Diverticulitis in Doomsday

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. 

As was mentioned previously in a post on appendicitis, that disease is most common between the ages of 10 and 30.  As we age, the risk of appendicitis decreases, and the chances increase for another disease with similar symptoms and similar risks for complications and death.  It's called diverticular disease and encompasses diverticulosis and diverticulitis.  It's kind of like appendicitis for the older generation.

Diverticulosis is the formation of sacs or pouches in the colon.  It affects about 10% of Americans over the age of 40.  It causes no symptoms nor pain, so most are quite blissfully aware they have the condition.  Which is just great.  However, between 10 and 25% of those with diverticulosis will eventually develop diverticulitis, and that is a problem.  Still, it only affects 1 to 2.5% of all people over the age of 40.  Diverticulitis is what happens when those asymptomatic diverticulosis pouches become inflamed or infected.  At best, most cases of diverticulitis are painful, but they only require bed rest and gradual dietary changes.  Severe diverticulitis may necessitate hospitalization, intravenous antibiotics, and surgery, none of which may be available post-collapse.

The inflamed/infected diverticula can perforate or burst just like the appendix, spilling the contents into the abdominal cavity, and can be just as deadly as a perforated appendix.  The symptoms of the two diseases are very similar. Appendicitis patients generally have pain on the lower right side; diverticulitis usually presents with pain on the lower left side.  This pain is also very sudden and severe.  Other symptoms include abdominal tenderness, fever, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, bloating, and rectal bleeding.

The risk factors for developing diverticular disease, as far as diet is concerned, are high animal protein/high fat diets that are very low in fiber.  Obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, age, genetics, smoking, steroids, and opiates may also contribute.

However, Metamucil is not the answer.  After the body has rested and recovered from its bout with diverticulitis, gradual changes to the diet should be made to reduce the number of flare-ups and opportunities for recurrence.  Because if a person has had diverticulitis once, he's at greater risk for having it again.  The best diet for preventing diverticulitis includes a lot of fiber and probiotics like yogurt.  In addition, exercise is very beneficial to maintaining gut flow, as is going when you've got to go, rather than holding it in.

Conventional therapy for diverticulitis is complete bed rest.  Physicians will sometimes prescribe antibiotics, with levofloxacin being the drug of choice.  Ciprofloxacin and metronidazole are other options.  Each is taken for 10 to 21 days.  None of these is without the risk of side effects.  Do not consume alcohol while taking metronidazole.  With levofloxacin and ciprofloxacin there is a risk of tendinitis and/or tendon rupture during treatment and for several months afterwards.  This risk is greatest in men over the age of sixty.  Tylenol may be used for pain.  NSAIDs are to be avoided due to the risk of bleeding.

Alternative therapy for diverticulitis has a whole host of options.  In addition to bed rest, the patient may find relief with one or more of the following:

• licorice tea (1/2 teaspoon boiled for a few minutes in 1 cup water, strained, and taken 30 minutes before meals, two to three times per day)
• mallow tea (5 grams, about 1 teaspoon, dried and powdered mallow root in one cup boiling water, steeped for five minutes, and then strained, three times per day)
• grapefruit seed extract (12 drops in a glass of water, 3-4 times per day.  After four days and as symptoms subside, decrease the number of times per day taking grapefruit seed extract.)
• raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar and cayenne (1 tablespoon ACV and 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper in one cup of warm water, twice per day.  Symptoms should resolve within three days; relief should begin within a few hours.)
• slippery elm (1 teaspoon slippery elm tincture in 1 cup water, 2-3 times per day; takes 3-4 days to start feeling better.  Continue until symptoms entirely resolve.)
• colloidal silver
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt in 1 cup hot water
• oil of oregano
• papaya pills
• yarrow or goldenseal tea

Unfortunately, for the last several items I could not locate any specific directions for treatment, only that these items had been used with success by people with diverticulitis.  I chose to include them just in case you have these but not the others with more specific information.

