The Art of Manliness - Grid-Down Medicine — A Guide for When Help Is NOT on the Way

00:00:00.000 Brett McKay here, and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.

00:00:11.500 If you read most first aid guides, the last step in treating someone who's gotten injured

00:00:15.720 or sick is always get the victim to professional medical help.

00:00:19.920 But what if you found yourself in a situation where hospitals were overcrowded, inaccessible,

00:00:24.180 or non-functional?

00:00:25.240 What if you found yourself in a grid down, long-term disaster, and you were the highest

00:00:29.480 medical resource available?

00:00:31.360 Dr. Joel Alton is an expert in what would come after the step where most first aid guides

00:00:34.860 leave off.

00:00:35.880 He's a retired surgeon and the co-author of The Survival Medicine Handbook, the essential

00:00:40.380 guide for when help is not on the way.

00:00:42.980 Today on the show, Joe argues that every family should have a medical asset and how to prepare

00:00:46.940 to be a civilian medic.

00:00:48.280 We discuss the different levels of first aid kits to consider creating, from an individual

00:00:52.260 kit all the way up to a community field hospital.

00:00:55.020 And we talk about the health-related skills you might need in a long-term grid down disaster.

00:00:59.480 From burying a dead body, to closing a wound with superglue, to making an improvised dental

00:01:04.020 filling, to even protecting yourself from the radiation of nuclear fallout.

00:01:08.140 After the show's over, check out our show notes at aom.is slash medic.

00:01:19.000 All right, Joe Alton, welcome to the show.

00:01:25.660 Hey, thanks for having me.

00:01:26.860 I really appreciate it, Brett.

00:01:27.860 So you are a retired obstetrician and pelvic surgeon, and you've stayed busy in your retirement

00:01:33.220 by helping families prepare medically for long-term disasters.

00:01:37.680 How do you end up doing that?

00:01:39.460 Well, Brett, you know, I was exposed to disaster medicine very early in my career as a volunteer

00:01:43.760 DMAT member, disaster medical assistance team member for the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew

00:01:50.320 down here in South Florida in 1992.

00:01:52.140 And that led me, like many Floridians, honestly, are now, to become what you would call a hurricane

00:01:59.800 prepper.

00:02:00.880 And that means instead of the three days' worth of food and supplies the average American

00:02:04.340 has on hand, we'd have a couple of weeks' worth.

00:02:07.000 But I really have to say it was Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that opened my eyes to medical preparedness,

00:02:12.900 serious medical preparedness.

00:02:14.500 I mean, it was then that I saw what happens when the ambulance isn't just around the corner.

00:02:19.020 And that's not because we didn't have hundreds of medical personnel converging on the Gulf Coast.

00:02:23.880 They knew it was going to be a big disaster.

00:02:25.840 So that was going on even before the storm was completely through.

00:02:29.000 But the providers and the technology were just not able to get to victims due to all the flooding.

00:02:34.080 I figured that any number of disasters could actually do that.

00:02:36.700 An earthquake, for example, could make roads impassable and people couldn't get to you,

00:02:41.180 for example, really any disaster with enough casualties can overwhelm the existing infrastructure.

00:02:46.060 If there's a three-car wreck in a two-ambulance town, I mean, you could have a bad outcome.

00:02:50.380 So I figured if I can teach the average person how to deal with injuries and illness and put

00:02:54.360 some supplies in their hands, well, then maybe some tragic outcomes might be avoided.

00:02:59.620 So my mission became to place a medically prepared person in every family before a disaster occurs.

00:03:05.620 All right.

00:03:05.700 So you co-authored a book called The Survival Medicine Handbook.

00:03:09.000 And this is a tome of a book.

00:03:10.180 It is, I think it was 700 pages.

00:03:13.060 You co-authored this book with your wife, who's also a nurse practitioner and a midwife.

00:03:18.160 And your goal is, again, it's a comprehensive guide to medicine in a situation where it's

00:03:23.480 a grid down situation.

00:03:24.600 You might not have immediate medical access.

00:03:27.240 And so how to manage things you might encounter in that period.

00:03:31.280 I'm sure a lot of people have read first aid books on, say, wilderness first aid or maybe

00:03:37.080 prepper first aid.

00:03:38.180 But you argue that those books will only get you so far in a long-term disaster scenario.

00:03:44.100 How so?

00:03:45.760 Well, you know, there are a lot of books on first aid, even for wilderness settings.

00:03:49.640 And many of them are really quite good.

00:03:51.300 But they fail to take into account that in a true survival, long-term survival scenario,

00:03:55.820 there's no access to medical medicine, modern medicine, rather, for the foreseeable future.

00:04:02.240 And that becomes a problem when every chapter of your first aid book or your medical book

00:04:07.660 ends with, and get to the hospital or, and seek a qualified medical professional.

00:04:13.020 Because in real terms, no such thing exists when the medical infrastructure is collapsed.

00:04:18.800 And so our entire book is pretty unique in that it assumes that some disaster has happened

00:04:24.600 and you no longer have the option of accessing modern medical care, maybe for the long run.

00:04:29.080 And the book addresses the average citizen in plain English as if they were the last line

00:04:34.140 of defense when it comes to your family's well-being in a disaster.

00:04:37.500 And that's because it's a real possibility.

00:04:40.540 So a lot of the first aid books out there are geared towards taking care of the situation

00:04:44.300 so you can get to medical help.

00:04:46.300 But in a long-term disaster, professional medical help may not be available.

00:04:50.300 So what considerations do you have to think about to deal with that situation?

00:04:55.200 Well, let's take an injury for an example.

00:04:57.980 I mean, what is the difference between today and in a grid-down situation when it comes to

00:05:04.260 encountering somebody who's sick and injured?

00:05:06.580 Let's say, let's say even in normal times, let's say they broke their leg in a car accident.

00:05:10.900 What do you want to do?

00:05:11.580 You want to stabilize that person, do what you can for them, and get them to the nearest medical

00:05:15.900 asset, right?

00:05:16.560 That makes sense.

00:05:17.620 So you're not a doctor after all.

00:05:19.120 And once you ship the patient off, your responsibility has been discharged and you're on your merry way,

00:05:24.720 right?

00:05:25.300 But what if that's not an option?

00:05:27.920 I mean, grid-down, your responsibility extends from the point of injury to full recovery.

00:05:33.740 Will you be able to provide daily wound care for this person?

00:05:36.560 Would you be able to identify if a wound infection is occurring?

00:05:39.800 Would you have a plan of action to rehab that person and get them on their feet again, make

00:05:43.780 them productive as a group member as they most certainly would have to be in an off-grid

00:05:49.440 disasters type setting?

00:05:52.100 I mean, you have to do this.

00:05:53.520 And that's the difference.

00:05:54.780 You have to be ready to be the highest medical asset left and be effective in that role.

