Survivalists have the insight and wisdom to prepare for a wide range of events and circumstances that may impact their lives. We build skills, knowledge, gather the supplies we will need, and work together as a community to everyone’s benefit.
Many people feel it is too expensive to get into disaster preparedness as stockpiling can break the bank, especially if you buy everything together. However, you do not have to spend a lot of money on supplies, and purchase planning can divide the cost over a long period.
Candles, matches, batteries, vinyl gloves, plastic tarps, socks, a sewing kit, cooking oil, face masks, purification tablets, and toilet paper are affordable.
Antibiotics, antacids, antihistamines, and pain killers are just as essential as water and food. Add them to your checklist and first aid kit with other health supplies, including disinfectants, sterile bandages, and female hygiene products.
These commodities are not costly, and you can collect them over time to equip yourself properly.
Acetaminophen
This remedy reduces fever and relieves muscle pain, colds, flu, toothaches, backaches, sore throats, headaches, osteoarthritis, and menstrual period aches. Popular brand names include Tylenol®, Excedrin®, Advil® Dual Action with Acetaminophen, Midol®, Theraflu®, and FeverAll®, to name a few.
They cost a few cents each depending on the quantity. Remember that pain medication works best if you take it at the first sign of discomfort.
Ensure that you take the product as directed in the dosing instructions as the amounts of acetaminophen may differ depending on the make, and you do not want to take more than recommended. Ensure that you have a product made specifically for children on hand and determine the amount based on the weight or age of the child.
You do not need to shake all suspensions before use but will need to do so with some. Use the dose-measuring spoon, a syringe, or dropper rather than a household spoon to ensure you consume the correct quantity.
Take care with extended-release tablets. Chewing or crushing them will release all the medication at once, which may have serious side effects. Swallow either the whole or a split tablet with water instead.
Related: The Only 4 Painkillers You Need to Stockpile For SHTF
Obtain medical advice if you have a fever for more than three days or pain for more than ten. Children can take the drug for half of the time allowed for adults, but you need to get medical advice if their symptoms include nausea, vomiting, headache, a high fever, and a sore throat.
Overdosing
Taking too much acetaminophen can cause severe liver disease and may even be fatal, especially if you mix it with alcohol. Check the labels of other non-prescription medications – such as cough and cold medicines – to ensure they do not contain the drug, causing you to overdose.
Absorbing an excessive amount may lead to appetite loss, abdominal pain, vomiting, nausea, sweating, acute tiredness, dark urine, and yellowing of the skin and eyes. However, taking the correct dosage relieves pain and fever caused by several health-related concerns.
Antibiotics
Indeed, you cannot buy antibiotics over the counter. Your doctor or other healthcare professional needs to prescribe it for a specific individual with a diagnosed health concern. That makes keeping it in stock problematic. There are other options if you cannot obtain a just-in-case broad-spectrum prescription.
Natural Antibiotics
Natural antibiotics that inhibit or kill bacteria growth include honey – especially raw Manuka.
Related: The Antibiotic Honey That Shouldn’t Be Missing From Your Stockpile
Swallow a tablespoon daily for internal infections or apply it directly to a wound. Do not treat infants younger than one year with it. Honey contains hydrogen peroxide and sugar that stops the growth of specific forms of bacteria. Its low pH level pulls moisture away, killing microbes by dehydrating them.
Purchase garlic extract or concentrate from your local health food store or take two cloves soaked in olive oil per day. Garlic has antimicrobial properties but can amplify the effects of blood-thinning medication or lead to internal bleeding if you take too much internally.
Treat urinary tract infections with cranberry extract containing antioxidants and antibacterial compounds.
Myrrh extract kills various pathogens such as candida Albicans – a yeast that causes thrush and fungal infection of the mucosal membranes or skin – and pseudomonas aeruginosa that causes infections in the blood, urinary tract, lungs (pneumonia), surgical and other wounds.
Large doses of myrrh may cause heart problems and diarrhea if consumed or a rash if applied to the skin but is well-tolerated by most.