Some patients have found relief applying lavender essential oil to the abdomen and massaging it in, as well as using it for aromatherapy.

Links to related posts:
Appendicitis
Yarrow
Oregano

For further reading:
Armageddon Medicine, pp 373-379.
The Survival Medicine Handbook, p 398.
Survival and Austere Medicine, 3rd Edition, p 142. 
https://www.livestrong.com/article/1004453-levaquin-metronidazole-diverticulitis/
https://draxe.com/diverticulitis-diet/
https://www.healthline.com/health/home-remedy-for-diverticulitis
https://www.fabhow.com/how-to-treat-diverticulitis.html

 18 september 2019

The Medicinal Uses of Baking Soda

Hopefully, you've already stored baking soda in your food, about 1.5 pounds per person per year.  To cover medical and medicinal needs as well, you'll probably want to double that amount.  Here are some of the ways baking soda may be used in a grid-down scenario.

Mouth:  We've all seen toothpaste tubes proudly proclaiming that they've got baking soda.  While most of us link the baking soda to whiter teeth (which is true), baking soda also kills bacteria.  Streptococcus mutans, the bacteria that thrive in the presence of sugar, are totally wiped out by baking soda.  You can brush with straight baking soda, or you can make a toothpaste with baking soda and coconut oil (one tablespoon of baking soda mixed with one tablespoon of coconut oil), adding a drop or two of peppermint essential oil if you like.  To treat canker sores, apply a baking soda paste to the sores, or stir one teaspoon of baking soda into a half cup of water and swish it around in the mouth.

Irritated skin:  Applying a paste of baking soda and water (about a 3:1 ratio) to calm the itchiness of bug bites and stings has been a home remedy for years.  Baking soda can also be added to bathwater to relieve itchy skin due to poison oak, ivy, or sumac, and other irritants as well as sunburns.  Finally, baking soda paste can also be used to help draw out a splinter.  Apply the paste, wrap it with gauze or a bandage, and change twice per day.  The splinter should come out within a day or two.

Exercise:  Taking a teaspoon of baking soda in water before engaging in high-intensity exercise has been shown to reduce muscle pain and fatigue from over-exertion.

Heartburn:  This is not for long-term use, but will provide relief while you wait for long-term options to start working.  Stir 1 1/2 teaspoons into a cup of lukewarm water.  Sip this slowly; don't chug it all at once.  Use twice per day.

Kidneys:  Stir one-half teaspoon of baking soda into a glass of lukewarm water.  Studies have shown that doing this twice per day can:

• slow the progression of chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal failure;
• reduce the incidence of urinary tract infections in women;
• relieve kidney stones;
• reduce the inflammation associated with gout (use more often--up to eight times per day.

Disinfectant:  Finally, baking soda is a key ingredient in making Dakin's solution.  This solution was developed during World War I as a wound antiseptic.  It is used to kill germs and prevent the growth of germs in wounds.  It is an excellent solution for irrigating wounds without killing healthy tissue.  It is very inexpensive and easy to make, and thus ideally suited for the challenging circumstances a collapsed society will present.

Links to related posts:
Dakin's solution
DIY toothpaste 


For further reading:
https://www.doomandbloom.net/medical-uses-for-baking-soda/
https://jasn.asnjournals.org/content/20/9/2075.abstract
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12017929
https://www.cdc.gov/antibiotic-use/community/for-patients/common-illnesses/uti.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28975365
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23765347
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6990140/
https://www.md-health.com/Drinking-Baking-Soda.html
https://www.healthline.com/health/baking-soda-for-gout#takeaway 

6 january 2020

DIY Penicillin--Do You Really Want to Go There?

Disclaimer.  I am not a licensed health practitioner.  This is just another post on an item you might wish to have available if needed so that a physician can treat you and your family as best as possible.  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.  A qualified, licensed physician or other medical provider should be consulted before beginning any herbal or conventional treatment.


