Survival Medicine

For the survival medic, increasing international tensions means that knowledge about nuclear events and the physical damage associated with them is a worthwhile topic to know about. Short of an asteroid hitting Earth or an ultra-deadly pandemic disease, we mean more deadly than COVID, no disaster has the potential to destroy society as much as a nuclear war. Even “minor” radiation accidents, such as reactor meltdowns, may cause long-standing damage to whole areas. The medic must always have a plan of action for every type of disaster to increase the chances for survival of group members. In this episode of the Survival Medicine Podcastl, Joe Alton, MD and Amy Alton NP discuss radiation events like dirty bombs, atomic and thermonuclear weapons, likelihood of survival from the various types of damage that could occur, fallout shelters, and diagnosis and treatment of acute radiation sickness. Wishing you the best of health in good times or bad,  Joe and Amy Hey, check out the greatly expanded brand new 4th E

In the US, almost twenty percent of the population has problems with anxiety, which is defined as feelings of apprehension, nervousness, and unease. It might be about an imminent event, a current situation, or may be of unknown origin. For example, Israel announced that Iran will complete a nuclear weapon in 10 days, and that was 9 days ago. Also, are we going to need a vaccine passport to travel, work, go to the bathroom? Don’t be surprised. So, yeah, a lot of anxiety. And these are “normal” times. In survival scenarios, anxiety, depression, and PTSD are going to be epidemic among survivors, and the family medic had better be prepared to deal with people suffering from these conditions. Dr. Joe Alton and Nurse Practitioner Amy Alton discuss ways that you could help out if you were knocked off the grid long-term. Wishing you the best of health in good times or bad, Joe Alton MD              Amy Alton NP Hey, don't forget to check out our entire line of quality medical kits, individual supplies, and more at

Last week The Altons said It’s a cruel, cruel summer, like the 80s song goes, and if you live on the coast or considering a trip to the beach during the dog days, you have more than sunburn to worry about. There’s all sorts of critters in the sea that can cause trouble, even close to shore. I’m not talking about sharks, it’s shark week on Nat Geo and some of you are probably all sharked out. I’m talking about other sea creatures that don’t bite you, but sting you like jellyfish, stingrays, spined catfish, scorpion fish, lionfish, etc. Plus, Joe and Amy discuss the heartbreaking tragedy of drowning accidents. How does someone drown, what happens in the body during the event, and how to treat near-drownings and prevent it altogether. All this and more on the latest Survival Medicine Podcast. Wishing you the best of health in good times or bad, Joe and Amy Alton Hey, don't forget that a brand new edition (the fourth) of the Survival Medicine Handbook will be on bookshelves and at Amazon soon! To check it out

It’s a cruel, cruel summer, like the 80s song goes, and everywhere from Oregon to Montana to New York City can experience big problems this year with blackouts taking out the AC and making homes and businesses into sweatboxes more often than ever before. In the west, wildfires have burned three times the acreage this year as compared to last year at this time. So, the family medic better be prepared to deal with heat-related illness. Dr. Joe Alton and Nurse Practitioner Amy Alton discuss heat wave safety, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, first- and second-degree burns, and sun protection. Also, Nurse Amy discusses one of her favorite natural products, raw unprocessed honey as well as its medicinal benefits. This stuff is good for you! All this and more on the Survival Medicine Podcast with Joe Alton MD and Amy Alton, APRN. Wishing you the best of health in good times or bad, Joe and Amy Hey, we're coming out, after five years, with a new expanded and revised edition of the Survival Medicine Handbook! Check o

Well, a lot of you might be wondering where we’ve been and why we took a hiatus from our podcasts and videos. It because ol' Dr. Bones had pneumonia, and recovery for me has been slow going. I have acid reflux, and it’s not just heartburn, it goes all the way up to my throat, a condition called laryngopharyngeal reflux. Laryngo means the voicebox, and pharyngeal is all about the throat. So one night I woke up coughing and gagging on a lot of acid that went all the way up and entered my airways. By the morning I had a temperature of 100 and, scarier than that, bloody phlegm. X-rays showed pneumonia in multiple areas of the right lung, after antibiotics and oral steroids, I improved despite being exhausted for more than a month, almost two months. I’m finally getting my energy back and keeping to a very low diet. So, this show is all about pneumonia and acid reflux, how to diagnose and treat both conditions even if you have limited supplies and the miracle of modern medicine just doesn't exist. Everything the