Myrrh extract is effective against staphylococcus aureus. The bacterium causes skin and soft tissue infections such as abscesses, boils, and cellulitis, resulting in red, warm, painful, swollen skin. The remedy also has a positive effect on e. coli. This infection may result in vomiting, nausea, stomach cramps, and watery, mild to bloody and severe diarrhea.
Antibacterial Properties
Thyme and oregano essential oils, ginger, cloves, apple cider vinegar, curcumin found in turmeric, and echinacea all have antibacterial properties. Many preppers swear by adding fish antibiotics in pill-form to the bug-out bag as an alternative. You need to know how to use fish antibiotics, much like those for humans.
Make sure what they contain that may not be good for you, understand whether you will be helping or hurting the situation if you use them – based on your other prescription medications – and keep an eye on their expiration dates.
Some may have undesirable side-effects while others do not, so research precautions and use. Neosporin, Neosporin Plus, Polysporin, and Proactiv/Clearskin are over-the-counter topical antibiotics. Bacteriophage or phage is another alternative. Phage viruses infect bacteria and treat certain diseases.
What Else Do You Need?
Your first aid kit is not complete without antacids and cetirizine.
Antacids provide digestive relief as they neutralize the acid in your stomach, relieving heartburn and indigestion. You can buy them from shops and pharmacies without a prescription.
Cetirizine is an antihistamine used to relieve dermatitis and symptoms such as an itchy throat, nose, or eyes; red, watery eyes; a runny nose; hives, and sneezing caused by hay fever and allergies to dust, pollen, dust mites, mold, and animal dander temporarily.
Consider stocking up on these medicines and natural remedies to ensure you are ready to deal with everyday health complaints during trying times.
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I would also add liniment to this list for sprains, arthritis, and sore muscles. Other than that, it is a well written article.
Thank you so much for it, April!
Aspirin is also a valuable addition. It can be used in a paste applied directly to inflamed spots to help resolve early cold sores and as well as acne. When used with Acetaminophen after food with a large glass of water, it helps with pain.
Be careful with stomach irritation or bleeding/bruising issues.
Back when I had braces on my teeth, many many years ago, I would get cold sores from the brackets. I would place a Vitamin C tablet directly on the sore and leave it there for a minute or two. The cold sore would be without pain almost immediately after I removed the tablet and would be gone within a day or two. I think the C tablet acts as a cauterizing agent. If you can stand the sting, it works very well.
Idaho Gail,
I wonder if the sugar that was in the Vitamin C tablet helped too? A few times, I have been places without a first aid kit and have cut my finger. I have sprinkled plain white sugar on the cut and then covered the cut with a wet paper towel or duct tape or whatever was around. It always took away any inflammation around the small cut.
signed, Frozen in Idaho
Sagebrush Lin,
Isn’t there something called sugaring? Sugar and iodine?
Peace,
MadFab
The U.S. military did a study on aspirin a couple of decades ago. They found that, if stored in an even temperature, the efficacy of the aspirin was still there after five years of storage.
What some medical aid units do when they pick up an adult patient for less severe cardiac problems is give them four baby aspirins to chew on as they are being transported to the hospital. For a time, I took a baby aspirin quite often for circulatory issues but now have found that Vit. E and Q-10 do a better job for me.
A little history lesson – Bayer aspirin went off patent during the 1918 flu so many copycat companies cropped up. Aspirin became very cheap and more widely used. The military overdosed their soldiers who sick with the flu and it is thought that many died, not because of the flu, but instead because of internal bleeding from too much aspirin.
Sorry, accidently down voted and wasn’t able to undo it 🙁
Anyway, agree about the bleeding. I just turned 70 and when I was in my late 60s I took baby aspirin but I also have skin thinning so it was a bad idea since aspirin thins the blood.
Using aspirin topically can be awesome. When I was younger and would have a toothache an aspirin paste really worked. Didn’t know about the soldiers. What a heart breaker.
Vitamin C has antibiotic, antiviral properties as well as anti cancer, check out doctoryourself,com for more info.