Yeah, penicillin can be DIY'ed.  After all, Alexander Fleming did it in 1928 and millions of lives have been blessed by penicillin ever since.  While making penicillin at home may not be a big deal to chemists and microbiologists, it's going to be a bit intimidating to the rest of us.  And even if we do happen to have some understanding of microbiology under our belts, DIY penicillin demands a lot of time and resources.

In a crisis, we might have neither. You've got to have all the equipment and a sterile laboratory.  You've got to be able to maintain an incubating temperature of about 70 degrees for a few weeks, and you've got to make your own culture medium.  Expensive chemicals with short shelf lives are also needed.  On top of all that, you've got to make a boatload to treat one single infection.  There was a good reason why for the first several years, until production improved, the urine of patients taking penicillin was collected and the penicillin isolated from it to be re-used.  (Yum.)

And then there's the fact that this DIY penicillin isn't entirely stable, and it takes a few weeks to make it.  So you've basically always got to have some in production, just in case.  And you know, you're just going to have so much time on your hands when life gets really interesting.

If you think this sounds like a recipe for disaster, you're not the only one.

After reading such information, most opt for other means of obtaining penicillin and other antibiotics--getting the doctor to prescribe some medications just in case there's a problem when on vacation out of the country, or purchasing fish antibiotics, or buying from an overseas pharmacy.  I've done the latter two myself, and we've got a respectable stockpile of various antibiotics here.  But you know what?  That supply isn't inexhaustible.  The pills will eventually run out.  And then there are those poor suckers who are allergic to penicillin and can't even take it anyway.

Is there any other way?

Well, yes, actually, there is.

Most all of our medicines are derived from plants.  Researchers test various herbs, oftentimes based on old natural remedies, and determine which chemical compounds are most active against any given disease.  Then they create that compound synthetically.  They never use the plant, because plants can't be patented and won't make any money for Big Pharma.  But remember, they started with the plant.  It is really hard to make changes after being conditioned all our lives to trust physicians and pharmacists implicitly.  And I'm not saying either group is bad.  There are good people and bad people everywhere.  Anyway, we do have options.

Penicillin is used primarily to treat infections dealing with the ears, upper respiratory system, and skin.  And there are two herbs that will do the same thing.  And you can DIY an antibiotic from them for a whole lot less time, money, and stress.  Both involve making tinctures--you gather the herb, chop or dice or powder it, cover it with alcohol, and let it macerate (soak) for a few weeks.  Strain and bottle for long term keeping and you're done.  No complicated procedures or equipment. 

The first herb is Usnea.  I blogged about it nearly a year ago and you can click on the link below to read more yourself.  If you've spent any amount of time outdoors, you've probably seen it.  It's stuff a lot of us (erroneously) call moss that grows on trees.  There are over 600 different species, and they're all medicinal.  You just have to make sure not to confuse it with Spanish moss.  Tips for differentiating between the two are also included in that article.

The other herb is juniper.  I also posted information on it last year and you can click on the link below to read more.  The juniper berry is what is most medicinal, and it doesn't matter which variety you use.  It's found all over the country and is a popular choice in landscaping at schools and shopping centers.

Both tinctures take two to six weeks to make, so they're best to have on hand and ready before someone gets sick.  They're much easier and much cheaper to make than penicillin.  And there isn't the risk of a penicillin allergy.  The downside is having to locate grain alcohol, which is problematic for about half the country where sales of grain alcohol are illegal.  If you really can't get grain alcohol, use the highest proof you can find.

Links to related posts: 

Usnea
Juniper

For further information:
https://btprotocols-maulik.blogspot.com/2007/04/to-produce-penicillin-using-penicillium.html
https://www.bioprepper.com/2018/04/28/make-penicillin/
http://prepperswill.com/how-to-make-real-homemade-penicillin-during-a-disaster/
  23 september 2019

Instant Meals--Thai Peanut Noodles with Chicken and Vegetables and Curry Rice with Chicken and Vegetables

I'm not a huge fan of those freeze-dried meals or MREs for a couple of reasons.  The price tag is pretty hefty just for one person, but for a large family on a single income it becomes a little prohibitive.  And then there are all the additives and preservatives and stuff we'd rather not eat, especially when they upset our stomach.  This isn't to say we don't have some.  We most definitely do, thanks to the nice sponsors of the Survivalblog writing contest and having won the contest a few times.  Otherwise, I don't think we'd have anything like that.  It's just beyond our budget.