00:06:00.000 And another thing we're going to talk about in detail later on in a bit, another thing

00:06:03.780 you have to think about as the medical asset in your family is you have to think about preventative

00:06:08.500 medicine.

00:06:08.900 You know, it's just basic things you don't have to think about because we live in the

00:06:12.460 21st century, sanitation, hygiene, things like that to prevent sicknesses.

00:06:18.580 You're absolutely right.

00:06:19.720 The important thing to know is that you can prevent headaches and heartaches as the family

00:06:25.920 medic if you have a plan to enforce sanitation and water disinfection and food preparation,

00:06:34.240 things like that.

00:06:35.240 And these are sort of part of your job description.

00:06:37.900 Yeah, as part of the medical asset.

00:06:39.980 So one of the things you talk about in the intro of the book, in the first few chapters

00:06:43.480 is before you start thinking about buying medical gear.

00:06:46.600 I know guys love that.

00:06:47.980 It's the one thing I think a lot of guys love about survival or prepping is buying gear.

00:06:51.680 It's fun.

00:06:52.800 But you say before you even do that, there's two things you probably need to think about

00:06:56.500 in order to become a medical asset.

00:06:58.580 One is establish a community, put yourself in a strong community.

00:07:02.120 And then two, get your personal health in order.

00:07:04.620 So first, how can being part of a robust community help with medical care or health care in a

00:07:11.200 long-term survival situation?

00:07:13.640 Well, I mean, as a community, let's take some examples from TV.

00:07:17.640 Have you seen the show Alone?

00:07:19.480 Yes.

00:07:20.540 Well, there you go.

00:07:21.340 In Alone, they drop you off alone with some supplies, probably as much as a person might

00:07:26.900 be able to reasonably carry a fair distance, and they plop you off into the off-gridest

00:07:31.780 of off-grid locations.

00:07:33.940 And that person has to find water.

00:07:36.200 They have to make it drinkable.

00:07:37.360 They have to find food.

00:07:38.360 They have to cook it properly.

00:07:39.480 They have to make a shelter.

00:07:40.640 They have to worry about personal protection.

00:07:42.740 They have to deal with injuries and other medical issues that occur along the way.

00:07:46.320 I mean, how much easier would it be to have a group of like-minded individuals

00:07:51.000 with that common goal of surviving?

00:07:53.600 I mean, these guys survive, and they survive for an extraordinary amount of time, in my

00:07:58.460 opinion.

00:07:59.400 But it's not for a normal lifetime.

00:08:02.800 I mean, they're there for 90 days, and at the end of 90 days, they look pretty ragged.

00:08:07.880 You know, a person can survive alone for a time, but you can see on Alone, on the show

00:08:12.700 alone, that it's a pretty miserable existence.

00:08:14.960 So that's something that I think is so important to have people that can thrive.

00:08:21.540 And how about skills?

00:08:22.860 I mean, I have medical skills, but I have very few tactical skills.

00:08:27.900 For example, you know, I probably couldn't take a part in AR-15.

00:08:31.240 I probably, you know, wouldn't be very good in a firefight, but there probably are people

00:08:37.000 that would be.

00:08:38.280 And having people with skills that can complement each other would make for the possibility

00:08:44.940 of an existence that could make a village.

00:08:49.400 Yeah.

00:08:49.640 Now, we had an Alone contestant, a winner on the podcast a while back ago, Jim Baird.

00:08:56.000 Him and his brother won.

00:08:58.020 And one of the big takeaways from that conversation I had with him, and also watching the season

00:09:03.320 that he was on on Alone, it was amazing to see how little tiny injuries could just devastate

00:09:09.920 you.

00:09:10.220 Like, that actually, it ended people's time on the show.

00:09:13.600 You know, you just, you sprang an ankle, and you're done.

00:09:17.120 Even having another person there, like, it wasn't enough.

00:09:19.660 You needed to have maybe two or three more people, because that one person couldn't do,

00:09:24.340 like, you're basically working for two people now, and they just didn't have the energy

00:09:27.640 for it.

00:09:29.060 Yep.

00:09:30.060 Yeah.

00:09:30.740 Okay.

00:09:31.060 So have a community.

00:09:32.200 What about personal health?

00:09:33.080 Like, what parts of your personal health should you have in order in order to be ready

00:09:37.380 medically for a long-term grid-down scenario?

00:09:40.980 Well, what I hope people are doing now, I mean, eating a healthy diet, exercising, staying

00:09:46.180 away as much as possible from addictive substances that wouldn't be around in a grid-down

00:09:52.180 situation, like maybe alcohol or tobacco.

00:09:54.940 On top of that, and this is something that people are surprised to hear me say, is that

00:09:59.000 you should be using the high-tech available today to fix issues that would be a problem

00:10:03.620 off the grid.

00:10:04.280 I mean, if you have a bum knee, that's not going to be very helpful off the grid, and would

00:10:08.840 certainly not increase your chances of survival.

00:10:11.040 So see an orthopedic surgeon now, get it fixed.

00:10:14.280 Do you have terrible vision?

00:10:15.900 Consider a LASIK procedure, for example.

00:10:18.400 I had classic nearsightedness, blind as a bat.

00:10:21.840 I got it done probably 30 years ago, probably one of the first people to get it.

00:10:26.440 And now I have the eyes of an eagle, a very old eagle now, I'll admit, but still.

00:10:30.680 Okay, so yeah, get your health in order, so you're ready for that scenario.

00:10:35.280 So you talk about becoming a medical asset in your family, and when you're a medical

00:10:39.880 asset, it means you take on different responsibilities.

00:10:42.720 You're not just providing first aid, but there's other roles you take on.

00:10:46.180 We mentioned one of them.

00:10:46.920 You're sort of the chief sanitation officer of your family.

00:10:50.800 Any other responsibilities that a medical asset needs to take on in order to take care

00:10:55.980 of the health care of their family?

00:10:57.420 Well, Brad, I mean, of course, you're the chief medical officer, but you're going to

00:11:01.400 have to deal with a lot of other things, too.

00:11:03.120 You're going to have to deal with dental issues as well.

00:11:06.480 Now, I'm not talking about a week without power due to a storm.

00:11:08.920 I'm talking about a long-term scenario, a few months off the grid, and you're going

00:11:12.800 to wind up facing as many patients on a daily basis with dental problems as medical problems.

00:11:18.280 And you'll even have to extract a tooth now and then.

00:11:20.700 90% of dental emergencies in the past were treated that way.

00:11:23.460 I'm not talking about Roman times.

00:11:24.680 I'm talking about the early to mid-20th century.

00:11:28.040 You're going to be responsible also for making sure, we talked a little bit about water

00:11:31.660 disinfection, you've got to make sure water is disinfected property, food's prepared and

00:11:35.720 cooked thoroughly, human waste is disposed of safely.

00:11:39.320 These are things that are part of your job description.