Where can you get ivermectin? I think nowadays this also a good one to have
All New Pipeline always has a link for ivermectin in the comments section. I’m pretty sure the poster gets a kickback for any orders, but ANP usually monitors the posts and if someone has a problem, the links will be removed.
It is also advisable to keep track of what you order, because some people state that their packages are being intercepted at customs if it is coming from overseas.
Mexico. Vending machines. It’s OTC, very easy to get…per what I’ve read. I live to far away to test this. Seen online out of Mexico. My system couldn’t confirm the security of the payment so I got nervous, cancelled order.
Mexico is a viable option for many OTC and prescriptions. I have a family member that lives about ten minutes from the border, and about every three months she will make a run to Mexico and buy meds there, then mail them to me and I send her the money to pay for them. I can get meds much less from her than I can get from local pharm with my insurance
Any farm supply that sells livestock medications should have Ivermectin in the syringes that are marked on the string plunger according to weight for horse.1 syringe will dose a 1500 pound horse.
For anyone concerned about taking “horse medicine”, Ivermectin is also available in tablet form in a dosage intended for humans. In fact, I believe that I read some research that indicated that it was used on humans before being used on animals.
National Institutes of Health and Medicine has proven ivermectin has no effect on covid.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34318930/
Prepper Mom:
Don’t believe everything MSM tells you as far as the covid protocols go…other countries have been using several medications off label for covid with great success. Our medical establishment is too often hand in glove with big pharma, with doctors often getting large bonuses for recommending certain prescription drugs over cheaper generics or alternative medicines.
As far as ivermectin goes, it’s been around for a long time, it’s side effects are widely known and documented, and it’s an inexpensive generic. Don’t dismiss it so quickly, but rather do a deep dig into it’s use for treating covid and keep an open mind. Please don’t fall into the “If it’s not on MSN, it ain’t true” mindset. MSN is all commercially driven and seems to have an agenda not necessarily including providing unbiased, or thoroughly researched news – it being much easier to read the provided script than to verify it themselves.
The negative press out there regarding Ivermectin is because Pfizer is developing a higher priced drug with the ivermectin molecule. Pfizer’s Paxlovid will be making more cash for the Pfizer billionaires.
The money factor is similar to the the natural cures for the seasonal flu out there that has shikimic acid in it. There are numerous natural products available with that ingredient but Tamiflu is the recommended version even though it contains shikimic acid too. Of course, it costs more than the natural versions.
You may want to have a look at hydroxychloroquine. Apparently you can make it at home with grapefruit and lemons. You can always add oranges in there for a little sweetness and extra Vit. C..
I would very much like to get the recipe for this. I did buy some hydroxychloroquine for overseas but the second time I tried; it was triple the price
if you can send me the recipe to make this or direct me to a youtube source I would much appreciate it. my email is on outlookdotcom. My prefix is lower case L and lowercase M followed by the numbers 5392
There is an abundance of online pharmacies, both in the US and Canada. You would need to do some research; I’m sure many of them carry Ivermectin.
Ivermectin can be purchased OTC at places like Tractor Supply, most livestock and/or grain dealers carry it. It’s a common livestock wormer. You can get both oral or inject-able version.
A way to purify water?
And yes! Ivermectin please!
National Institute of Health and medicine says Ivermectin doesn’t do anything for covid.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34318930/
I never could understand how humanity could survive thousands of years without the “expert advices” on nih or who…
If they do not produce anything (potatoes, meat, pencils or bricks)…someone has to pay the rent and the salaries, right?
I’m not much interested in what the corrupt NIH has to say. Ivermectin helped my husband and me when we had COVID.
Actually, if you look into it just a little, you’ll find that ivermectin, like hydrochloroquine, have not been proven to be effective in clinical trials. This just means that it’s not effective on a broad scale. It clearly is effective for some people, which is why they use them in trials. Different medications act differently for different people. For example, the medical profession used to think that all medicine and all procedures worked the same for women as for men. They now know that’s not true.