However, it's really important to have some instant meals on hand to at least be able to have a good meal when everyone in the family is sick or in the immediate aftermath of a disaster when you're still collecting your wits.  And it's a pretty good idea to have some of these meals in your emergency kit.  Like many people, we keep our emergency kits at the front of the garage so they're ready to load in the truck at a moment's notice.  Unfortunately, for about three months of the year it gets pretty warm out there, and having to frequently rotate out commercially prepared meals becomes just too expensive.

Fortunately, making your own freeze dried meals is totally do-able.  Once you've got all your ingredients it's really quick, and much cheaper, because you aren't paying for all those ridiculously expensive additives and preservatives that you don't want anyway.

My friend Renee shared her inspiration for making some great instant meals for her family to reduce costs of traveling to archery tournaments all over the country.  I spent yesterday afternoon making several of these to try out on my family for dinner to see which they liked best.  There's actually a lot to see over at The Yummy Life, and all of it looks pretty darn good.

Thai Peanut Noodles with Chicken and Vegetables

Place the following in a quart size freezer Ziploc bag:

• 1 cup pasta broken into 2" pieces
• 1/4 cup freeze dried chopped chicken
• 1/4 cup chopped roasted peanuts
• 1/4 cup freeze dried veggies
• 2 tablespoons powdered peanut butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chicken bouillon 
• 1/2 teaspoon dried cilantro
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• pinch of cayenne

Label and date the bag and add cooking directions.

To cook in the bag, add 1 cup of boiling water.  Put bag in cozy or wrap in towels to conserve heat.  Let cook for nine minutes, turning halfway through to mix ingredients and continue cooking.

Notes:  For the pasta, choose one that cooks on the stove in less than 4 minutes; we used Asian rice noodles.  Angel hair pasta is a good choice; however, it is pretty pokey and may put holes in your freezer bag, causing a leak if you choose to cook in it. Put angel hair in a separate baggie first to help prevent it from poking holes in your cooking bag.

Any freeze dried veggies will do--we went with corn and peas.

Curry Rice with Chicken and Cashews

Place the following in a quart-size freezer Ziploc bag:

• 2/3 cup instant rice
• 1/4 cup freeze-dried chopped chicken
• 1/4 cup chopped roasted cashews
• 1/4 cup freeze dried vegetables
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chicken bouillon
• 1 teaspoon curry
• 1 teaspoon dried onion flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

Label and date the bag and add cooking directions.

To cook in the bag, add 1 1/2 cups of boiling water.  Put bag in cozy or wrap in towels to conserve heat.  Let cook for nine minutes, turning halfway through to mix ingredients and continue cooking.

Notes: Any freeze dried veggies will do--we went with corn and peas.


I absolutely love these meals, and the family is pretty happy with them, too.  No, I wouldn't eat them every day; I like cooking and baking and the aroma in the house.  You don't get that with an instant meal.  But something else is pretty great about these--they can be customized.  Professor suffers from gastroparesis and other abdominal issues and can't eat a lot of things (which is really, really sad, because he was always my very best eater).  So I can customize his meal by making a smaller portion and omitting the offending nuts and corn.  QOTPE wants her nuts unchopped and packaged separately.  In stressful times, we really need to do what we can to make our people happy, and though never a fan of catering to children's palates, in this case I don't have to chop the nuts, so it saves me time.

Links to related posts:
DIY Instant rice
DIY Chicken bouillon


© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com  

Dehydrating Beans

There are a myriad of ways to use dry beans to feed your family.  As we have learned in previous posts on beans, some are really good, and some are from Satan himself.

