Bring Your Own Bandages: Medicines and Supplies to Have on Hand Before Disaster Strikes is now available on Amazon. Read the reviews and see for yourself.
Disclaimer. I am not a licensed health practitioner. This is
just another post on knowledge and understanding
you might wish to acquire in advance of a disaster in case no higher
care is available. As long as our society is functioning, you should
leave anything more substantial than applying a Band-Aid to the
professionals. No medication, including those available over the
counter, should be taken without consulting a physician.
Information shared here is for educational and entertainment purposes
only. It is not medical advice nor a substitute for licensed medical
care.
Myths abound when it comes to medicine. It's important to know the facts, because if medication is withheld or tossed out due to a misconception, lives could be at stake.
People allergic to seafood are also allergic to iodine.
This one is important because, in a nuclear event, individuals may need
to take potassium iodide tablets or paint povidone-iodine on their
skin. Iodine is also used to clean wounds and treat water. But because some physicians have believed and perpetuated the iodine and seafood
allergy myth, naturally some individuals allergic to seafood are concerned about using iodine. But the myth is just a myth. Iodine is perfectly safe for people with a seafood allergy to use. If this myth
is a concern for you, addresses for three articles that discuss this issue are included in the list below.[1, 2, 3]
Expired tetracycline becomes toxic. Myths get spread among medical professionals just like everyone else. The myth of expired tetracycline becoming toxic is traced to an anecdotal report of one person developing renal failure, which was attributed to the use of outdated tetracycline. The condition is called Fanconi's syndrome and can occur due to numerous causes. That anecdotal case in 1963 spawned this myth. Since that time tetracycline and all tetracycline-related antibiotics have been reformulated. According to The Medical Letter, a professional newsletter,
"The only report of human toxicity that may have been caused by chemical or physical degradation of a pharmaceutical product is renal tubular damage that was associated with the use of degraded tetracycline... Current tetracycline preparations have been reformulated with different fillers to minimize degradation and are unlikely to have this effect" (The Medical Letter, Vol. 44, Issue 1142, 28 October 2002).[4, 5]
We'll DIY penicillin when our supply runs out.
Let's be honest here. Yes, Alexander Fleming isolated and manufactured penicillin in 1928. Perhaps that primitive technology isn't beyond the ability of trained microbiologists or chemists today. But a sterile lab is essential. And beyond that, what Alexander Fleming isolated was low-grade stuff. It wasn't particularly strong, and the urine of the patients it was used on had to be collected and filtered and treated so that the penicillin could be reused. And it takes a long time to make it. And the DIY stuff has a super short shelf life. You have to start it before the patient needs it and the patient could be dead before you're done. Those are a lot of obstacles to overcome.
Hand sanitizer lasts forever.
No, it doesn't. The alcohol evaporates. And the alcohol is what kills
bacteria and viruses. When you reach the expiry date on hand sanitizer, it's time to toss the hand sanitizer or repurpose it.
Hand sanitizer is as good as washing with soap and water.
This is most definitely not true. Hand sanitizing should never be substituted for good washing with soap and water. If washing is not an option, hand sanitizer should be applied generously to dirt- and debris-free hands and rubbed in vigorously for at least two minutes. Four minutes would be better. But keep in mind that some microbes are totally impervious to hand sanitizer.
Wounds must be cleaned out with a disinfectant. All wounds should be irrigated copiously, and more especially so when antibiotics are in short supply and nutrition and immune responses may not be ideal. However, the disinfectants that kill bacteria and viruses also kill living tissue, which then becomes dead tissue that may give rise to infection. Disinfectants should only be used to clean around a wound, never in. The exception is the use of benzalkonium chloride in treating any bite from an animal that could possibly have rabies. All puncture wounds and bites should be irrigated with water (or BZK, if warranted) for 10 minutes with gentle pressure.
Using a tourniquet means amputation. No, tourniquets are used all the time in operating rooms today. However, even if it did mean amputation, it's better to lose a limb than a life. Tourniquets are only used when 30 minutes of constant direct pressure (no peeking every five minutes to check) has failed to stop bleeding.