Six people are dead in the South after at least 23 tornadoes tore through Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia last week. The damage in places like Coweta County is Georgia, well, it looks like a bomb went off there. Five people lost their lives in Calhoun County, Alabama, after the state was hit with 17 reported tornadoes. Sounds like an apocalypse movie? Nope, stuff like this happens this time a year every year, in the United States, the world’s capital for tornadoes. Now why would an old country doctor be talking about general disaster preparedness? Where the blood and gore or the catastrophic pandemics we usually talk about. Well, with tornadoes there’s plenty of blood and gore, and you’d better get ready to deal with it, if you’re going to be the family medic, whether it’s in good times or bad. But even more importantly, the family medic can take steps to decrease the chances that a loved one with be injured or get sick, and that save precious supplies, which save a lot of headaches, and maybe a heartache o

In this audio episode of the Survival Medicine Podcast, Dr. Joe Alton and Nurse Amy Alton discuss chronic medical problems in survival scenarios, such as thyroid issues and high blood pressure. We mentioned in a recent show that the family medic won’t have lab tests and fancy diagnostic imaging like MRIs and CT scans to help with medical issues if some disaster throws us off the grid. You, medic, will have to go by physical signs and symptoms, just like they did in the 19th century, which is just about where you’ll be thrown back to medically. This can be done if you learn about what signs and symptoms are visible in different disease conditions. The Altons discuss thyroid issues in detail off the grid, and answer a listener's question on hypertension, plus more! Wishing you the best of health in good times or bad, Joe Alton MD aka Dr. Bones         Amy Alton ARNP, CNM, aka Nurse Amy If you support our mission to put a medically prepared person in every family, check out Nurse Amy's entire line of quality

In a disaster, especially a long-term one, the family medic has to be able to handle a lot of different emergencies. Some of these are clearly survivable, such as a broken finger, and some are not, like a bullet to the brain. It’s important for the medic to have a realistic attitude towards the hard facts. Being realistic won’t make decision-making easier, but it might make it clearer. If you’re diligent in your role as medic you’ll accumulate various medicines that will help keep the family healthy and you’ll do it BEFORE the you-know-what hits the fan. We talked a little while ago about antibiotics. But you need more than just antibiotics, you’ll need a lot of different over the counter drugs, something we’ll talk about in the near future, and probably you’ll have people in your family or survival group that need medicines for high blood pressure, diabetes, and other medical problems. Dr. Joe and Nurse Amy Alton discuss the truth about expiration dates, and what role they have in choosing medications for

All injuries carry a risk of infection. Various kinds of microbes can invade the body and cause Inflammation in soft tissues, also known as “cellulitis”. These infections develop when bacteria enter through a crack or break in your skin. You can imagine that, off the grid, and especially on the road or in the wilderness, that all sorts of injuries will occur that break the skin and get infected. Think of all the activities you might be doing that you don’t do a lot of now. Making a lot of campfires? Chopping a lot of wood for fuel. Doing stuff you’re not used to can certainly put you at risk. Dr. Joe Alton (aka Dr. Bones) and Amy Alton ARNP (aka Nurse Amy) discusses various soft tissue infections, how to identify and treat them, and how to lance a boil if required. Different antibiotics may help in oral form, several of which you should have in your medical storage for long-term survival scenarios. Wishing you the best of health in good times or bad, Joe and Amy Alton Show your support for our mission to

It’s 2021, and over the last year, we’ve seen the most productive distributor of fish antibiotics, Thomas Labs stop manufacturing products, probably related to pressure from the FDA, who has repeatedly stated that it was increasing its “stewardship” of animal medications. This, they say, is because of antibiotic resistance issues, but reports of people using these medications without medical supervision probably had something to do with it also. As we’ve always said, these meds, even if they’re identical to human meds, aren’t candy, and shouldn’t be used in any situation where there’s a functioning modern medical system, which despite the pandemic, there still is. Still, for the preparedness community, the ability to have some of these in your survival medicine cabinet may save a life if a disaster knocks us off the grid long-term. Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy discuss new antibiotic brands that are taking the place of the non-defunct Thomas Labs fish and bird antbiotics... Wishing you the best of health in good t

