Archive | Survival Medicine

Survival Medicine Hour #355 earthquake damage What would you have done if you were in Mexico City during the recent earthquakes? Is there anything that might have increased your chances of survival? In this episode of the Survival Medicine Hour, hosts Joe Alton MD and Amy Alton ARNP talk about earhtquakes in general and give […]

Survival Medicine Hour #354 close shave #1: Gatlinburg, Nov. 2106 This Survival Medicine Hour 9/15: Hurricane Irma has wreaked havoc on Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, and our hosts Joe and Amy Alton, aka Dr.Bones and Nurse Amy have now had two different homes survive destruction in a year: Their place in Gatlinburg on Ski […]

EARTHQUAKE SAFETY Scene from 1985 earthquake that killed 10000 A 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck Mexico City on Tuesday, September 19, collapsing buildings, killing at least 250, and injuring hundreds more throughout the region.  The latest tremor event came hard on the heels of an 8.1 magnitude quake off the coast just 2 weeks ago, which […]

7 Serious Infections from Contaminated Food and Water Just Hanging Out (and I mean just hanging out) Recently, I watched a few episodes of “Naked and Afraid“, a series that puts two individuals in extreme environments with few supplies and, for some reason, no clothes. In this program, many of the participants come down with […]

Image source: Pixabay.com Honey is a homesteader’s dream. Produced as a necessary byproduct of a honey bee colony’s pollination of your precious plants, honey is a fantastic addition to a meal or beverage (or—and we know you do it—for eating right out of the jar). But did you know that honey also can save your […]

Medical preparedness is an important part of surviving a disaster scenario and, indeed, many believe that they can handle any emergency if the grid goes down. For those who are trained to stabilize and transport, that may be true for typical injuries due to trauma. The true survival medic, however, is the end of the […]

If you only eat sweet potatoes as part of your traditional Thanksgiving meal, you are missing out on one of the most nutritious vegetables of them all. The sweet potato, though, is not really a potato at all. It is a flowering dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the Convolvulaceae family, which is the same botanical […]

Bleeding wound The Special Operations Forces Tactical Tourniquet (SOFT-T) is one of the most popular tourniquets made, with many selecting it as their item of choice to control severe extremity bleeding. The SOFT-T is reliable, sturdy, and easy to apply, especially when only one hand is available to the casualty. The US Army Institute of […]

hurricane image by pixabay Hurricane Irma, already a powerful storm, is steaming its way towards the Caribbean and the U.S. East Coast. With Texas and Louisiana still reeling in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, it’s just one more reason to always be prepared for disasters. You only have to read the news to know that […]

Image source: Pixabay.com Our ancestors used to call gout “The Disease of Kings.” That’s because in ancient times, gout was thought to be the punishment of a lifetime spent overeating rich meats and wine. Today, we know that this disease is a form of arthritis, caused by high levels of uric acid. Although our kidneys […]