Cold Times — How to Prepare for the Mini Ice Age

by Dr. Anita Bailey

  Sources for Antibiotics

  If you are not a medical professional able to write prescriptions, it will be significantly more difficult to lay in a supply of these antibiotics or any other medications, for that matter. Non-prescription sources include: fish medicines from aquarium supply sources online or stores (FishMox is amoxicillin, for example), and the injectable medicines for livestock available at feed stores (penicillin and tetracycline, mostly). I cannot recommend these, as I have not personally used them. However, if I had nothing else, I would definitely stock these.

  Antibiotics from overseas sources are a bit more problematic. I have seen an amoxicillin from an overseas online source used. It caused an itchy allergy reaction. Previously, the individual had not reacted to amoxil. Since then, they have taken domestic amoxil WITHOUT getting a rash. So, I suspect there was something else in that overseas medication that they reacted to. This has put me off of overseas sources, but others may be willing to take the risk.

  If you are related to or have a friend who is a physician, nurse practitioner, dentist, or physician’s assistant, you may ask them to consider writing you a prescription for “just in case”. Many health care providers are open to the idea of keeping some antibiotics on hand. If you are seen routinely and given an antibiotic prescription, ask to have a refill or two. Some providers are okay with that, but some are not - so use some sensible discretion here.

  There are online domestic sources for antibiotics, as well. Two of these are shopmedvetsupply.com and HenrySchein.com – you will need a state medical license to order prescription medicines. They also carry other non-prescription medical supplies and equipment – shopmedvetsupply is very reasonably priced. This is a legitimate source for medications of all types; livestock meds are labeled for animal use only. Prices vary depending on their supplies.

  Nothing here should be construed as suggesting you break the law.

  Alternative Antibiotic and Antiviral Remedies

  If you are simply unable to acquire pharmaceuticals and no health care provider can be found, but you must treat an infection, there are multiple herbal and alternative approaches. I’ll give some common ones following, but here’s a couple outstanding books that should be on your shelf:

  Herbal Antibiotics:

  Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug Resistant Bacteria

  and

  Herbal Antivirals:

  Natural Remedies for Emerging and Resistant Viruses

  both by Stephen Harrod Buhner

  published by Storey Publishing

  Three common “natural” remedies that are helpful and may act as effective antibacterials and antivirals are garlic, elderberry, and table sugar or honey.

  Garlic

  This is the go-to herb for any kind of infection; it has a centuries-long track record as a natural antibiotic. The most effective garlic is a fresh whole clove, recently dug from the garden and peeled and rinsed in clean water. Older garlic will do, but fresh is always best so keep some in your garden at all times – it may overwinter underground unless the ground freezes.

  Garlic can be applied to the skin as a poultice. It can be taken by mouth as fresh chopped cloves, as a cooked or fried food, or crushed and made into a tea. Be cautious in applying garlic directly to the skin, especially sensitive skin or on children, because it is capable of causing blisters and caustic burns.

  Garlic Poultice: Mince or grate several cloves of garlic, mixing with a little lard, cultured butter, coconut oil, or virgin olive oil. Place on a clean, thin, cotton cloth (such as a cut strip of cotton bed sheeting or clean t-shirt), lay over the affected area with cloth protecting the skin from the garlic, and cover all with clean gauze or cotton to keep it in place.

  For children with an ear infection, first oil the feet with lard, butter, coconut or olive oil, place the thin cotton cloth on the bottom of the feet, put garlic in oil on that, and cover with clean white cotton socks. Leave on overnight or as child sleeps. The child will awaken with “garlic breath,” demonstrating that the herb has been absorbed in the entire body. Don’t put garlic into the ear in any form.

  For open wounds, mash the garlic and oil into a paste, and place into the wound then cover with a clean cloth dressing. Replace the dressing if there is excess drainage. Monitor and replace daily. Stop if getting worse. Also take garlic by mouth.