COVID-19 was supposed to peter out around now, but cases are peaking again, with 300,000 cases reported just on Jan. 8th. Is 2021 going to be just more of the same as 2020? With vaccines now available, can you still get the virus? Can you still give it to others? Will you still have to wear masks? Dr. Fauci says he expects some workplaces and institutions to require the vaccination, will you need to carry a COVID-Card in your wallet in the future? The Altons give their opinion (just an opinion) on what's in the future. Also, what easily available products may help you avoid a bad outcome from exposure to SARS-CoV2. Amy Alton ARNP gives her recommendation (also that of Eastern Virginia Medical School). Plus, dress warmly or you'll catch a cold? It's smart to dress for the weather appropriately, for sure, but more to prevent hypothermia than getting an infection. The Altons, aka Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy, dispel some common myths about getting colds and flus, and tell you the real reasons why winter is cold and

We’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of my original article “A New Pneumonia”, where I wrote about a strange new virus that had sickened 60 people in a place called Wuhan, China. That was Jan.7th, before anyone died or they even had a name for the pathogen we now know as SARS-Cov2. Now, almost into 2021, the virus will still be an issue well into 2021 and some places are at maximum lockdown. Ivermectin is considered a new option by some, is it the real thing or a flash in the pan? Dr. Joe Alton explains all you need to know. Also, Nurse Amy Alton worries about our listeners with depression due to cold weather and gray skies, as well as Christmas "blues". She talks about what to do if tough times are getting you down, with natural remedies and lifestyle advice. All this and more on the latest episode of The Survival Medicine Podcast with Joe and Amy Alto, aka Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy! Wishing you the Happiest of Christmases and the healthiest of New Years! Check out our store at store.doomandbloom.ne

Todd Sepulveda of the popular PrepperWebsite.com brings his podcast onto our channel for an interview with our regular hosts Dr. Joe Alton and Nurse Amy Alton, this time about pregnancy, labor, and delivery off the grid and other obstetric topics. Be aware that some of the subject matter may be graphic regarding the natural processes that occur during childbirth.  Be sure to check out Todd's website and his podcast channel!! Wishing you the best of health in good times or bad, Joe and Amy Alton Hey, check out Amy's latest one-of-a-kind kit, an obstetric kit that a modern hospital would envy, at store.doomandbloom.net!

In any long term survival setting, somebody’s  going to get pregnant at one point or another. Even if you daughter is 7 years old right now, a decade or so into an EMP strike that knocks us off the grid once and for all, she’s gonna be 17 and you might end up a grandparent in a world with power. You’ll need some equipment that will increase your chances of having a successful birth and a healthy mother afterward. This isn’t something to laugh at; during the era of the civil war, maternal deaths approached 1-2% per pregnancy. With women having an average of 10 pregnancies back then, that adds up to 10-20 percent. That’s a lot of heartbreak and tragedy when things have to running smoothly to survive.  Now, Certified Nurse Midwife Amy has put together a one-of-a kind kit that puts all the other ob kits to shame. This is pretty much what the hospitals use minus the fetal monitor machine. Listen in as Amy describes her latest brainchild and gives valuable tips on pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum care.

The person that’s responsible for the health of their family isn’t just there to stop a bleeding wound or set a broken leg. Poorly cooked or contaminated food will kill more people in survival settings than gunfights at the OK corral. Infectious disease might run rampant if you’re not vigilant about food safety. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, one in six Americans will get sick from food poisoning this year alone, with over 100,000 hospitalizations nationwide. Dr. Joe Alton discusses one microbe that has sickened more than 1,100 people this quarter alone called "CYCLOSPORA". Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention. Plus, principles of food safety to guard against feeding your people contaminated food in good times or bad. Plus, a short rant about COVID statistics and the idea put forth by health officials that only 9% of the US population has been exposed to COVID so far, making herd immunity impossible without a widespread (probably miulti-year) vaccination program. Dr. Alt