A lot of people allergic to penicillin will also be allergic to cephalosporins (i.e., Keflex). The myth is that 10% of people allergic to penicillin will also have cross-reactivity to cephalosporins like Keflex. The reality is that the number is less than 1%.[6]
Rubbing alcohol is an effective fever reducer. Well, actually, that is true. Applying rubbing alcohol to the skin will help reduce a fever. It may also kill the patient, especially if the patient is young. One of the basic tenets of medicine is to first, "Do no harm." And
using rubbing alcohol to reduce a fever can most definitely be harmful.
Remember, alcohol can poison the body by drinking, by absorption through
the skin, or by inhaling the vapors. When alcohol is rubbed on the body
to reduce a fever, that alcohol is absorbed into the body at a toxic
level. The vapors are also inhaled by the patient. Using rubbing alcohol
to lower a temperature was common practice through much of the last
century. Unfortunately, the practice persists with some physicians,
even with increasing numbers of cases of alcohol poisoning causing coma
and death, especially in infants and small children.[7]
I'm sure there are many more medical myths out there. Feel free to post them in the comments below. As always, this information is just for your entertainment. Use it only as a springboard for doing your own research.
Links to related posts:
Hand Sanitizer
Tetracycline at TEOTWAWKI
Iodine
Penicillin
DIY Penicillin--Do You Really Want to Go There?
Allergic to Penicillin? What Are the Options?
Skin Preps and Washes--When to Use Rubbing Alcohol, Betadine, Hibiclens, Etc. and Why
Tourniquets
Rubbing Alcohol--What You Want and How to Use It
For further reading:
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16541971
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18261505
[3] https://acaai.org/resources/connect/ask-allergist/shellfish-allergy-related-iodine
[4] Cynthia Koelker, Armageddon Medicine, 467.
[5] Survival and Austere Medicine, 3rd Edition, 211.
[6] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21742459/
[7] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/513331
Your article is great except for the information on tourniquets. There is a course being taught in the schools in Texas called Stop The Bleed. It is excellent. We are training the children to apply tourniquets in cases of mass shootings because it has been found that many of the lives lost could have been saved if the bleeding was treated immediately. It is best to treat each severe bleed with a tourniquet and then move on to the next victim. We have found that tourniquets can be left in place many hours with no loss of limb. My email is larry_m_79556@yahoo.com. I have been a physician for over 40 years and the info in your article is what I was taught in medical school but is now outdated.
ReplyDeleteIs there a difference in the approach to treatment if you are treating one person as opposed to a mass casualty event? If there are five victims and only one person to work on them, I can see where the tourniquet would be applied immediately, without trying direct pressure first. But if you have one patient, and there is no immediate threat to safety, why wouldn't you use direct pressure first?
DeleteDr Larry responded to an email I sent earlier today:
ReplyDelete"You can always try pressure to a wound. You shouldn’t waist much time though as your patient can bleed out relatively quickly. If the patient has already lost a lot of blood and appears to have a high volume bleed a tourniquet should be applied as the bleeding can resume even if it stops initially. If you apply a tourniquet you have the luxury of being able to evaluate and treat other wounds on this patient or others. If you just apply pressure you should make sure the bleeding doesn’t resume. Some times the blood comes out distal to the severed artery and the pressure you apply doesn’t really stop the bleeding. That is why you apply the tourniquet as high as possible on the extremity. Any wound on the torso or head can only be treated with pressure or wound packing. Your article was good and I hope to read more."
not covered - the on-going back & forth on using clotting agents and also women's napkins when something like an Israeli bandage isn't available >> topic for the next time this kind of article is authored .....
ReplyDeleteI don't know what you mean by the ongoing back & forth of clotting agents. Over a year ago, I posted an article debunking the use of tampons for gunshot wounds. https://prepschooldaily.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-myth-and-math-of-tactical-tampon.html
Delete