00:11:42.300 You're also the chaplain.

00:11:44.020 You may not have to deal with bullet wounds on a daily basis, at least I hope not, but

00:11:47.980 you're going to see anxiety and depression on a daily basis if some major disaster hits.

00:11:52.200 You need not only to be sympathetic and understanding, but you're going to also have to be confidential

00:11:57.600 as well.

00:11:58.420 You know, nothing loses the trust of a group than a non-confidential medic, somebody that

00:12:05.220 doesn't keep people's private things to themselves.

00:12:09.040 But one other thing, you're also actually going to be the quartermaster who decides when

00:12:13.480 your limited supplies of medical items are dispensed.

00:12:16.440 It's not a committee decision.

00:12:18.380 It should be the medic.

00:12:20.060 You also have on here a medical archivist.

00:12:22.320 So you've got to keep track of people's issues.

00:12:24.780 Yes, that's right.

00:12:25.200 Yes, that's another thing.

00:12:26.200 And that's something you should probably do now.

00:12:28.320 If you knew who was going to be in your extended family or in a mutual assistance group, you

00:12:33.300 should probably interview them beforehand.

00:12:35.920 You know, keep everything, of course, confidential, as I mentioned.

00:12:38.060 And you should definitely learn what their medical issues are, what their family history is, you

00:12:45.520 know, what vices they might have.

00:12:47.800 I mean, are they heavy smokers or, you know, do they drink a lot?

00:12:50.880 And you should try to sort of steer them in the direction of getting healthier.

00:12:57.180 And the fact that you would know what medicines, let's say, a person is on would help you sort

00:13:03.040 of encourage them to get more of these medicines, stockpile some of them so that, you know, you

00:13:09.320 don't have somebody with very high blood pressure showing up at your retreat, you know, with

00:13:14.640 their last three days of blood pressure medicine, that's it.

00:13:18.660 Okay, so let's get into skills and gear here.

00:13:22.000 Do you recommend people, like just a lay, just an average citizen, take any sort of formal 1.00

00:13:27.060 intensive training to get ready for a grid down disaster scenario when it comes to healthcare?

00:13:33.620 I think a good start is just go through your municipality and see what courses that they

00:13:39.700 have available.

00:13:40.920 Many times they have free courses available for first responders or certain members, you

00:13:46.460 know, community emergency response team members, other people that will be willing to volunteer

00:13:50.920 in disaster settings.

00:13:52.040 Sometimes they'll have stop the bleed courses, you know, seek these out.

00:13:55.580 And like I said, they might even be free.

00:13:57.720 And there are, of course, a lot of wilderness first aid courses out there, a lot of companies

00:14:01.580 that put forth these kinds of courses.

00:14:03.320 You can find them online.

00:14:04.280 I'm sure your experience may vary with them, I have to say.

00:14:08.160 But all these courses do prepare you to do what you need to do, stabilize and transport

00:14:14.300 victims in normal times, but not so much for long-term care.

00:14:18.320 Therefore, what I recommend to people is that when you take each class, think about what

00:14:23.520 you would do if transport to a modern medical facility was not an option.

00:14:27.880 What would you do with that particular individual, you know, that particular sickness or that

00:14:33.180 particular injury?

00:14:35.160 And that's the key is to have the right mindset and a plan of action in situations where you're

00:14:41.620 not going to be able to take that person to a higher medical asset.

00:14:44.840 One of the most useful things that I've done, I really enjoyed it too.

00:14:49.660 I need to go back and do it again, is I took like a first aid CPR certification class.

00:14:54.240 It was done at one of the community colleges here in town.

00:14:57.460 It was a couple hours, I believe.

00:15:00.220 But not only did you do the CPR, but they just went over like basic first aid, what to do

00:15:04.260 about burns, head injuries, big wounds.

00:15:07.740 And I remember I learned a lot.

00:15:09.080 But what I realized is that knowledge and like we actually practice some skills, like how

00:15:13.680 to, you know, how to bandage things and things like that.

00:15:16.320 But I realized that stuff, that knowledge and those skills, they degrade if you don't

00:15:21.520 use them.

00:15:21.940 Like you have to constantly refresh yourself on it.

00:15:25.540 You're absolutely right.

00:15:26.360 We teach a wound care class and wound closure class.

00:15:29.640 And I teach people how to suture closed simple wounds and things like that.

00:15:34.500 And more importantly, when to close a simple wound and when to leave it open and provide

00:15:40.080 open wound care.

00:15:41.600 And I always make sure I give people extra sutures to take home and they keep their instruments

00:15:47.360 so that they can practice.

00:15:49.040 Now, whether they all do or not, that depends.

00:15:52.500 But, you know, you have to develop muscle memory for just about any of these things.

00:15:57.740 And the more you do it, the more effective you'll be at.

00:16:01.000 Okay.

00:16:01.520 So take some sort of class that's out there.

00:16:03.720 You can find different things out there.

00:16:05.400 But as you do, kind of keep in mind, well, how can I take this further?

00:16:09.820 And how would I apply this in a long-term grid down situation?

00:16:13.240 It's a mindset thing.

00:16:13.780 Yeah.

00:16:14.420 Let's talk about medical supplies now.

00:16:16.020 And you've got, I love this section because I love checklists.

00:16:19.400 You have these checklists for different medical kits you think people should start building

00:16:23.940 up so they're ready for that long-term situation.

00:16:26.200 The first kit is an individual first aid kit.

00:16:29.880 What are some of the things that you would recommend people keep in this individual

00:16:33.520 first aid kit?

00:16:34.260 So every person in your house or your group is going to have one of these, correct?

00:16:39.540 Right.

00:16:39.860 Ideally, you would want everybody in the group to have it.

00:16:42.620 In the military now, everybody carries, every infantryman, for example, carries an IFAC kit.

00:16:49.000 And the medic carries a more advanced kit that allows him to put an IV in and things like

00:16:55.080 that.

00:16:55.380 But these guys will carry things like a tourniquet to stop bleeding, maybe a burn gel and dressings,

00:17:01.020 elastic wraps to wrap orthopedic injuries, things like that.

00:17:05.600 And I think that that would be a good start for a first aid kit.

00:17:09.820 We have a number of kits on our store that we designed that are very compact, but they

00:17:16.640 manage to deal with a number of different issues that are most commonly seen.

00:17:21.380 So an individual first aid kit, I think, for every member of the family would be good,

00:17:25.740 especially in situations where you have to be on the road.

00:17:29.180 So it just depends on the situation.

00:17:32.560 I mean, does your 10-year-old have to carry a first aid kit to school?

00:17:37.360 No, probably not.

00:17:38.780 But in a true long-term disaster situation, which is what I write about, I mean, this is

00:17:44.360 something that everybody should have.

00:17:46.380 Yeah, this is good just to have if you go on a hike or backpacking trip.

