Browse by need · 53 entries
Medical
Stop bleeding, treat wounds, and buy time
When help is hours away or not coming, you are the first responder. Build outward from life-threatening bleeding to everyday wounds, and keep the skills to match the kit.
Start with the full guide
Field guideStockpile Essentials Field GuideThe master checklist: 239 items across 16 categories, the shelf life class of each, and the 20 multi-use items that cover the most jobs. 39 pages.Open the field guide Master guideMedical PreparednessWhat to stock in a house, mobile, and vehicle medical kit, what to do first in 15 common emergencies, and how to store medicines and records.Open the full page Master guidePrescription and Emergency MedicationsHow to get a physician-prescribed emergency medication kit, what is in it, which medication fits which problem, and how to store it so it lasts for years.Open the full page Paper on the shelf is what works
A printed first-aid or survival-medicine manual does not need power or signal. Keep one, and get real training, because a book does not replace hands-on practice.
Type
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Formulas 34
Formula
Activated Charcoal for Poison Ingestion or Digestive Illness
Call first: 1-800-222-1222; Adult 12+: 50 g / 8-12 oz; Child 1-12: 1 g / kg
Formula
Antiseptic Skin & Foot Soak (Condy's)
When skin weeps, oozes, or blisters and will not dry out, a pale-pink potassium permanganate soak is the traditional remedy: it dries the weeping, calms the irritation, and cuts the surface bacteria and smell so the skin can settle, whether the cause is weepy eczema, an infected or blistered rash, or the raw, wet stage of athlete's foot.
Formula
Baking Soda Drink for Inflammation and Joint Pain
Dosing for a baking soda and water drink used for chronic inflammation, joint pain and stiffness, with daily limits and who should avoid it.
Formula
Baking Soda Drink for Urinary Burning (Temporary Relief)
A short-term baking soda drink that some people find eases mild urinary burning when medication or care is not available; it is a comfort measure only and does not treat infection.
Formula
Baking Soda for Heartburn and Stomach Acidity
Antacid: ¼ tsp / 8 oz; Pre-exercise: ¼-½ tsp / 8-12 oz; Max dose: ½ tsp
Formula
Baking Soda Paste, Compress and Soak for Itching, Rashes and Bites
Bites, stings, and contact rashes flare and itch for hours, and a baking soda paste is a reliable kitchen substitute when antihistamine cream runs out.
Formula
Beeswax Lip Balm and Skin Salve
Cracked lips and dry skin may seem minor, but in cold or windy conditions they become painful entry points for infection.
Formula
Boric Acid Eye Wash for Mild Irritation
A 2 percent boric acid solution sits close to the salt balance of your own tears, which is what let it serve as a gentle eye rinse for over a century.
Formula
Camphor Muscle Balm for Soreness
Rubbed on, camphor fires the skin warm and cool nerves at once, a mild tingling that masks the deeper ache and pulls fresh blood to the sore spot.
Formula
Castile Soap Wound Wash
Cleaning a wound well is the single best way to prevent infection, and it takes little more than clean water and mild soap. The trick is knowing what goes where: flush the wound itself with plenty of clean water, and save the castile soap for your hands and the skin around the cut, never inside it.
Formula
Castor Oil and Cayenne Pepper Salve for Joint and Muscle Pain
A two-ingredient infused castor oil and cayenne salve for sore joints, muscles and cold hands or feet, with use and storage answers.
Formula
Citric Acid for Mineral Absorption
When your diet depends heavily on grains, beans, and preserved foods, you may be eating enough minerals but absorbing far less than you think.
Formula
Clay Binder for Digestive Upset
Bentonite clay swells in water and carries a negative surface charge, so in the gut it can bind some positively charged substances and irritants and carry them through before they are absorbed.
Formula
Cleaning Around a Wound
Hydrogen peroxide is a useful disinfectant, but it does not belong in an open wound. It is an oxidant, and it kills the new cells that rebuild skin just as readily as it kills germs. Use it around a cut, not in it, and flush the wound itself with clean drinking water.
Formula
Cognitive Support During Sleep Deprivation and High Stress
After 24 hours without sleep, your reaction time, memory, and decision-making deteriorate to levels comparable to being legally drunk.
Formula
Daily Strength and Recovery Supplement
Loading: 4 × 5 g / day; Maintenance: 5 g (10 g if large); One dose: ~1 rounded tsp
Formula
Drawing Poultice for Bites, Stings, and Boils (Charcoal and Clay)
A charcoal and clay poultice can soothe minor bites, stings, and small surface irritations by absorbing fluid and debris from the surface.
