In emergency situations, medication can easily become a luxury. Even getting to the doctor can become a real adventure, and if you do get there, it will probably be a very chaotic situation. If you’re young and in a good physical condition, this might not seem that important to you, but if you’re not or you have family members that are getting close to a century of existence, this is very crucial.

There are hundreds of diseases that need professional care: type II diabetes, Alzheimer’s, high blood pressure, dementia, chronic pain, etc. These are the bad ones; however, if you’re dealing with bruises, allergies, scrapes, burns, bacterial or viral infections, fungal or other such less serious affections, you still rely on modern medicine to cure yourself. These too can become very serious if not treated.

So basically, the problem is not that in certain crises, you can’t get to the hospital; it’s much simpler than that – will you be able to get to the pharmacy to get a cold medicine and if you do get there, will they have it? I say let’s not leave health up to chance and find some alternatives.

If you are a true survivalists, then you have already thought of that and you have a stockpile of over-the-counter medicine to cover 4-6 months of crisis. If you or your family is dealing with more serious illnesses, then talk to your doctor for extra-prescription that will at least cover 3 or 4 months in advance of the much needed medication.

Now this is not easy to do most of the times, either because it’s against the regulations or just because it expires. And even if you do manage to get it, there’s no telling how much a crisis lasts and if you will ever have enough. So let’s think of the backup plan. Unfortunately, backup plans don’t work for all people and diseases – sometimes only medical science can be of help. Heart conditions, diabetes or respiratory problems are hard to treat with other than what the doctor prescribes. There are also affections such simple infections, malnutrition or blood poisoning – but these can be prevented or cured with a stockpile of over-the-counter medicine, such as Tylenol, Aspirin, Imodium, Ibuprofen, Benadryl and others. The good thing about is you don’t need a prescription in order to be able to buy a lot of it from your local pharmacy.

Stay tuned for the next part on how to maintain your good health, where I will give solutions for several illnesses that probably never crossed your mind.