How will we cope if the SHTF and no medications?

Some very basic medications could be replaced by natural sources.

Willow Bark, for example, is a good alternative to Asprin. In fact, it is where Asprin comes from. The bark contains salicin which is the primary component of asprin and has been used as a pain and fever reducer for centuries. Hippocrates used to have his patients chew the bark and leaves of willow trees.
Later in history, the bark was used in tea with a bit of honey to make it taste better.

There is not much that can be done for diabetes in a SHTF situation once the insulin is gone. Insulin is a protein produced by the pancreas to regulate blood sugar levels in the body. The only way to make it is in a lab.

So the only thing that can be done in that situation is to attempt to keep your blood sugar at an acceptable level for as long as possible.
Apple Cider Vinegar is one thing diabetics could try. It is the fermented juice of apples which contains acetic acid. It is believed to lower blood sugar levels in the body by changing the way certain foods are absorbed.

Eschscholzia californica, the California Poppy, is a plant with mild sedative effects when smoked. Like a very tame opium.

Passiflora incarnate, the Purple Passion Flower, has been used for centuries to treat anxiety and insomnia.

Cannabis has been used non-recreationally for the treatment of nausea, anxiety, pain, muscle spasms, etc.

Echinacea may or may not be able to reduce the severity and duration of a cold. The jury is still out on that one.

Black Elder berries from the Sambucus nigra have been found to have decent effects when fighting a flu or respiratory infection.

most of the modern medicines we have a derived from plants,problem is they are engineered in a lab and do not work as well .....90% of illness will be reduced or cured by diet alone....our bodies thrive on raw foods which few people eat any more....all these fast food chains are killing us slowly and making us sick,people are so scared they believe the doctor and take the pills because they do not know any better... the fast food literally has no nutrient at all and our bodies weaken by eating it.....in saying that the availability of naturally grown food will be scarce in a SHTF situation so like another poster said the weak will die and the strong survive,much like the rest of animals in the wild

get your veggie gardens in now,get some chooks,make a pesticide for your veggies from rhubarb leaves,learn how to fend for yourself instead of relying on corporations and most importantly educate yourself on how to do that effectively......in a social breakdown the only help you will get is from yourself

I already have a hard time getting my meds as is. Most of it is price related problems. I also had some problems with my Medicaid a while back and saw exactly how expensive these pills were without insurance, which made the price I was paying for them pale in comparison. One of them, just for the generic, without insurance, costs $200 a bottle, and they just put me on one that doesn't have a generic that is $1000 a bottle without insurance -- by far the most expensive pill I have been on, and it is also the newest pill I have been on.

Seriously, with pills this expensive, you can't say big pharma has nothing to gain -- you're dependent on the damn things and they are charging you more than a monthly car payment, and sometimes even monthly rent in order to get them if you don't have insurance. My car payment was $350 a month and rent is about $650 a month, and right now my newest pill ranges at $1000 without insurance.

I haven't gotten my prescription filled just yet, but I am cringing at what it is going to cost, even with insurance...

A great many people wont cope and will die. The death rates of both the old and the very young would soar.

Its not a new state of affairs, simply a regression to one we had previously climbed out of.

Diabetes will vanish to be replaced by other diseases making a comeback. In the cities I would expect typhoid fever as the sanitation infrastructure collapses the dead pile up and the water works fail.

Yep, agree with the others who say we won't cope, a huge number of people will die horribly.

Stockpiling medicines might work for a few years, but these things have sell-by dates and lose their potency.

We'd be returning to a world where most people will die in terrible agony from conditions that we can treat simply and easily today.

(Which is actually what hacked me off so badly about the way Battlestar Galactica ended.)

If TSHTF the first stop off point for me will be the Drug store/Chemist...

For one, everyone will be in the super markets stealing water and food and fuel, they can only steal what they can carry.. and the same goes for me.

I'll just bide my time and sell them a weeks course of Antibiotics for everything they have, just to save their dying child...And they will deliver it....there might be some more Caveats depending on the situation.

I'll do OK.

The old standby - pdf's may have your answers.

Pole Shift Survival


If you have the dia'beetus that you get from birth - you are 99% going to die with no meds...within a few agonizing years.