Survival Medicine

One of the most frequent questions I receive from readers, listeners, and viewers is which antibiotics to have on hand in survival settings. I have received a flurry of these lately in response to our new book “Alton’s Antibiotics and Infectious Disease”: The Layman’s Guide To Available Antibacterials in Austere Settings. In the book, I discuss, well, antibiotics and infectious disease: The infect...

In this episode of the Survival Medicine Hour, Joe Alton MD and Amy Alton ARNP discuss what their plans are for the garden this year, plus a review of the antibiotic cephalexin (Keflex, Fish-Flex) and its potential as a tool in the medical woodshed for long-term survival settings. Keflex is useful for various infectious diseases you might encounter off the grid. Also, Amy answers a listener questi...

Yesterday a 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit Ecuador, part of the "rim of fire" that circles the Pacific (but certainly not pacified) ocean. There's no season for earthquakes like there are for hurricanes, and you can't see an earthquake coming like you could a tornado. So how do you survive one? Joe and Amy Alton talk about strategies that will give you the best chance. Also, Dr. Joe Alton finishes h...

We don’t often get to report good news these days, but here’s something that’s making the authorities celebrate and may have saved hundreds of lives in, of all places, Australia. In a joint drug bust, Australian and u.s. agents seize record-setting 1.7 tons of meth worth $1.29 billion in Los Angeles, right at the sea port before sailing. Dr. Alton tells you how to identify Meth use and overdose. M...

You may think that preparedness is purely an American passion but there are folks from all over the world that contact us to ask questions or tell us about their medical preps. One of these is our good friend Tom, who lives in Germany and volunteers with a first responder team. Joe Alton talks a little about his volunteer medical team and wonders why we don't have the same here. It’s been a good l...

In a long term survival situation, it will be an extremely fortunate family or group that has a physician or other formally trained medical professional among its members. When there is no doctor, however, someone in your group should be assigned the responsibilities of group medic. That person will make the difference between success and failure for a community that has lost access to modern medi...

Today, we have advanced laboratory studies that allow identification of many pathogens. Despite this, it can be a challenge for healthcare providers to tell a bacterial disease from a viral one. Bacteria and virus can attack the same organ systems. For example, pneumonia can be bacterial or viral. Both produce similar symptoms like cough and fever. From a diagnosis standpoint, it can be difficult...

This week, Winter Storm Gia, they’ve been naming them for a few years now, will spread a swath of snow and ice from parts of the Rockies, Plains and Midwest to the mid-Atlantic into this weekend, hopefully not causing more than a few travel delays. Yeah, I know, winter storms occur every year in the United States, but if you don’t take them seriously, they can cause fatalities among the unprepared...

SURVIVAL MEDICINE HOUR PODCAST Infectious disease is of major concern in good times or bad, and the family medic must be able to identify some of the deadliest. Having just written a book on the subject, we’ve done our research on some of the worst illnesses that can occur even in countries with advanced medical systems. There are infections out there, however, that are often fatal and can’t be tr...

Infectious disease is of major concern in good times or bad, and the family medic must be able to identify some of the deadliest. Having just written a book about infectious diseases and the antibiotics that treat them, we’ve done our research on some of the worst illnesses that can occur even in countries with advanced medical systems. There are infections out there, however, that are often fatal...

Ask people about the last pandemic and most will say it was the “Spanish Flu” of 1918-9. Certainly, that outbreak is a well-known example, but pandemics have occurred throughout history. At least three or four are identified every century. It can even be argued that we’ve experienced more than one just in the last few years. We all do our best to serve our families food that’s safe and healthy, bu...

Upon the passing of President George H. W. Bush, we should remember and honor his military service in World War II as a navy pilot. Having flown 58 missions, Lieutenant Bush was often under enemy fire. On September 2, 1944, his plane was shot down off an island called Chi Chi Jima. He was the only survivor. He swam about 50 yards to a small life raft and fought the currents that would have caused...

An outbreak of food poisoning with Escherischia coli (E. coli) has hospitalized 43 people in 11 U.S. states and another 18 in Canada, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The agency reports no deaths as of yet, although one individual has developed kidney failure. Joe and Amy Alton discuss the increase of multistate outbreaks of food poisoning, signs that issues may b...

