (an estimate of 1/1000th as many) colonies on it. The rinse and dry had about 1/10th as many, and the wash with soap had 1/100th as many as the one before... So, just washing with soap and water gets you a reduction of 1000x10x100 or so bacteria and mold spores....and its a numbers game. A few of us did the hand sanitizer thing and didn;t see much of a further reduction: a couple did a 'surgical scrub' and didn't see much reduction either, which is why surgeons don't really scrub anymore - they do a thorough hand wash and then use some hand sanitizer.
hmmm ... after reading the links posted.... I think I need to and another American Canner to my preps.... on just for sterilzing medical equipment.
Have often wondered if in a survival situation if the old ways would be best? Lye soap, salt, carbolic acid, alcohol, open flame, sun light and hanging cloths out in the open air, washing in boiling water and lye soap, hanging in the sun, ironing with hot iron, all were methods used in 1800's. Painting skin with Betadine solution before cutting, etc. I remember reading that when one of the US presidents had surgery, they did it on the presidential yacht as they knew that there was less infection if the operation was done on a ship. Later found out it was due to using sea water and brushes to swab the decks and wash the walls. They had found out much earlier that if they didn't do that, they would have problems with mold and mildew.
Anti-bacterial soap is fine, alcohol sanitizer is fine, but not always. Bacterium will develop immunity to using the same cleanser all of the time. We rotate out here, using Hibiclens a few days a month in the shower, only use the alcohol stuff when on the road, and we seldom get a cold or flu. Advice I got from a surgeon years ago and it has worked for us. Thanks for the great articles @Motomom34 !
He had surgery onboard the yacht to avoid publicity....and it was in a freshwater river, not the ocean. These days the ocean isn't that clean, near shore.
@Flight-ER-Doc - Would you be willing to send one of us (a number of us can create PDFs directly) the raw word/text document you used when you wrote it, assuming one exists? It would simplify the creation and it may even be "cleaner" doing it that way. Your call.