After you try one or two of Satan's specialties, you become very suspicious of any new bean suggestions.  No one can blame you.  But you come upon somebody somewhere's recommendation to try dehydrating beans, and you're kinda like that poor moth that can't resist being drawn to the light.

Zap.

OK, dehydrated beans aren't too bad.  Honest.  And there are a few things you can actually do better with dehydrated beans.

• Make a trail snack.  Cooked beans, ready to dehydrate, are seasoned with salt or other spices (curry, chili powder, onion or garlic powder, Chinese five spice, garam masala) and then spread on dehydrating trays.  These have a texture or crunch like hard pretzels.
• Add just the right amount to soup or stew.
• Make a quick cream of bean soup.
• Make instant refried beans or hummus.  One guy suggested doing this after dehydrating the beans.  It makes more sense to me to mash the beans before dehydrating.  Rehydrate for 10-12 minutes, then simmer, stir, and add water if necessary to achieve desired consistency. 
• Make instant chili.
• Make single servings instead of opening up a whole can or jar and wasting half or more.

Cooked beans are very easy to dehydrate.  Simply spread them on dehydrator trays and season if desired.  If preparing for refried beans or hummus, don't forget to mash the beans first.  Dehydrate at 125 degrees for about 8-12 hours.

Vacuum sealed in canning jars, these beans will store for about six months.  Sealed in Mylar, they should be good for a few years. 

When you want to use the beans, rehydrate with boiling water for fastest results.  The amount of time and water needed will vary by type of bean. 

Links to related posts:
Baking with Beans
Beans in Food Storage
Refried Beans
Bean Flour   
Pinto Bean Fudge  

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com 

Introduction to More Exciting Pressure Canning

When people decide to acquire a pressure canner, it is usually so that they can preserve excess garden produce.  But there is so much more that can be done--so much that is quite tasty and will be very desirable in the dark days ahead.  Pressure-canned foods add variety to the diet, especially in a world lacking fresh and frozen foods.

Now, I'm not going to reproduce the Ball Blue Book of Canning (hereafter the BBB) here.  Everyone should have a copy of that for reference for basic guidelines, correct preparation, and accurate processing times.  What I do want to do is explore some ideas for using a canner to prepare some less conventional foods that will save you time and definitely boost morale.

Vegetables

Most vegetables are canned per instructions in the BBB.  There's just not a lot that is exciting or different to add.  And actually, I usually prefer to dehydrate vegetables when possible.  But there are some situations where the dehydrated version just doesn't work as well in recipes.  One of those is dehydrated shredded zucchini.  Don't get me wrong; I do actually dehydrate quite a bit some years.  But when I rehydrate the zucchini for making cakes and breads, it doesn't reconstitute perfectly.  And some baked goods I want to have absolutely perfect.  And of course, I do just put several bags of shredded zucchini in the freezer, but I'm preparing for a time without easy electricity, so every year or so I can a few pints of shredded zucchini.  It gets packed in jars and processed per instructions for squash in the BBB.  And then when we want zucchini bread or cupcakes, we don't have to wait for the dehydrated stuff to rehydrate, nor are we dealing with cupcakes that are a little on the chewy side because the zucchini didn't fully reconstitute.

The other exception around here is potatoes. Yeah, lots of people can potatoes, but we never really cared for the texture, and unless they were being used in a stew, we never seemed to get around to eating them.  However, there is that other more popular way of eating potatoes in this country, the French fry.  Even if the pressure canner was not used for anything else, it would be worthwhile (in this family, at least) to acquire just to be able to have French fries when the grid goes down. These fries are so incredibly divine. Unfortunately, I can’t give you a taste. You’ll just have to trust me. Canning French fries is one of the first articles I posted on this blog; as such, not a lot of people have read it yet. All the work is done in the canning; when you wish to eat some fries (which will be often!), open the jar and put the fries into a strainer. Thoroughly rinse and drain to remove excess starch. Deep fry in peanut oil until they reach a golden brown. If your family is just not into the food storage thing because it's too horrible to contemplate eating that stuff, give these French fries a try.  You'll see a complete one-eighty as they realize food storage can be really good.