Formula
Electrolyte Rehydration and Physical Labor Recovery
Mix: 1 scoop / 16 oz; Rehydrate: sip ~1 tsp / min; Hard work: match to sweat
Formula
Emergency Laxative for Constipation Relief
Taken by mouth, Epsom salt pulls water into the bowel and empties it, usually within half an hour to six hours. It is a real medicine with a real dose, not a home remedy: follow the label, and know when to stop.
Formula
Glycerin Tincture (Glycerite) from Fresh or Dried Herbs
Glycerin pulls active compounds out of herbs and preserves them in liquid form for 1 to 2 years, giving you shelf-stable plant medicine without needing alcohol, a pharmacy, or refrigeration.
Formula
Herbal Liniment for Muscle and Joint Pain
High-proof alcohol pulls the pain-easing compounds out of herbs like arnica, cayenne, comfrey, and ginger, and the quick-drying liquid rubs them straight onto a sore muscle or joint.
Formula
Lugol's Iodine Antiseptic for Cuts and Skin Infections
Lugol's iodine is a broad-spectrum antiseptic that inactivates bacteria, viruses, and fungi with brief contact, useful when commercial wound-care products aren't available or have expired.
Formula
Make an Herbal Tincture with Alcohol
Alcohol dissolves plant compounds that water alone can't extract, then preserves them indefinitely as the same alcohol prevents microbial growth.
Formula
Petroleum Jelly Skin Barrier
Petroleum jelly doesn't heal wounds; it creates an occlusive barrier that locks in moisture and blocks irritants from reaching damaged skin.
Formula
Poison Ivy & Oak Wash
The rash from poison ivy, oak, and sumac comes from an oil called urushiol, and washing it off fast with soap and water is the single most effective thing you can do to stop or shrink the reaction.
Formula
Saline Wound Irrigation
Saline at 0.9 percent salt matches the salt concentration of body fluid, so it flushes a wound without the sting of alcohol or peroxide, which damage healing tissue and do not belong in a wound. Clean drinking water flushes just as well; saline is simply gentler on exposed tissue for repeated cleaning.
Formula
Skin Prep and Wound Border Disinfection
Alcohol needs water to work. It kills by unravelling the proteins a microbe is built from, and that reaction needs water present, which is why 70 percent outperforms the 99 percent bottle sitting next to it on the shelf.
Formula
Skin Protectant and Moisturizer (Glycerin Salve)
Cracked hands, split heels, and raw knuckles slow you down and invite infection.
Formula
Sore Throat Gargle and Mouth Rinse
A salt gargle is a comfort measure, and a good one. What it will not do is kill whatever is making your throat hurt, and it does not need to: it eases the rawness while your body does the actual work of getting rid of the infection.
Formula
Sulfur Ointment for Skin Conditions (Scabies, Fungal Infections)
Rubbed on as a 10 percent ointment, sulfur turns into mite-killing compounds on the skin and sheds the outer layer the burrowing scabies mites live in, a remedy that predates modern drugs and still works.
Formula
Sunburn Relief with Baking Soda (Compress or Soak)
Compress: 1-2 tablespoons baking soda in 1 cup cool water, 10-20 minutes
Formula
Thyroid Blocking with Lugol's Iodine (Radiation Exposure)
ADULT ≥154 lb: 40 drops / 24 h; Age 3-18: 20 drops / 24 h; AGE 1 mo-3 yr: 10 drops / 24 h
Formula
Tick Removal and Bite Care
Alcohol does not remove a tick. Fine tweezers do that; alcohol is for afterward, to clean the bite and to preserve the tick so a doctor can tell later what kind it was. Do not use alcohol to try to make an attached tick back out.
Formula
Warm Soak for Splinter Removal
A warm soak softens tough skin so a shallow splinter is easier to reach. That is all it does. The soak is preparation; the tweezers do the work, and no soak pulls a splinter out on its own.
Compounds 2
Supplies 3
Supply
Cayenne Pepper
Shelf life: 5+ yrs. Vacuum-sealed or airtight glass, cool and dark.
Supply
Iodine
Shelf life: 5-10 yrs. Airtight amber container, cool and dark. Light kills potency.