00:17:49.320 I always carry one.

00:17:50.300 And it's got things, you know, Band-Aids, got Benadryl in there.

00:17:54.100 We got pain relievers, so Tylenol, Advil.

00:17:57.320 All right, moleskins, things like that.

00:17:59.480 And you also have like, I thought it was raw honey packets.

00:18:02.080 What's the raw honey packets for?

00:18:04.220 Raw honey has actually very strong and actually accepted medically antibacterial properties.

00:18:11.180 And so you can use raw honey for a number of things.

00:18:14.820 And of course, you can use it to treat hypoglycemia, low blood sugar in cases, but you can also put

00:18:20.680 it on burns and other injuries, and it actually would have an antibacterial effect.

00:18:26.500 That's interesting.

00:18:27.320 All right, so that's the first kit.

00:18:28.400 Start building up a basic individual first aid kit.

00:18:31.700 The next one is the vehicle kit.

00:18:33.580 What's the vehicle kit for it?

00:18:35.280 What kind of stuff are you keeping in that?

00:18:37.360 Well, the vehicle kit is more extensive, and it really allows you to carry things that you

00:18:43.540 might not be able to carry.

00:18:45.000 Like, in other words, a sturdy pair of boots.

00:18:47.380 If you found yourself stranded in a blizzard or something like that, and you have to actually

00:18:52.000 go somewhere, although, of course, it might be better at staying in the car.

00:18:56.340 It has changes of clothes.

00:18:58.380 It would have foldable multi-tool shovels, tow ropes, flares, rock salt, things that would

00:19:04.280 help you in situations where you're in your vehicle.

00:19:06.980 Also, it has more of every item, and the reason why is because you're not physically carrying

00:19:13.580 this, and so you have the ability to deal with not only things, but you deal possibly

00:19:19.440 with multiples of things.

00:19:21.380 It's more than one injury.

00:19:23.800 Yeah, we got an article on the site about what to keep in your car, and people are like,

00:19:27.320 well, that's kind of a lot of stuff.

00:19:28.420 Like, when did you ever use that?

00:19:29.760 It can come in handy.

00:19:31.000 So my dad, I remember, this was probably 30 years ago, he was driving from Oklahoma City

00:19:37.260 to Albuquerque on I-40, and in the middle of the Texas panhandle, he got stuck in a blizzard,

00:19:44.400 and he was in his car, I think, for a while.

00:19:47.080 I mean, I think it was like a day, but it was well-stocked.

00:19:49.520 Like, he had blankets, and he had some stuff, and so he was able to ride it out until he

00:19:53.200 was able to get towed out.

00:19:54.680 It's something that can be a serious thing if you have to make the right decisions.

00:19:58.620 There's one guy who got stranded in a blizzard, he decided he was going to go for help, and

00:20:03.380 they found him the next morning, and he did not make it.

00:20:07.760 All right, so the third kid is the family kid.

00:20:09.740 You're going to keep this at your home, or if you've got a retreat somewhere, you're going

00:20:14.320 to keep it there.

00:20:15.360 And this thing is massive.

00:20:16.540 This was a lot of fun to look through, because it's so big.

00:20:18.800 You break it up into different modules.

00:20:21.180 So what sorts of modules do we have in this family kit?

00:20:24.800 Well, of course, we talked about dental situations, so a dental module would be there.

00:20:28.460 You would have, depending on the makeup of your group, you would have maybe a module for a

00:20:34.080 delivery of a baby.

00:20:35.960 You might have your surgical modules with the ability to do more extensive things, like

00:20:43.300 sewing some tendons together, things like that.

00:20:46.160 A lot of daily wound care items, because this is something that you can easily do if you

00:20:50.980 are able to stay in place.

00:20:53.720 Eye care modules, things like that, in case there's foreign objects.

00:20:57.600 And, you know, a lot of people, when they do activities of daily survival that they're

00:21:01.260 not really accustomed to, they can injure themselves.

00:21:05.760 And so you could be chopping wood and wind up getting a splinter in your eye.

00:21:09.320 So we have the ability to deal with foreign objects, you know, that could get caught in

00:21:14.300 your eye.

00:21:14.960 Just a lot of different things.

00:21:16.320 We're beginning to get to kits that have hundreds of items.

00:21:19.600 And indeed, you know, some of our biggest kits in our entire line will have hundreds of items

00:21:26.060 in them.

00:21:27.360 Yeah.

00:21:27.440 One potential module you might have if you've got small kids, a pediatric module.

00:21:31.520 So you have, make sure you have medications for them.

00:21:34.400 Yes, exactly.

00:21:35.080 So you have all sorts of stuff.

00:21:37.180 And in these situations, you want to have maybe growth diaries.

00:21:42.060 And then you can identify, you know, basically how well your young people are doing by if

00:21:48.080 they're growing in a normal fashion.

00:21:50.360 And so that's something that they might have.

00:21:52.360 You have a lot of different size things.

00:21:54.900 Like, you know, your CPR mask for an infant would be different than a CPR mask for an adult

00:22:00.800 and blood pressure cuffs, things like that.

00:22:03.080 So there are a lot of items that are sort of size differential.

00:22:08.200 So the fourth kit is, this is if you're going all in, you want to actually have a field hospital.

00:22:13.760 What sorts of items are in this kit?

00:22:16.960 Oh boy.

00:22:17.880 I got about 10 pages of that.

00:22:20.040 I'm looking at it right now.

00:22:21.360 And each page has 50 items each.

00:22:23.540 So, I mean, you would have everything from, gosh, biohazard suits to operating tables to,

00:22:30.180 I mean, we're talking about a real mash unit kind of deal.

00:22:35.140 When would you want to do that?

00:22:36.060 I mean, you have a question in the book that you try to answer, which is, how much is enough?

00:22:40.840 Like, when do you know, well, yeah, maybe I'm good at the family kit and I don't need to go

00:22:45.960 field hospital?

00:22:46.920 Well, I think that it's probably very few people that will reach the point where a field hospital

00:22:52.260 is what they're going to wind up being responsible for.

00:22:57.000 So I think that people really just need to get the items that are going to be able to deal with

00:23:03.280 the most common issues that they'll expect to be confronted with.

00:23:07.920 And what we have here, I mean, you know, we're talking about medical, I'm looking through my

00:23:15.760 list right here because I don't remember all 500 things that are on here, but we're talking about,

00:23:21.240 you know, automatic portable defibrillators and we're talking about oxygen concentrators

00:23:26.680 and things like that, things that you would need if you had, you would have to have some solar

00:23:31.420 power, for example, to get enough power to, let's say, do some oxygen concentration.

00:23:36.460 These are some of these items that you're going to need a little power.

00:23:42.320 And if you're ready to put together a field hospital, you will have taken power into account.

00:23:47.840 So at least if it's solar power.