I agree with you. I do not believe Ivermectin has helped anyone. For the vast majority of people, there are no symptoms for Covid. And for others it is akin to having the flu. Together these cases represent approximately 97% of Covid cases. Only 3% die. And I think some who have flu like symptoms take ivermectin when they would have triumphed over Covid without it, and then think it helped them when it really had no affect. My favorite aunt died two weeks ago in Arizona. When her battle with Covid got bad she stubbornly refused to go to the hospital and used Ivermectin. By the time she was beyond help they took her to the hospital where she died rather quickly. The doctors said she lost critical time in battling it by taking this drug.
I have no doubt, as my extended family are very conservative politically they were not vaccinated.
Thank you for posting what you did.
Robert Robert….
nobody should be taking those Vaccines anyways and i am sure your fav aunt was older…
anyways its the vaxinated that have most of the issues and are now stroking out.
Raven,
I only know one person in my life who has not been vaccinated. And unfortunately he was fired for not getting vaccinated.
I know a whole lot of people who have been vaccinated and boosted, myself included. Nobody has stroked out.
I am curious the source of your information?
To all the anti and pro vaccine supporters:
Whether alternatives work or not, whether the vaccines work or not, when God calls you your time is up. I’m double vaccinated with our local vaccine, had no issue’s whatsoever but I didn’t do it because of a mandate or pressure from anyone. I did my own research and felt it was the best choice FOR ME. Your choices are your decision and you, just as I, have to live with those decisions.
This is not up for debate and no one should be trying to change anyones’ mind on this. We are consenting adults and can make our own choices. Please leave it at that. After two years it’s just the same old ground being scratched over n over…
The very best portable water filter is the reverse osmosis water filter made by “Sawyer”.
It’s cheap, effective and good for thousands of gallons.
Rodrick
Still need to dispose of the salt contaminated water somewhere it won’t leach into the underground water aquifer or any other fresh water source. It becomes a big problem as the system is upscaled. Even putting it back into the ocean can have a negative impact on local bays and coves.
you can purify water many ways, use 4 drops of Clorox bleach per quart of water, use iodine to purify, boil, filter thru charcoal briquets crumbled up, sodis method, many others
I have most of the things Mentioned here plus krill oil that my late husband’s cardiologist said was more effective than fish oil, elderberry syrup, rice bags for heat on aches or strains-i heat it on my wood heater wrapped in foil in a camp oven, and more. All bought or prepared a little at a time so it didn’t break me on a Social Security only income. Much as food has been set by a little at a time.
I have three storage boxes of related items including vitamins and a well stocked Medical BOB.
Mexico. Vending machines. It’s OTC, very easy to get…per what I’ve read. I live to far away to test this. Seen online out of Mexico. My system couldn’t confirm the security of the payment so I got nervous, cancelled order.
I had Corona 19 in early 2021. Used Sambuca- elderberry syrup, vitamins C, D3, and zinc. Terribly sick but survived without being hospitalized. It took over a year recovering. My hair was falling out so I cut it short. I lost about 50 lb. Rebuilding enought strength to do what I need has taken over a year. Invermectin or anything else that might have helped would have been most welcomed. The Dr said the vitamins are now part of standard treatment and quite effective. So I keep those in stock.
Great info. Thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear about your husband. Happy you survived Covid and are doing better. We value your contributions to this website!
National Institute of Health said Ivermectin has no effects on Covid.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34318930/
For water i have 2 purification filter systems and tablets also. I have stored hydrogen peroxide and 91% alcohol. My in vehicle survival boxes include water filter straws and tablets, homemade alcohol burners and large metal cups and more.
I would not forget salix alba bark to make tea…it has an high content of acetyl-salicilic acid (aspirin).
Personaly I do not like acetominophen!
Iodine tincture is great for desinfection.
Honey is wonderful for many things (yes I use it on wounds)
Potato mash applied locally is good to extract splinter or thorns, and good for aches (I like to deal with my ocasional headaches with slices of potato applied to the forhead and temples.
Lemon is fine for nasal/sinus/throat infections
Onion or olive oil is good to treat ear ache.
I’ve read mullein oil made from the yellow flowers is excellent for earache. Been trying to grow it but so far it hasn’t survived.