Joe Alton MD and Amy Alton ARNP are pleased to announce their new book: Alton's Antibiotics and Infectious Disease: The Layman's Guide to Available Antibacterials in Austere Settings, a plain English guide to veterinary antibiotics and their potential uses to treat infections in survival scenarios (only). Learn about various infectious disease that are common now or will be if things go South. Now...

To better understand current events, it’s useful to know the history behind them.  The same can be said of the developments through time that led humans to learn about bacteria. Bacteria have played their part in the evolution of the planet for eons. Fossils of microorganisms have been discovered in stone dating more than 400 million years old. Some argue that primitive bacteria existed almost as...

A gunman opened fire on a crowd at a bar in Thousand Oaks, California. The shooter, named Ian David Long, who killed 12 people and himself was a 28 year old former U.S. Marine who may have been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, the Ventura County sheriff said. Ian David Long, 28, apparently threw smoke bombs and methodically fired into a crowd of more than a hundred people Wednesday n...

It’s around Halloween, so I figured I’d tell you a horror story. In centuries past, women married as teenagers and often had 8 to 10 children, that might sound like a horror story to you as it is, but what if I told that the big question was, would that woman survive pregnancy and childbirth at all? It happened in the past, but what if some long-term catastrophe took society to the brink? Illiotib...

Anyone who has done any hiking like we have or has bought the wrong pair of shoes has experienced a friction blister. For a relatively small soft tissue injury, a blister can certainly cause more than its share of problems. More than one hike has come to a screeching halt because the terrain was more rugged than the footwear could handle. Joe and Amy Alton, aka Dr Bones and Nurse Amy, discuss choo...

In our upcoming book “Alton’s Antibiotics and Infectious Disease: A Guide to the Wise Use of Drugs in Austere Settings, we include a section about epidemic infectious diseases that aren’t common now, but will be if a disaster makes it impossible to maintain good hygiene. One of these is typhus, a disease transmitted by body lice, fleas, and ticks. Well, it appears that there’s an epidemic of Typhu...

SURVIVAL MEDICINE HOUR PODCAST o our store for HSA-approved medical kits and supplies at store.doomandbloom.net! When modern medical care isn’t available, many deaths would be prevented by the availability of antibiotics in your disaster medicine cabinet. Indeed, you should consider having a supply of these drugs in your storage if you believe a disaster may occur that takes away your access to mo...

SURVIVAL MEDICINE HOUR PODCAST It’s important to realize that the majority of respiratory infections, including the flu and the common cold, are caused by viruses and do not improve with the use of antibiotics. Some infections of the respiratory tract are bacterial in origin, however; others are secondary infections that invade a weakened victim of a viral illness. These tend to be in the lower ai...

We’ve mentioned that we’re finishing up a book on antibiotics and the diseases they treat, and I hope you’ve made some provisions for having some antibiotics in your medical storage, even if they’re the fish antibiotics that we write about. If you really believe there might be some event that’s going to take our society to the brink one day, you’ve got to know that this stuff is just not going to...

Our body is a fortress that is constantly under siege by bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens. Every day, we fight off attempts by one or another of these germs to gain a foothold. Luckily, our immune system is usually aware of the presence of substances not recognizable as part of the body. The human response to infection involves the actions of certain cells and other substances called “antibo...

Hurricane Florence is making landfall in the Carolinas as we’re recording, and they’re expecting a lot of wind, rain, and storm surge. Every year around this time, the U.S. can expect storms like this to menace the East and Gulf coasts, yet many citizens still find a way to be caught by surprise. Joe and Amy Alton put together 30 safety tips that will give your family the best chance of preparing...

In good times, we have the luxury of modern medical facilities and advanced techniques to isolate a sick patient from healthy people. If we ever find ourselves in a grid-down scenario, most of these advantages will go the way of the dinosaur, and we will be placed in, essentially, the same medical environment we experienced in the 19th century. It should be possible for the medically prepared to p...