  Garlic Tea: As nasty as it might sound to make a tea from garlic, it’s actually quite tasty and soothing. Take one or two cloves and crush in a mug. Add hot water and steep for a few minutes until the liquid is still warm but cool enough to drink. Remove the garlic. Add to this a tablespoon of honey and lemon to taste. Can also add fruit juice if desired. Stir and sip. May be rewarmed. Okay to drink often.

  Garlic by Mouth: The secret to making the best use of garlic as a remedy is to take it internally as well as externally. Cloves may be peeled and chopped to “pill size”, and swallowed as-is. Cloves may be peeled and gently fried whole in butter until lightly browned, or even deep fried. The flavor mellows and it’s easy to consume an entire bulb or two without realizing it. Whole bulbs can be oven baked, by cutting off the top fourth or so, and setting the bulb into a baking dish with a little water in the bottom. Bake until the cloves are soft, 20 to 30 minutes. Squeeze the clove onto fresh bread and spread around, add butter and a sprinkle of basil, and eat.

  Elderberry

  This ancient herb is effective against bacteria and viruses, and has the benefit of tasting good enough that children will drink it as a tea or syrup.

  Harvest wild-grown or garden elderberries and dry the berries, or purchase dried berries, for later use as a tea. Add 1 tablespoon (more or less to taste) to a cup of boiling water, letting it steep for at least 5 minutes. Strain tea into a cup, dispose of berries. Flavor tea to taste with a little honey, lemon, or other fruit juice. Drink while still very warm. Make take 3-6 cups daily.

  To make syrup, boil 2 cups of elderberries in 3 cups of water for about 10 minutes in a covered pot. Let cool to very warm. Drain through a sieve into another pot, pressing the berries to extract as much juice as possible. Dispose of berries (chickens like them). Flavor the juice with a cup of honey and squeeze of lemon juice. Add ¼ cup of vodka, Everclear, or Brandy to help preserve this. Store in a cool place or refrigerate. Take 2 to 4 tablespoons (adult) or 1-2 tablespoons (child) every 3 hours at first sign of illness and throughout the duration.

  Alternatively, you can take two cups of fresh berries, boil in clean water that just barely covers them for a minute or two, then put berries and water into a quart mason jar. Add a cup of sugar or ½ cup honey per quart, then fill the jar with vodka, Everclear, or brandy (cheap is okay, as long as it is at least 40% alcohol on the label). Shake daily for 2 weeks and it is ready to use. Strain before using. May be served hot or cold, a half cup twice daily.

  Elderberries also make an outstanding summer wine that mellows with age, while retaining its healing properties. See the wine recipes.

  Sugar

  Sugar is another remedy that has a long history treating wounds and still works like a charm. It is believed that the sugar affects bacteria it contacts by interfering with their cellular fluid balance, causing the bacteria to die. It may also act as a tissue “irritant” that stimulates new cells to form. This is used as a simple paste (a little clean water plus sugar as needed to make a thick paste). This can be placed into a wound or on a sore, covered, and replaced daily until the wound is healed. I have seen deep bedsores close and heal with this simple basic treatment.

  For those who have little background in healthcare, there are two excellent books you MUST have in your paper library – you can find them online for free as .pdfs; be sure to print them out:

  Where There Is No Doctor by Werner, Thurman and Maxwell

  Where There Is No Dentist by Dickson

  For health care professionals who need a refresher on general and emergent practice, consider this outstandingly useful work:

  Improvised Medicine: Pro
viding Care in Extreme Environments

  by Kenneth V. Iserson

  McGraw-Hill, 2011. About $70 and worth every penny.

  Alternative Herbal Supplies: 10 Must-Haves

  Herbal remedies are true health care treatments that cost next-to-nothing if you are willing to grow them or can find them growing wild. There are, literally, thousands of plants that have been successfully used to treat disease, infection, and pain. Medicine didn’t begin with the pharmaceutical industry or the establishment of medical schools; folk remedies were passed on from generation to generation because they work.