Dry Beans
Dry beans aren’t a particularly exciting item to can, unless you get excited about saving money, time, and energy. Dry beans normally take hours to prepare for each meal. By utilizing a pressure canner, you prepare beans for several meals at once, saving money now and time down the road. So how is it done?  Dry beans are truly one of the easiest items to can and a great way to get started with pressure canning.  Basically, you soak the beans for several hours or overnight; rinse, drain, and cook; fill jars about 2/3 full; add boiling water and salt; and process.  It might sound like a lot of work, but it is really quick and easy, and not at all messy.  Complete instructions are here. 

Meats

Canning in the meat world is just like canning in the fruit and vegetable world--follow directions and be careful.  There's nothing scary about it, and preparing meats is a lot faster and easier than preparing produce.  All meats are canned exactly as outlined in the BBB.  However, here are a few ideas for preparing and packaging meats for other uses.  Food fatigue is a real thing, and having a variety of tasty and familiar foods in our menu will be essential to maintaining morale in the coming crisis.

• Beef. I can a good quantity of stew meat to be used as is in stews, but also to be shredded for use as taco filling, French dips, etc. Ground beef also gets browned and canned so that I can make soups and casseroles very quickly. 
• Pork. Some pork is canned in chunks for later use in chili or to be shredded for taquito filling or super quick pulled pork sandwiches. The Cooperative Extension has never tested the safety of canning smoked or cured meats, including bacon.  It may be perfectly safe; it may not be. 
• Bacon.  The Cooperative Extension does not recommend canning bacon for a variety of reasons, all of which are sound. That being said, there are still a lot of people doing it.  I admit to it myself, but now only for bacon ends and pieces, and not the strips that are "dry-canned."  I have posted on bacon in the past, including how people do it and exactly why the Cooperative Extension opposes the practice.  
• Chicken. Home-canned chicken makes for quick chicken salad sandwiches or adding to a summer salad for a main dish meal. And with a can of chicken on hand, it takes no time to get homemade chicken noodle soup ready when someone comes down with a cold.
• Chicken bones. This isn't being recommended as food for people, though apparently in some cultures chicken bones do get thoroughly cooked and mashed or blended in some dishes.  I'm not entirely sold on the safety of this in general, but it does work for making chicken bouillon.  However, chicken bones can be pressure canned, just like chicken meat is, for feeding cats.  After being pressure canned, the hollow bones are easily mashed with a fork and fed to cats. Unfortunately, the chicken bones are too high in protein to be fed to dogs (may cause kidney damage).

Convenience foods

Pressure canning is great for preserving the harvest, but it’s also ideal for making life easier with convenience foods for days when we're just too busy or sick to cook.  A ready supply of stew, chili, and soup provides peace of mind for those situations when they arise.  Each family will have its own favorite recipes, so I'll refrain from posting any here.  Most any recipe can be adapted for canning, one just needs to always remember to process for the time stated for the ingredient that needs the most time and highest pressure.  Read your BBB for specific guidelines here.

A pressure canner is going to cost $100-$300. But the peace of mind that comes from preparing your own food? Priceless.

Links to related posts:
A Few Thoughts on Pressure Canners
Canning French Fries  
Canning Refried Beans  
Canning Hamburger Patties
Canning Bacon 
Canning Chicken
Canning Ham
Canning Pork 

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com  

Much Cheaper and Easier Yogurt Starter

A little while after I finished the post on making yogurt, I stumbled across another little gem, but it took awhile for me to get to the store to be able to try it out.
So some people were posting somewhere that probiotic capsules could be used as a yogurt starter.  If that were really the case, that would be huge.  The freeze-dried yogurt starters run about a dollar to two each.  That's kind of a chunk of change, but not so bad in the long term if you make yogurt regularly and always save some to start the next batch.  But it you don't?  If you forgot, or if you can't go through a batch quickly enough?  If one of the kids ate it?  Yeah, it can get a little pricey.

I figured it would be worth giving this idea a try, especially since it could wind up saving a lot of money.