Supply
Potassium Iodide (KI) Tablets: What They Protect, Who Takes How Much, and When
Thyroid only: 130 mg adults, 65 mg ages 3 to 18, once every 24 hours while exposure continues, taken when officials say to
Skills 1
Guides 11
Guide
3 Medical Books for Homesteaders and Preppers
Auerbach for acute emergencies, Werner for diagnosis, Alton for long-term care
Guide
Baking Soda for the Body: Stomach Acid, Teeth, Odor, Itch, and the Things It Does Not Do
1/4 teaspoon in 8 ounces of water for stomach acid, short term only; it neutralizes the stomach, not the body
Guide
How to Keep Prescription Medications on Hand for an Emergency
A physician-reviewed kit ordered online covers over 50 infections and conditions with ten medications; stored cool, dry, and dark, solid medications keep potency for years past the printed date.
Guide
Medical Preparedness: First Aid Kits, Supplies, and 15 Emergencies
Stop the bleed first: a major bleed can kill in under 5 minutes, so a tourniquet, hemostatic gauze, and the training to use them come before everything else in the kit.
Guide
Mullein for Lung Support: Harvest, Dry and Store
Tea: about a teaspoon dried leaf, steep 10 to 15 minutes, strain through a coffee filter
Guide
Natural Remedies vs Antibiotics for Skin Infections: What Honey Handles, What MRSA Needs
Natural remedies for minor, shallow, improving wounds only; red streaks, spreading, heat or fever means antibiotics, now
Guide
Parasite Kit (Ivermectin and Mebendazole) for Home Medical Supplies
Jase kit: compounded ivermectin and mebendazole; label expiry 1-2 years
Guide
Parasite Treatment Options (Rx Kit, Herbal Cleanse, Bentonite Clay)
Jase kit contains Ivermectin and Mebendazole; clay binds toxins, does not kill parasites
Guide
Shelf Life of Medications Past the Expiration Date
In the military's Shelf Life Extension Program, 88% of 122 drugs stored under ideal conditions had their expiration dates extended, by an average of 66 months
Guide
Vacuum-Sealing Medications for Long-Term Storage
Seal in original containers, store cool and dark, inspect every 6-12 months
Guide
Winter Supplements: Vitamin D3 and K2, Vitamin C, Zinc and Magnesium, and When to Take Each
D3 and K2 with the biggest meal; zinc on an empty stomach; split vitamin C and magnesium; stay under the upper limits
Spare parts lists 1
Reference charts 1
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The checklist
Tick what you already have. Checks are saved on this device.
Medical and First Aid Stop bleeding, treat wounds, and buy time
Stop the bleed (trauma)
Dress the wound
Medicines
Tools & multi-use
Herbal & supportive
Prescription and Advanced Medical The deeper medicine chest, staged with a provider
Antibiotics, by class
Antiviral, antifungal & antiparasitic
Rescue & emergency
Symptom control & topical
Audit questions
From the walk-around audit. Tap a question for what a good answer looks like.
Do you have supplies for minor injuries?
Cuts, burns, blisters, sprains, splinters and stomach bugs are the injuries you will actually treat. Good is a kit with the bandages, tape, wound wash, antibiotic ointment, blister care, an elastic wrap and the over-the-counter medicines, restocked after every use. Medical Preparedness lists the kit and walks through 15 emergencies.
Do you have supplies for trauma?
Severe bleeding kills in under five minutes. Good means a real tourniquet (not a belt), hemostatic gauze, a pressure bandage and chest seals, in a place you can reach in seconds, in the truck as well as the house. The medical page covers bleeding control first for that reason.
Do you know how to use what you own?
A tourniquet you have never applied is a prop. Good means a Stop the Bleed and a CPR class for at least two people in the house, the kit opened and practiced on, and a reference on the shelf: the three medical books worth owning.
Does anyone rely on daily prescriptions?
If yes, that person is the first medical priority and the supply is the plan. Good means every daily medication is written on a list with dose and prescriber, for every person and pet, and the list lives in the logbook where a responder can find it.
How many days of supply do you actually have?
Fewer than seven days of any prescription is a red flag. Good is 14 to 30 days ahead, filled early each cycle and rotated, plus a prescribed emergency antibiotic kit for the infections that do not wait. How to keep prescription medications on hand is the method.
Are medications stored correctly?
Cool, dry and dark, not the bathroom cabinet, and the ones that need cold (insulin above all) have an outage plan: insulin holds 28 days unrefrigerated at 59 to 86°F and is never used frozen. Shelf life past the expiration date and vacuum-sealing medications cover storage.
Common mistake
A kit you have never opened and cannot use under stress.
Skills to learn
stop a bleed with a tourniquet · pack a wound · assess vitals
When it matters