00:23:50.960 Well, another point you make, kind of a broader mindset point you have to take when it comes to

00:23:54.720 medical care and a long-term disaster scenario is that you have to adjust your expectations of

00:24:00.480 what's possible in this situation.

00:24:02.800 I think today we take it for granted.

00:24:04.360 It's like, well, something happens to me.

00:24:05.580 I can just go to the doctor and I've got medicine or if, you know, even like a serious

00:24:09.540 thing happens, like it's not so serious.

00:24:12.040 Like there's things we can do.

00:24:13.720 I mean, I guess, you know, what I've read is that people are surviving gunshot wounds

00:24:18.740 more often because our, our, just our skill and technology has gotten better.

00:24:22.800 One of the points you make is that in a long-term situation, long-term disaster situation, the

00:24:28.700 best you can do is maybe just make people feel comfortable and you might not be able to cure

00:24:33.320 them.

00:24:35.780 Like you have to be okay with that.

00:24:36.740 We have to be very, very realistic about what can be done and what can't be done.

00:24:41.280 In an off-grid situation, you can expect a gunshot wound to the abdomen or a gunshot wound

00:24:46.980 to the chest to probably have a 70% death rate.

00:24:50.860 And it's a terrible thing to say and certainly not the case today with modern medical facilities,

00:24:57.040 but it's what's going to happen.

00:25:00.420 And if it's not the actual trauma from the injury itself, it's the chances for infection

00:25:07.460 again.

00:25:07.860 So remember your skin is your armor.

00:25:09.500 And so once you have breached that armor, you have that chance of infection.

00:25:14.040 That brings up a point I want to talk about in the book, you talk about how you can plant

00:25:18.060 a garden with herbs and plants.

00:25:19.580 So you can have that have medicinal purposes, but what do you do about prescription medicines

00:25:24.500 like antibiotics for infection?

00:25:26.500 Is it possible to stockpile antibiotics?

00:25:28.960 There are some companies that are beginning to offer, quote, emergency antibiotic packs

00:25:35.000 with a televisit, as long as you fill out an application and do a televisit.

00:25:39.900 So these are becoming more popular.

00:25:41.900 They're just popping up now.

00:25:43.200 And I believe that there'll be a thriving industry in this probably in the next few years,

00:25:47.920 or at least until the state medical boards get a hold of them.

00:25:52.020 What about special medications like insulin?

00:25:55.900 Say someone's diabetic, is that tough to stop?

00:25:57.980 You know that insulin, insulin like that are basic insulins, like regular and MPH are actually

00:26:03.460 over the counter in most states these days.

00:26:05.180 You can get them as you need them.

00:26:07.480 We're going to take a quick break for your word from our sponsors.

00:26:14.620 And now back to the show.

00:26:16.360 We've talked about supplies.

00:26:17.840 We've talked about getting some training.

00:26:19.980 I hope we can talk about some specific skills here in a bit, but I want to turn to this idea

00:26:23.340 of hygiene and sanitation.

00:26:24.840 Because if anyone's read any history book about war, war up until the 20th century, really,

00:26:32.240 most of the casualties came from poor sanitation.

00:26:36.720 Men were dying of dysentery, cholera, things like that.

00:26:39.680 In a grid-down scenario, there might be a situation where you no longer have flushing toilets.

00:26:44.500 So you have to think about human waste.

00:26:47.200 So what do you do about human waste in a grid-down scenario?

00:26:51.480 Well, human waste should always be buried if you don't have a toilet. 0.96

00:26:55.360 Now, if you have a toilet, you have two gallons of water, even if it's waste water, you can

00:27:00.920 actually flush that toilet if it's the typical configuration of the toilet in your home today

00:27:05.780 by flushing two gallons of water into the toilet, and it will actually flush.

00:27:12.000 But if you're out, let's say you're on the road, you've been driven from your home, you're

00:27:16.640 on the road, human waste, and you're in a retreat in the forest somewhere, human waste should

00:27:21.860 be buried no closer than 200 feet away from the main water source to prevent contamination.

00:27:26.380 And the medic, if you're in a community, let's say you're the medic for an actual community,

00:27:32.180 that you should have an idea of how to put together a community latrine.

00:27:35.340 And so the dimensions would depend on the length of time, of course, that's needed, and the

00:27:39.660 number of people in your group.

00:27:41.240 If you had a small group, an 18-inch eye wide by about 24-inch deep, several feet long,

00:27:46.480 that probably would work pretty well.

00:27:48.360 A longer trench and some kind of partition sheet if your group is big enough to have more than

00:27:52.620 one person using it at a time, and you keep the dirt from the trench that you dug in a

00:27:58.740 nearby pile with a shovel, and that covers up the waste after each use.

00:28:02.860 So that's something that would be good for dealing with human waste.

00:28:06.900 But you're absolutely right about the importance of sanitation.

00:28:11.280 In the past, entire populations succumbed to diseases that cause diarrhea, leading to severe

00:28:16.840 dehydration.

00:28:17.500 You mentioned cholera and dysentery.

00:28:19.320 Those can be very, very lethal.

00:28:21.280 I mean, more soldiers in the Civil War died of these issues than from bullets or shrapnel.

00:28:26.520 So again, this is probably the third or fourth time we have mentioned it already, but the

00:28:31.040 medic has to strictly enforce water disinfection, proper food preparation, waste removal, and

00:28:37.420 more, or infection is going to run rampant among other people.

00:28:40.920 So here's something I'm sure people may have thought about.

00:28:43.720 They kind of do these hypotheticals in their head of like a long-term disaster scenario where

00:28:48.720 you're not going to have access to the comforts of modern life for a long, long time.

00:28:54.760 What if someone dies?

00:28:55.960 What are you supposed to do with the body?

00:28:57.180 Because like, you know, 200 years ago, when someone died in your family, like you knew

00:29:00.760 what to do.

00:29:02.020 Today, you call the funeral home and they take care of everything.

00:29:05.440 So what are you supposed to do?

00:29:06.360 So, right.

00:29:07.340 This is something that most people have absolutely no idea what to do.

00:29:10.620 And you have to figure out what to do with the body.

00:29:12.960 The body should be placed in a body bag.

00:29:15.500 These are currently commercially available, by the way.

00:29:17.880 And some of them actually have handles that to facilitate transport.

00:29:22.000 But if you don't have these, you can found items like plastic sheeting, bed sheets from

00:29:26.760 abandoned homes.

00:29:27.560 These are things that you can use.

00:29:29.540 Choosing a place to bury them is important.

00:29:31.840 I mean, it should be at least 200 to 250 meters, that's about 800 feet, from any water that

00:29:39.300 might possibly be used by the living.

00:29:41.420 That's very important.

00:29:42.620 But the funny thing is that if you can properly dispose of the dead body and in that type of

00:29:49.440 location, it doesn't have the ability, it doesn't really cause major contamination of

00:29:54.640 the environment.