As luck would have it, when I finally made it out to go grocery shopping (we've been down to one vehicle for the past couple of months, so getting out for shopping has been a little difficult), I happened upon a discounted bottle of probiotic capsules, normally $12.49, discounted to $6.29.  Nice.  The label states that each capsule contains 14 billion bacteria from eight species:  Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium lactis, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus salivarius, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium longum, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, and Lactobacillus casei. The bottle contains sixty capsules and I used one capsule to make a two-quart batch of yogurt, making my cost for this starter a little over ten cents.

What I had read suggested using capsules containing two to three billion bacteria, so fourteen billion would have been a little over the top.  But it was on sale....

Anyway, so instead of having to find my starter yogurt in the fridge and then mixing it with a little of the milk to start a new batch of yogurt, I just had to wait for the milk to reach the right temperature and then sprinkle the probiotic capsule contents (don't just throw the capsule into the yogurt) over the milk and whisk it in.

I really wasn't sure this was going to work.  After all, I've tried quite a few things that have not worked.

Fortunately, this is not one of them!

I actually made two different batches of yogurt that day so that I could do a side-by-side comparison.  I followed the same directions for making both batches, but for the first batch I used some starter that I had set aside from the previous batch, and for the second batch I used the probiotic capsule.

Not only did the probiotic capsule make yogurt, it made it very well!  The yogurt set up much firmer but was still creamy and thick without being stiff.  And it's much cheaper and easier.  Awesome!

In the future, I will probably try using half a capsule per batch, or I may buy probiotic capsules that contain even more bacteria, and then use only a portion of those.  Next time you make yogurt, be sure to give probiotic capsules a try. 

Links to related posts:
Dry Milk
Making Thick, Creamy Yogurt
Frozen Yogurt from Food Storage 

© 2019, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com

Strep Throat--Are Antibiotics Really Needed?

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. 


Why does the mere thought of strep throat scare parents? It's a phenomenon that doctors everywhere observe, but parents can't usually articulate what they're afraid of. Shouldn't we be more concerned about measles, diphtheria, or cholera? Definitely, but maybe it's that strep throat is something we can relate to. It really hurts, and you know your child is really in pain.

I've got good news for you. You can be every bit as good as the best family doctor just by looking at your child's sore throat. The bad news is that even the best pediatricians are only right half the time.

More good news is that your child has a 99.9% chance of recovering completely without any antibiotics at all.

But what about rheumatic fever? (Maybe that's what we parents are afraid of when our child has strep.)  In the United States, less than one in one thousand cases of strep throat go on to develop into rheumatic fever. So does it make sense to use a precious supply of antibiotics on a presumed strep throat? Remember, without a lab test, you won't even be sure it's strep. Yes, it is a bacterial infection, but one of those infections that most people get over without antibiotics. Again, do you want to use your antibiotics that can be used to save a life on an illness that will pass and that is not anywhere near life-threatening? It's easy to be strong now and say your child will do without; it's a lot harder when your five-year-old has a burning fever and is in great pain.

So maybe you can dig a little deeper into determining whether it is, in fact, strep throat. One thing you can do now is a bit on the expensive side, but if you have a young and/or large family, it may be worth it. You can get rapid strep test kits on Amazon for about $25 (includes 25 tests), but they have a really short shelf life.

According to Dr. Koelker, two other signs that make strep more likely are a rash on the abdomen and tiny red spots on the roof of the mouth.

The Centor Criteria for diagnosing strep throat can help you determine whether your child's sore throat is strep and if it would even benefit from antibiotics.
 