  Keep in mind that herbal remedies aren’t “one pill fixes all” – there’s a great deal of art to utilizing plants for healing. The ill person’s own physiology can help or slow the herb’s ability to treat a condition, as well. So “the eye of the healer” is very critical to the process.

  Don’t expect an overnight cure from any herbal approach. Results are typically slower than using pharmaceuticals, but with many fewer negative pharmaceutical side effects.

  Garlic

  We’ve already discussed using garlic as an antibiotic replacement, so I won’t repeat that here. Garlic also has been used to lower blood pressure and reduce blood clotting (that is, it slows platelet aggregation or “thins the blood”). Plus, you can’t make a good pasta sauce without it. If there was a single herb that I absolutely would never want to be without, it’s garlic.

  Uses: skin infection, coughs, flu, colds, diarrhea, upper respiratory infections of all kinds, high blood pressure, bruising and excess blood clotting.

  Forms: tincture, whole fresh, chopped/minced, baked/fried, poultice, paste, tea.

  Comfrey

  This is another fabulous and underutilized plant. Not only is it one of the best medicinals, it also is a rapidly growing outstanding livestock feed which can be fed green, and dry as a hay-replacer, PLUS it can be easily harvested and used as a green mulch around trees and other plants.

  Symphytum Officinalis is an ancient plant with a long history of being used on bruises and broken bones. The long, spiny green leaves are tropical-looking. The drooping small purple flowers attract bumblebees and other pollinators. There are few pests that bother this plant, and it tolerates cool growing weather and moist soil conditions; it originated in Russia.

  The Henry Doubleday center in England did studies some years ago, and found that plants could be harvested two or three times during a growing season (cut leaves and stems straight across about 5 inches above ground level), and it would continue to grow until hard frost puts it to sleep. Using this technique, tons of dried comfrey, to be used as hay, could be harvested from each acre. That’s critical if grass hay and grain harvests are compromised by bad weather. Livestock really love comfrey, too – chickens, sheep, goats, horses, rabbits, cattle, hogs – it’s a favorite of all, and high in protein, too. It also spreads like a weed.

  Comfrey grows on a large, knobby root, with multiple side sprouts. In the spring, new sprouts can be separated with a bit of root attached, and planted where ever you want another stand. Also, side-roots can be cut off and planted separately.

  The large root, stems, and leaves are high is “mucilage”, a thick and somewhat slimy juice. This contains the high-power bruise repair and bone-knitting agent, allantoin, which triggers healthy cells to grow. You can pick a leaf right off the plant, and squeeze the juice onto a new bruise, sore, skin injury, psoriasis, boil, or whatever, and immediately notice the pain subside.

  If you accidentally hammer your thumbnail, apply comfrey (fresh, as a tincture, or a salve) right away for immediate pain relief and bruise repair. You might not even bruise at all, it’s that amazing. I even used comfrey salve on a dislocated finger, after putting it back into place, to reduce swelling and pain.

  You can grow this plant from seeds and from root cuttings. Online, strictlymedicinals.com, an herb company, has different varieties and other excellent resources.

  Uses: skin sores, bruises, broken bones, psoriasis, livestock feed, hay, mulch, topical pain relief, damaged aged skin.

  Forms: fresh, tincture, salve, topical tea, paste of leaves.

  Elderberry

  I previously mentioned this roadside plant for the outstanding antibiotic and antiviral properties it has. The berries, produced in mid to late summer, are small and dark purple, and form a plate-sized “umbrel”, or umbrella-shaped group.

  There isn’t any other plant that looks quite like it, so it’s easy to spot, usually growing in clumps at the edges of fields or roads. Historically, the stems of these plants were used as splints to set broken bones back in place by splitting the stems and putting the cut sides next to the skin. It was said to help the bones heal.