00:29:55.700 So that's something that's important to know.

00:29:57.520 Current grave guidelines suggest a depth of about 5 or 6 feet, that's 1.5 meters, and

00:30:04.900 preferably that amount of space above the water table.

00:30:07.460 In some places, that's really difficult to achieve.

00:30:09.320 Down here, our water table is like 6 inches below the ground.

00:30:14.160 That's why you see in this area, the older crypts are either concrete, and they bury them

00:30:21.260 in the ground, but they're buried in concrete.

00:30:23.260 Or if you can go to places like New Orleans, you see that everybody's buried above the ground.

00:30:28.940 Now, you also use something called quicklime, and that's calcium oxide.

00:30:34.520 It's been used in burials for centuries, but people think that it's being used to speed

00:30:39.760 the decomposition of the body, but it actually preserves tissue, which is funny.

00:30:44.380 So why is it useful?

00:30:46.200 Because it actually eliminates odors that attracts flies and animals.

00:30:51.280 And there's actually a formula for that, 1 kilogram or 2.2 pounds of lime per 10 kilograms

00:30:58.240 of body weight.

00:30:59.540 So you mentioned dental issues.

00:31:01.060 You might not think that you have to take care of a dental problem in a long-term situation,

00:31:05.640 but you would.

00:31:06.300 I mean, what are some of the dental issues you think are treatable in a long-term disaster

00:31:10.360 scenario?

00:31:11.480 Well, the grand majority of dental issues can be dealt with by extraction, as I mentioned

00:31:16.240 earlier, including dental decay.

00:31:17.980 You also need to learn how to fasten loose crowns, replace loose fillings, lost fillings,

00:31:27.220 broken teeth, knocked-out teeth, tooth abscesses, gum inflammation.

00:31:30.940 These are all things that you can easily deal with with the right materials.

00:31:38.080 But you can definitely take care of dental decay.

00:31:41.100 Lost fillings, you can put together with clove oil, two drops of clove oil, and zinc oxide

00:31:46.860 powder.

00:31:47.820 We'll put together a hardening, filling material, material type of cement that will last for a

00:31:55.920 pretty good long time.

00:31:57.440 And you can use it to fasten a loose crown.

00:32:00.540 And of course, you need to have extractors.

00:32:03.900 There are extractors for different types of teeth.

00:32:06.180 And there are probably as many different types of extractors as there are different types of

00:32:10.580 teeth.

00:32:11.600 And of course, with dental care, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cures.

00:32:15.720 Like, yeah, take care of your teeth, even in a grin-down scenario.

00:32:18.540 Brush your teeth, floss, and avoid all the sugary foods.

00:32:22.080 Don't eat too much of that raw honey.

00:32:24.560 Right.

00:32:25.120 Save that for the hypoglycemic patients.

00:32:29.300 So in this book, you cover lots of different medical care skills that you think someone

00:32:34.540 might need to know in a long-term situation.

00:32:37.140 What do you think are, let's say, five skills you recommend people prioritize learning?

00:32:42.160 Either because they'll be especially common or because they're not the kind of things you'll

00:32:47.420 have time to consult a textbook or your book to figure out how to do it in an emergency.

00:32:54.200 Oh, boy.

00:32:54.980 Well, I have like 40 that I'd like you to know.

00:32:58.540 But if I had to pick five, of course, there's a sexy, sensational stuff like how to stop

00:33:03.340 bleeding.

00:33:04.120 That is, of course, always very important.

00:33:06.400 And there's a whole stop the bleed apparatus nationally that will help you learn that.

00:33:12.680 But we, of course, we talk about it in detail.

00:33:14.700 And we also describe all the different tourniquets and things like that in our book.

00:33:18.780 And they're good.

00:33:19.800 They're pros and cons.

00:33:21.140 You can also expect to deal with a lot of orthopedic issues, ankle sprains and things

00:33:26.400 like that.

00:33:27.100 Of course, there's going to be respiratory infections.

00:33:29.820 That's going to be very, very common.

00:33:31.640 Open wounds.

00:33:32.800 You need to deal also how to deal with significant problems.

00:33:35.920 I think the ability to use a flexible splint to treat a bunch of different issues, I think

00:33:43.320 that's a big skill.

00:33:44.200 The use of a cravat or a bandana or triangular bandage.

00:33:50.160 We have videos to show you how to use that in seven different ways for different things.

00:33:55.700 I think those are good skills to have because they handle different issues.

00:33:59.540 So I think that's important.

00:34:01.100 And of course, as we mentioned before, maybe the most important skill to obtain is how to

00:34:06.400 enforce preventative strategies against injuries and illnesses.

00:34:10.660 You know, and to do that, you have to actually get the knack of observing simple things such

00:34:15.860 as whether your people are dressed for the weather and enforcing the use of hand and eye

00:34:23.060 protection during work sessions.

00:34:24.600 I mentioned you can really save yourself a lot of headaches as a medic and maybe heartaches

00:34:29.500 if you can keep these people protecting themselves and adequately dressed for the weather.

00:34:34.980 I think that's important.

00:34:35.780 Of course, you know, you want to be able to treat burns and you want to treat open wounds

00:34:40.780 and you want to be able to close a wound if you absolutely have to.

00:34:44.740 But more importantly, you need to know when to close a wound and when to not close a wound

00:34:48.960 because you can lock in some bacteria and it could cause some major issues.

00:34:53.680 Okay.

00:34:53.800 So we got know how to stop bleed, know how to use different splints for orthopedic, you

00:34:58.960 know, bone breaks, springs, things like that.

00:35:01.180 Knowing how to do preventative medicine and then how to deal with wounds.

00:35:05.300 On the wound issue, like, how do you know if you should leave a wound open or close?

00:35:11.720 Well, if a wound is obviously dirty, in which a lot of wounds will be, if you happen to be

00:35:17.020 on the road and in a situation where, you know, you're not in a controlled environment,

00:35:23.260 your wound is going to be dirty.

00:35:24.920 And so if it's an animal bite, for example, it's going to be dirty.

00:35:28.400 And these days in the emergency room, they'll actually close some of these wounds, but off

00:35:33.820 the grid, you should definitely not close them.

00:35:36.520 You should treat them as an open wound and just make sure that you keep them clean.

00:35:40.680 And we talk about in detail the ability to perform that daily wound care.

00:35:44.840 And that's why I think that's a very important thing to be able to know.

00:35:48.320 And you have to be able to identify when a wound is not getting better and when you may need to

00:35:56.080 break out that last course of antibiotics that you've been saving.

00:36:00.220 Because in the end, that could save a life.

00:36:03.240 Can you superglue a wound shut?

00:36:04.940 I've seen that.

00:36:05.460 If you decide you can shut this wound, can you superglue it?

00:36:08.260 Yes.