Age	Under 3 years, strep is highly unlikely	0
	3-14 years	+1
	15-44 years	0
	45+	-1
Pus on tonsils	No       0	Yes +1
Tender, swollen neck glands	No       0	Yes +1
Fever above 100.4 F	No       0	Yes +1
Cough	No       +1	Yes   0

According to the CDC, physicians shouldn't even check for strep unless at least two criteria are met. Antibiotics shouldn't be prescribed unless at least three criteria are met, unless there is a positive strep test. However, even if the criteria are not satisfied for strep throat, it does not mean that the patient doesn't have a serious illness or bacterial infection. It just means that the patient does not have strep throat. If the sore throat persists more than three days, the patient should really be evaluated for other causes for the pain. If the patient's condition worsens, there could be other severe conditions that would warrant the use of antibiotics.

Regardless of whether your child has strep, there are measures you can take to alleviate the pain and that do not involve using your conventional antibiotic supply. All of the following herbal remedies have been proven in clinical trials to eliminate the Streptococcus bacteria.

• Usnea tincture. Put a dropperful in a glass of water and gargle several times each day.
• Thyme infusion. Put a teaspoon of thyme leaves in a cup of boiling water. Cover and let steep for 10-15 minutes. Add honey to sweeten. Use three to four times per day.
• Listerine. Gargle with it.
• Japanese honeysuckle blossoms. Put one tablespoon of dried flowers in a cup of boiling water. Cover and let steep for 10 minutes. Sweeten with honey. Use three to four times per day. This remedy will likely be the most happily taken by children.
• Echinacea tincture. A full dropperful, held in the mouth and mixed with lots of saliva, swished around, and then swallowed as slowly as possible. Use four times per day.

If, however, you decide to go the traditional antibiotic route, here are the standard dosages physicians use for treating strep throat:

•  Amoxicillin, 500 mg twice per day for 10 days; in children, 250 mg two to three times per day; or 25-90 mg/kg total per day (there's a pretty wide range among doctors in what they recommend for children).
• Cephalexin, 500 mg twice per day for 7-14 days.
• Erythromycin, 250 mg four times per day for 7-14 days.
• Penicillin, 500 mg two to three times per day for 10 days.

Links to related posts: 

Usnea
Thyme
Acquiring Antibiotics
Japanese honeysuckle
Echinacea
Armageddon Medicine 

For further reading:
https://www.mdcalc.com/centor-score-modified-mcisaac-strep-pharyngitis#next-steps
Dr. Cynthia Koelker, Armageddon Medicine, pp 143-145.

 30 october 2019

Prescription Bottle Shorthand Decoder

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.


No, this is not a post about learning how to write prescription bottle instructions.  Rather, it's a handy reference for interpreting what those abbreviations mean.  It's meant for those instances where you saved a bottle of whatever in case you needed it again in the future, instead of turning it in to the authorities for proper disposal.  And in case your instructions were written in code which was interpreted for you at the time, but which code you have since forgotten. 

I have to admit, I have never seen or even heard of many of these abbreviations, but I figure there are some areas of the country where their use might be more common, or maybe among some doctors they're more generally used.  Regardless, Dr. Steve thought it was important for us to have them, so I guess there's a reason.  Most all of these abbreviations come from Latin, and they are used around the world.  Theoretically, you could pick up a prescription bottle from Brazil, Bahrain, or Boston and be able to understand the written instructions.  Not sure I'd plan on that myself, but that's the idea anyway.

Prescription Bottle Abbreviations
Gtt	Drop	t	teaspoon or 5 ml
T	Tablespoon or 15 ml	Oz	Ounce or 30 ml
Route of administration
PO	Per oral—mouth	IM	Intramuscular
SQ	Subcutaneous	PR	Rectal
SL	Sublingual	IV	Intravenous
ID	Intradermal	TAA	To affected area
OD	Right eye	OS	Left eye
OU	Both eyes
Schedule
QOD	Once every other day	QD	Once per day
BID	2x per day	Q4	Every 4 hours
TID	3x per day	Q6	Every 6 hours
QID	4x per day	Q4-6	Every 4-6 hours
QH	Every hour	Q8	Every 8 hours
AC	Before meals	PC	After meals
HS	Before bed	CC	With food
Ad. Lib.	As desired or needed	NPO	Nothing by mouth
PRN	As needed	Dieb. Alt.	Every other day

 

 16 october 2019