  There are domesticated and wild varieties – prefer the wild ones if they grow in your area, because they are hardier and have better healing profiles. Two well-known domestic varieties are York and Adams – you must have both to ensure pollination.

  Uses: antibiotic and antiviral, upper respiratory illness, fevers, headaches.

  Form: tea, tincture, syrup, wine.

  Tulsi (Holy Basil)

  Tulsi is a member of the basil family and a relative of mint. Like the familiar culinary basils, the small leaves have a pleasant fragrance. Cultivation of tulsi is just like other basils. It doesn’t do well in the cold, but grows into a small bushy mound during the summer, sends up flower shoots, makes seeds and then dies back. Like culinary basils, pinching off the growing ends of the stems will cause the plant to grow more thickly.

  The medicinal uses of this outstanding plant are dual, aside from its delightful flavor. Before the plants flower, leaves and juice are a natural antiseptic. This is due to the presence of relatively high levels of eugenol. Plants harvested before flowering can be preserved in a tincture to be used as a wound and skin injury cleaning agent, or dried for a tea that can be used for washing sores or as a mouthwash or gargle.

  After flowering, the plants increase their level of rosemarinic acid, which is a calming anti-anxiety remedy – this can be made into a pleasantly flavored tea that will settle children and adults down after a trying day – and help both to get rest.

  Richo Cech of strictlymedicinals.com reported a study that examined different varieties of tulsi for their relative levels of eugenol (antiseptic) and rosemarinic acid (anti-anxiety). He found that Vana Tulsi had the highest levels of antiseptic eugenol, and Amrita Tulsi had the greatest anti-anxiety rosemarinic acid even though all varieties have some levels of both.

  Krishna Tulsi came close to the top performers in both eugenol and rosemarinic acid – so if there’s only one tulsi in your garden, Krishna would be a good choice.

  Uses: antiseptic before flowering, skin and mouth sores; calming anti-anxiety after flowering, as a tea or chewed leaves.

  Forms: tincture, tea, paste.

  Yarrow

  This hardy wild plant has many domesticated forms that are used for color in the flower garden. The wild version, with plain white flowers, stands for a long time - several to many weeks - beside roadways and in untrimmed fields. The feathery foliage and strong medicinal aroma make it easy to identify.

  Achillea Millefolium, like some of these herbs here, has a long history as a medicinal. The primary use I’ve made of it is as a fever-reducer, which works remarkably fast. A teaspoon of dried flowers, made into a tea (sweetener and lemon help), will bring down a fever within half an hour and induce sweating. That makes this something you can use if you don’t have acetaminophen, aspirin, or ibuprofen. The only challenge with yarrow is that it does have a very strong and not necessarily wonderful flavor. “Taste bad, work good.”

  Uses: fever reduction, brings on sweating

  Form: tea from dried flower heads

  Mullein

  Verbascum thapsus is a truly remarkable plant, with a history as a medicinal that dates back at least 2,000 years. It’s a biennial, so it takes two years to go from seed to flower. The leaves are covered with a downy h
airy surface that makes them feel soft and fluffy. The tall flower spike, up to 6 feet tall, appears in its second year, and has tiny yellow flowers on the upper portion. They grow in poor soil, overgrazed fields, disturbed soil, beside roads, and just about everywhere in the world.

  Mullein is often known by its alternate name, cowboy toilet paper – and it is really an ideal, natural, soft, and gentle wipe. Wipe in the same direction that the downy hairs grow to avoid stickery leftovers. The plant has a mucilaginous fluid within the leaves and root that have multiple applications that have stood the test of time.

  Uses:

  Calming coughs from bronchitis, pneumonia, lung and throat irritations of all kinds, when taken as a tea or gargle. Put through a coffee filter or cheese cloth to remove the tiny hairs before drinking.

  The dried leaves have also been smoked in a pipe to treat lung ailments.

  Hemorrhoids could be treated with poultices from the leaves.