Hey, today we’ve invited our old friend Leon Pantenburg of Survival Common Sense to the show. Leon Pantenburg is a wilderness enthusiast and journalist, and also the author of “Bushcraft Basics: A common sense guide to wilderness survival”. As an award-winning newspaperman for four decades covering stories about search and rescue events, Leon has seen his share of floods and forest fires, hurricane and tornadoes, earthquakes, mud slides and other natural disasters. He’s also reported on too many tragic outcomes from wilderness emergencies. It’s unfortunate that people die unnecessarily from outdoor accidents and emergency situations when simple, common sense actions can help. Leon teaches such common sense techniques to the average person in order to avert potential disasters. His emphasis is to apply thoroughly tested and practiced, simple techniques of wilderness survival. Plus, we've talked a lot about property defense and avoiding burn injuries, but today we'll talk about burn injuries in general regar

The CDC has recommended that Americans wear masks “in public”, but are vague on what to do in many situations. From the CDC website:  “CDC recommends that people wear masks in public settings and when around people who don’t live in your household, especially when other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain.” The Cleveland Clinic is a little more lenient: ": If you’re unlikely to be around anyone or will have the option of maintaining a safe distance from anyone you encounter, then a mask likely isn’t necessary but having one handy is a good idea just in case." What's the history of social distancing defined as six feet? Distancing from sick individuals, for better or worse, has a long history. In ancient times, people stayed away from “leper” colonies (leprosy is now known as “Hansen’s Disease”).  No one really knew, however, how much distance was required. The Altons try to make sense of it all. Also, millions of tons of plastic refuse have entered our oceans annually since about 1950, fo

Recently, Dr. Alton was asked to write an article on tourniquets for the highly popular Survivor’s Edge magazine, a great read if ever there was one. Most people know at this point how to place a tourniquet, but there are some principles you may not know about hemorrhage and how to stop it using this life-saving device. The risk of hemorrhage from traumatic injury is always a possibility, whether it’s due to a motor vehicle accident, a work mishap, civil unrest, or the zombie apocalypse. A major arterial bleed, if untreated, can cause a victim to be beyond medical help in just a few short minutes. The bleeding may be so severe that emergency medical personnel arrive too late to help.  Dr. Alton outlines more than a dozen important points that must be understand to properly stop hemorrhage with tourniquets. Wishing you the best of health in good times or bad, Joe Alton MD    Amy Alton APRN Learn more about bleeding and 150 other medical topics with a copy of the Survival Medicine Handbook's award-winning

Today on the Survival Medicine Podcast, we welcome good friend Charley Hogwood. Charley is the author of THE SURVIVAL GROUP HANDBOOK: How To Plan, Organize and Lead People for Short and Long Term Survival, the foremost guide, in the world probably, to planning, organizing and building a survival group for any situation.  He's also an accomplished post-apocalyptic fiction novelist, with Book 1 of his Bound To Survive series, the Unraveling, at Amazon and Book 2, Road Trials, being released in the near future. Also, some news updates on COVID treatments Remdesivir, Beta-Interferon, and....Pepcid-AC! All this and more on this episode of the Survival Medicine Podcast with Joe Alton MD and Amy Alton ARNP! Wishing you the best of health in good times or bad, The Altons Hey, we know you could use some more personal protecion gear, individual medical supplies, and maybe an entire quality kit that will help in any disaster. Check out our entire line at store.doomandbloom.net! Also, please follow us on Twitter @P

The podcast is not going to talk just about COVID today, but  it’s a good idea to keep a running update and how Dr. and Ms. Alton's views are evolving based on what seems to be happening these days. So the Altons throw a few stats at you and tell you what they mean, if they're believable, and how it affects, or should affect, peoples’ activity. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Tuesday that the country has approved a coronavirus vaccine despite not having completed crucial clinical trials to determine its efficacy and safety. What are clinical trials and why are they required in most cases for a new drug or vaccine? Plus, a listeners of our friend Jack Spirko's Survival Podcast asks about strategies to prevent Alzheimer's dementia even if you have the genetic markers and a family history. Dr. Joe Alton tells you what you need to know about this devastating disease. All this and more on the latest Survival Medicine Podcast with Joe and Amy Alton! Don't forget to check out Nurse Amy's entire line o