Good info everyone. Whether a remedy works for you or not, it is important to remember that each person is different and a remedy that works for this person may not work for that one. For myself, aspirin works better than paracetamol, hubby is the other way, ibuprofen works for both of us but on different things. So there is often no single cure for all.
Ginny,
A relative of mine had some volunteer flowers growing on the edges of her gravel driveway. Whenever she had a milder headache, she would go out and pick some plants to chew on. The Feverfew flowers were sparse but then she never helped them with any fertilizer. Her area has a lot of rainfall plus lots of deer tramping through her yard, so I imagine they left behind some fertilizer.
Aspirin is also a very important cheap med to have put away, as is ibuprofen. BOTH have something Tylenol doesn’t, and that’s the ANTI-INFLAMMATION property. Tylenol has no anti-inflammation effects, nor is it a blood thinner in a pinch. (Blood thinner is a misnomer, as what it actually does is allow the individual blood cells to SLIDE BY each other down at the capillary size blood vessel size.)
For massive hemoraging, Meloxicam is preferred to to Ibuprofen/Naproxen, because you get the anti-inflamatory properties but clotting of the wound will still occur.
Trying to imagine a scenario involving massive hemorrhage where I’m worried about giving an anti-inflammatory. Is this a practice in emergency medicine that aids in wound healing?
Judge Holden:
I don’t know why, but there’s no reply button below your comment. This is from the Combat Lifesaver Course so the senario would be something like an IED where you would have hemoraging along with fractures or burns with swelling. In the civilian world, something similar could be getting hit by a vehicle (been there, done that).
massive bleeding…..without a trama center… might be better to let them die instead of trying to prolong it.
A one ounce bottle of Iodine Tincture in your bug out bag will not only keep cuts, scrapes, and puncture wounds from getting infected, but will also help you make stream and pond water safer to drink, and will help protect your thyroid in the event of a serious nuclear incident.
…iodine tincture should not be drunk, but yes, in a nuclear scenario, applied generously to the skin might allow enough iodine to be absorbed by the skin and saturate the thyroid gland and so prevent the absortion of radiocative iodine 131 that later can cause cancer.
Iodine degrades after the bottle is opened, better to ask at the pharmacy for single use packets. Has a 1 year shelf life even unopened.
Antacids are also helpful in neutralizing pepper spray in the face.
Acetaminofen does much damage to the liver. In an emergency, it might be okay, but not as a continuous source.
A small % of people have a genetic susceptibility to liver damage from acetaminophen, most of us can wash it down with a beer and go on down the road.
I do not like acetominophen!
Personally I use etodolac (I am not a fan of ibuprofen either).
With loperamid, those are the 2 only drugs I carry in my BOBs
But I use salix-alba bark to make tea (aspirin) if there is no risk of haemorrage, and I can boil rice overdoing it and with excess of water and drink it in the end to stop diarrhea.
Peppermint oil on the bottoms of the feet pull a fever down and out!! It’s amazing!! For babies just a dollop w/ a carrier oil works fast!!
A crushed up garlic can do the same.. crush it and put socks on to hold it.
I did not know that one…I’ll try it!
When in the army I had made an ointment for my feet of menthol+vaseline+salicilic acid that made wonders to prevent blisters and sore feet from long marches.
I use garlic as “tea” (1 cup of milk…1 garlic let it boil, take it off from the fire and let rest for 5 minutes…filter off the garlic and drink the hot “garlic milk” before going to bed… it will make you sweat and calms the cough…usually you’ll be much better in a couple of days
Garlic was used also to keep bugs at bay…I remember when a young of 6 or 7 years old, we were having dinner (barefoot as we were at the seaside) when my cousin noticed a scorpion promenading under the table…it was killed, but my grand-ma started rubbing garlic at the door step to prevent those nasties from comming in and sting their dear grand children (me)
Spend a hot day doctoring cattle with them slinging Ivermectin slobber at you all day and a shot of Pfizer don’t sound so bad at all.