00:36:08.580 I'll tell you exactly how.

00:36:09.940 Take a superglue and I want you to use the gel version of it.

00:36:13.460 It's much easier to handle than the liquid version.

00:36:15.540 So take superglue gel and hold the skin together, the cut edges of the skin together,

00:36:22.260 and apply a line of superglue gel on top of that, holding it together.

00:36:28.760 Wait for it to dry and then take a second layer, put a line over the first layer,

00:36:35.040 and then go around and around in an ever-widening oval for a couple of layers.

00:36:41.940 Then hold that together and let that dry and then do it one more time on top and even a little

00:36:48.280 more widened oval.

00:36:50.620 And if you do that and allow that to dry properly between, then it should be okay.

00:36:56.840 And the good news is that it will have an even less chance of infection than if you close it

00:37:01.800 almost any other way because of the sealing of the superglue.

00:37:05.220 Now, if you don't hold the skin together properly, you're going to put superglue in

00:37:09.900 between the two cut edges and it's not going to close.

00:37:12.660 So it's something that you just have to do.

00:37:14.840 You might practice on a, make a cut in a pool noodle and try to practice with that until

00:37:21.000 you get that right.

00:37:22.500 In regards to tourniquet, I know tourniquet use can be controversial.

00:37:26.440 People have really strong opinions about it.

00:37:28.740 Anything people should take into account when they think, well, maybe I need to use a tourniquet

00:37:33.700 here?

00:37:33.920 Well, I'll tell you that the Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care has stated recently that

00:37:41.720 you know that you're dealing with heavy bleeding, that the use of a tourniquet should be your

00:37:46.060 first course of action.

00:37:48.020 Normally, they recommend direct pressure, you know, with your hands and, you know, with either

00:37:53.580 gloved hands or a hand with a barrier between the wound and the hand, but some sort of cloth

00:38:00.200 or something like that.

00:38:01.140 But they're saying if you know you're dealing with arterial bleeding or the bleeding is just

00:38:05.660 of a volume that is serious, then use that tourniquet as the first course of action.

00:38:12.440 That is a departure from previous eras.

00:38:17.080 And in World War I, they actually called it the devil's instrument because a lot of people

00:38:23.100 just left it on too long and wound up causing nerve damage or even amputation.

00:38:28.620 But you can definitely keep a tourniquet on for a period of time, at least two hours,

00:38:32.980 without permanent damage.

00:38:34.940 I mean, okay, so the idea of a tourniquet, you're supposed to put that on there so you

00:38:38.380 can get to professional medical help.

00:38:40.400 Like, what do you do, you have severe bleeding in a long-term situation?

00:38:44.700 What I would say is you would transport that person to where the bulk of your medical supplies

00:38:49.780 are.

00:38:50.300 And there is a way to transition from a tourniquet to a, let's say, a compression bandage that

00:38:57.160 you can actually do.

00:38:58.860 Now, in normal times, you want to just get that person to the hospital, but if you don't

00:39:04.780 have the ability to get somebody to a hospital, then you might just have to transition that

00:39:08.880 tourniquet to a pressure dressing by itself.

00:39:11.620 And if you do, then you want to use, on the actual wound itself, something called a hemostatic

00:39:18.560 dressing.

00:39:19.820 And a hemostatic dressing is impregnated with material like kaolin or chitosan, and this is

00:39:26.560 a blood clotting material.

00:39:29.540 And so what you do is you apply it directly on the bleeding vessel, and you hold it in

00:39:34.580 place for three full minutes.

00:39:37.100 And it actually will stop the bleeding, even arterial bleeding, if you apply pressure and

00:39:42.440 do it for the right amount of time.

00:39:44.480 I actually was talking to somebody who was a follower of our website, and he was a purchaser

00:39:54.000 for the Navy in Hampton Yards.

00:39:57.260 And he talked about a study that they did in which they basically hung up a pig, and they

00:40:04.980 shot it with a nine millimeter and severed its artery, its femoral artery.

00:40:12.660 And so they used the quick clot material, which is a type, a brand of hemostatic dressing,

00:40:19.660 held the pressure on it, and it stopped the bleeding.

00:40:23.220 And then what they did is they shot the other leg, and they took the dressing out, the hemostatic

00:40:29.080 dressing out, and then put the hemostatic dressing in the second wound and actually stopped

00:40:33.700 it the second time around.

00:40:35.640 So it is something that if you know how to use these things, when you have the right

00:40:40.780 materials, the right hemostatic dressings, you can actually stop the bleeding in at least

00:40:47.020 from the standpoint of the emergent bleeding.

00:40:51.180 Related to this idea of bleeding, like gunshot wounds, are there any special things you got

00:40:54.740 to think about there?

00:40:55.780 Gunshot wounds, of course, are going to be difficult to treat off the grid.

00:40:59.480 You have to remember that there's things that happen when there is a projectile that enters

00:41:05.220 the body, and it forms a permanent channel, which is where the bullet actually went, physically

00:41:12.720 went through.

00:41:13.260 That's called permanent cavitation.

00:41:15.740 But it also forms something called temporary cavitation.

00:41:18.880 And temporary cavitation is a shockwave that occurs as a result of the bullet passing through

00:41:24.480 its speed through the body.

00:41:26.740 And so if you shot me just under my liver, for example, I would have a channel that went

00:41:34.740 through the area just under my liver.

00:41:37.420 But there would be liver damage, and it could bleed to death as a result of the temporary

00:41:41.900 shockwave that went through and disrupted liver tissue.

00:41:47.640 Okay.

00:41:48.200 I'm sure everyone's thought about this at one point.

00:41:50.580 What do you do in the case of a nuclear disaster?

00:41:53.320 Because I think people have heard about radiation sickness.

00:41:55.540 Are there things you can do to mitigate that?

00:41:58.700 Well, you know, nuclear disasters, believe it or not, if you're not standing at ground

00:42:02.140 zero, you actually have a pretty good shot at surviving.

00:42:04.880 In Hiroshima, they lost more than 100,000 people total to the bomb.

00:42:08.740 But it was a city that included the military that was there at the time had swelled to 450,000

00:42:14.380 people at the time of detonation.

00:42:16.860 So you have a shot to survive this.

00:42:19.800 In the early going, your goal is to prevent exposure.

00:42:22.820 And you want to prevent exposure over 100 rads, let's say.

00:42:26.240 Rad is the amount of radiation that's absorbed by a living thing.

00:42:30.120 So you might want to have a radiation dosimeter.

00:42:33.240 And that gauge is radiation absorbed.

00:42:35.200 And it's widely available online.

00:42:36.520 You can find it anywhere.

00:42:37.780 This item predicts the likelihood that you're going to develop it.

00:42:40.700 But there are three basic different ways to decreasing the total dose of radiation.

00:42:45.560 One, limit time spent in the open.

00:42:48.320 Radiation damage is dependent on the length of exposure.