Judge Holden:
LoL! Otoh, you’ve probably absorbed enough ivermectin over the years topically to treat any disease or parasites to which you might have gotten exposed.🐮
Judge, btdt lol
Thank for sharing this information. Many people use Soma Max HGH to make a body strong and it’s best medication improve your muscle strong. thank U……..
Fish Antibodic’s is a great way to stock up with out getting a dotors note. make sure you get american made products and the cost has gone up in the last few years.. (be sure you check with a RN to make sure what your getting will be useful for you)
Weed would also be a good option as well and should be legal in this country.
Raven:
Weed has been legalized in many states, including my own (Massachusetts).
Purchasing is easy, but around here you need a state issued id (driver’s license, etc.) Not sure if I want it floating around the gooberment that I smoke, but it’s a great help medicinally to a lot of people. Prices are pretty comparable to street.
There has been some talk of legalization on a federal level, so it may be legalized in your state sooner rather than later. This might also include growing your own, but again, the gooberment has to issue you a “personal use grow permit”.
Hey, they gotta have a hand in everything, right? It’s a wonder they don’t tax us to use the toilet!
A subject not discussed Hemorrhoids. I have one that is a bleeder. To stop the bleeding I use a black tea bag. I wet it in warm water and apply for about 15 minutes. It is the tannins in the tea that stops the bleeding. I have been doing this for years and it works. But be aware it stains so use an old wash cloth to catch the drips. It can be used on any cut to stop bleeding. I pray this information blesses someone.
Laney,
Thank you for mentioning the tea bags. I had totally forgotten about how well they worked. Way back, in the 1970’s, a children’s hospital that had a whole crowded ward of leukemia children, used the tea bags often. So, it’s been close to 50 years since I have thought of tea bags so I am glad that you commented here.
For insect stings you can dampen an aspirin and put it on the bite/sting and it can take out the burning. Onion slice can work too but I don’t carry an onion in my BOB 😂
Ginny:
I wonder if powdered onion might work? You can usually find that in the spice section of the supermarket. Put some in your go bag and rotate it out regularly.
If anyone has tried this, let us know how it works.
Granulated sugar is good for stopping a cut bleeding, and clean spider web has been used since antiquity to pack off a bleeder.
Yes, both sugar and spider webs work for cuts. I have not tried the onion for clotting, but I use it often for flues / cough and an infusion from the peel is good for voice hoarseness.
Vinegar do wonders for bug bites and other rashes as it has strong fungicidal properties. As an acid -acetic- it is effective also against infections 40 years ago I treated a leg amputee with a serious infection from b. pyocianicus with acetic acid solution…this was before the quinolones era, when no antibiotic was effective against b. Pyocianicus…the man survived ( for a while) as the infection was cured.
JG,
It is interesting what works. My relative had a very obese patient. She had a fungal growth between all the folds – a bit aromatic in a negative way. Various medical community accepted methods were tried that did not work. My relative somehow came upon the idea of “washing” the patient down with plain yogurt. That was done and the patient no longer had the fungus and she smelled so much better.
Vinegar is well worth stocking up on but with yogurt, a person would have to make their own at home unless acidolphus capsules are available.
Sagebrush Lin:
Yoghurt is actually one of the easiest things to make at home… even I can do it. You can buy the dried culture at many health food stores or online. It’s like dried yeast. You can get sour cream culture, buttermilk culture and kefir, too. I’ve seen them on Walmart’s website, and I believe it’s at Amazon as well, plus other sources if you don’t have access to fresh dairy.
While not “over the counter” antibiotics are available for people to buy for emergency preparedness. Companies like Jase Medical were created with the notion that emergency preparation should include antibiotics. While expensive, they provide Amoxicillin, Azithromycin, Ciprofloxacin, Doxycycline, and Metronidazole, and is a relatively hassle-free experience for most Americans.
Many essential oils are great natural remedies … but you MUST use pure oils! I have used EOs rather than OTC meds for almost 10 years. Do some research at doterra.com. Yes, it’s a multi-level company and I refuse to get into that conversation…but they have very good information on their site…and their oils ARE pure.