00:42:50.840 So leave areas where high levels are detected and no adequate shelter is available.

00:42:54.600 That's important.

00:42:55.820 The activity of radioactive particles decreases over time, which is great.

00:42:59.720 After 24 hours, the levels have dropped a tenth of their previous value or less.

00:43:04.200 Then you want to increase the distance from the radiation source.

00:43:07.160 So this is a lot of common sense.

00:43:08.420 Radiation disperses over distance, right?

00:43:11.340 And the effects will be decreased in proportion.

00:43:14.860 In nuclear reactor meltdowns, common evacuation patterns include a complete 10-mile circle.

00:43:20.640 Or if you looked at the pattern, it looks like a keyhole or an old-timey keyhole comprising

00:43:26.160 of a, let's say, a two-mile circle and an additional three miles radiation radiating from the direction

00:43:31.960 of the prevailing winds.

00:43:34.100 So that's something that's important to know.

00:43:36.520 And then shielding.

00:43:37.680 Shielding, shielding, shielding.

00:43:39.520 Shield your people to decrease radiation where they are.

00:43:42.440 In many cases, they're going to have to shelter in place.

00:43:45.200 And the shielding is going to decrease exposure exponentially.

00:43:49.100 So it's important to know how to construct a barrier between your people and the radioactive

00:43:53.100 source.

00:43:54.160 And denser materials will give greater protection.

00:43:56.860 Now, let me talk about halving thickness for a second.

00:44:00.320 Now, when I say halving thickness, I'm saying H-A-L-V-I-N-G. 1.00

00:44:04.880 The shielding effectiveness is measured in terms of this.

00:44:08.140 This is the thickness of a particular material that will reduce gamma radiation, the most

00:44:12.560 dangerous kind, by one-half.

00:44:14.760 So when you multiply halving thicknesses, you multiply your protection.

00:44:18.480 So let's say the halving thickness of concrete is 2.4 inches or 6 centimeters.

00:44:24.420 So a barrier of 2.4 inches of concrete is going to drop between you and the radiation.

00:44:30.440 It's going to drop the exposure by half.

00:44:32.900 If you double that and make it 4.8 inches, it drops it to one-fourth.

00:44:36.760 One-half times one-half.

00:44:38.140 Tripling it drops it to one-eighth.

00:44:40.200 And 10 halving thicknesses drops the total radiation exposure to one in 1,024ths.

00:44:46.140 So if you're in a concrete bunker that's 24 inches thick, you are 10 halving thicknesses

00:44:52.800 thick.

00:44:53.100 And so you're exposed to only one 1,024th of the outside environment.

00:44:57.520 So that's something that's important.

00:44:58.920 Now, treating radiation thickness, you treat them as you would burn patients.

00:45:02.280 But once you've received 400 to 500 RADs, however, there's not too much that can be

00:45:06.580 done.

00:45:06.880 You either survive or you won't.

00:45:09.360 And is that a medication you take for your thyroid?

00:45:12.480 Yes.

00:45:13.080 Well, that's also a protective thing for one thing only, and that is thyroid cancer.

00:45:19.820 And an adult would take 130 milligrams of potassium iodide once a day or 65 milligrams a day if

00:45:27.480 you're a child.

00:45:28.120 And it's very useful to prevent thyroid cancer down the road.

00:45:33.940 And the people that are getting thyroid cancer from Chernobyl, those people were children

00:45:38.860 when they were exposed.

00:45:41.380 So if you have a limited amount of this, the brand is called ThyroSafe.

00:45:46.040 We have it in our store.

00:45:47.320 And this is something that you would only give, if you had limited amount, only give it to

00:45:51.700 the kids.

00:45:52.980 Gotcha.

00:45:53.380 Well, Joe, this has been a great conversation.

00:45:55.480 Where can people go to learn more about the book and your work?

00:45:58.800 Well, we've written several books.

00:46:00.260 The main one now is called The Survival Medicine Handbook, The Essential Guide for When Help

00:46:04.040 is Not on the Way.

00:46:05.920 And it's now in its fourth edition.

00:46:07.580 You can find it in black and white on Amazon in color and spiral-bound versions on our site

00:46:12.500 at store.doomandbloom.net, along with an entire line of medical and dental kits for the serious

00:46:17.940 medic in times of trouble.

00:46:19.620 Now, our website at doomandbloom.net now has over 1,500, 1,500 articles, videos, podcasts,

00:46:27.080 and more on medical preparedness.

00:46:29.420 We also have a YouTube channel called Dr. Bones Nurse Amy.

00:46:31.980 That's a nickname of mine, Dr. Bones.

00:46:33.920 And that has about 300 videos.

00:46:35.740 You'll also find my articles on the newsstand in Backwoods Survival Guide, Off Grid Recall,

00:46:41.880 Backwoods Home, Prepper Survival Guide, and other magazines in the homesteading and survival

00:46:46.800 genres.

00:46:47.360 Oh, and on Facebook, we have Survival Medicine, Dr. Bones Nurse Amy groups.

00:46:54.740 We have a group that's 8,000 strong there.

00:46:57.460 You'll get all my articles and videos on that too.

00:47:01.260 I also have presence on PrepperNet and MeWe.

00:47:04.980 Fantastic.

00:47:05.640 Well, Joe Alton, thanks for your time.

00:47:06.640 It's been a pleasure.

00:47:08.020 Same here, Brett.

00:47:08.900 Thank you so much for having me.

00:47:11.780 My guest there is Dr. Joe Alton.

00:47:13.360 He's the co-author of the book, The Survival Medicine Handbook.

00:47:15.780 It's available on Amazon.com.

00:47:17.620 You can find more information about his work at his website, doomandbloom.net.

00:47:20.940 Also, check out our show notes at aom.is slash medic, where you can find links to resources

00:47:24.520 where you can delve deeper into this topic.

00:47:33.380 Well, that wraps up another edition of the AOM Podcast.

00:47:36.140 Make sure to check out our website at artofmanlies.com where you can find our podcast archives,

00:47:39.740 as well as thousands of articles that we've written over the years about pretty much anything

00:47:42.560 you think of.

00:47:43.160 And if you haven't done so already, I'd appreciate it if you take one minute to get

00:47:46.060 us reading up a podcast or Spotify.

00:47:47.480 It helps out a lot.

00:47:48.200 And if you've done that already, thank you.

00:47:50.000 Please consider sharing the show with a friend or family member who you think brings something

00:47:52.780 out of it.

00:47:53.560 As always, thank you for the continued support.

00:47:55.320 And until next time, it's Brett McKay.

00:47:56.920 Remind you to not listen to the AOM Podcast, but put what you've heard into action.

00:48:00.320 I'll see you then.

The Art of Manliness - April 17, 2024

Grid-Down Medicine — A Guide for When Help Is NOT on the Way

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