In a rare bipartisan effort, 50 members of Congress have asked the DEA to hold off on the upcoming ban on the active ingredients in the plant Kratom (Mitragyna speciose). Kratom, a member of the coffee family, is used by many Americans as a substitute for opiates.  A plethora of testimonials exist online by former users of Heroin and other drugs that the plant has “saved their life”. 130,000 people signed a recent White House petition to protest the DEA’s actions.

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I have, on many occasions, written about the importance of good hygiene and sanitation on the chances of a family or survival group succeeding, even when everything else fails. That’s all well and good, but what can be done before a disaster to impart a resistance to infection in the next generation? In modern times we have, as a matter of “good parenting”, made every effort to keep our children with their noses wiped and their hands clean. Indeed, these

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Survival Medicine Hour, September 23, 2016, with Joe and Amy Alton. We discuss the prevalent market on Ebay for fake C.A.T tourniquets, and a couple things to look out for. The increasing epidemic of diabetes, and what the world might look like if we make changes and if we don’t. The World Health Organization announced a 4-fold increase in the number of diabetic diagnoses in the past 35 years. If you plan to defend you or your family from harm,

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One of the questions we’re often asked is what to do about chronic pain and drug addiction if some disaster occurs that knocks you off the grid, maybe for good. Certainly, pharmaceuticals would cease to be manufactured and whatever pain med you use or opiate drug you may be addicted to will become, very likely, unavailable, leaving you or members of your group high and dry. In these circumstances, you have to look toward natural sources of compounds that could help;

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I’ve written quite a bit lately about shooting and terror events, but recent events highlight the fact that gun violence isn’t the only way that a terrorist can fulfill their mission of making casualties out of decent citizens. Clearly, bombings, stabbings, or shootings can occur literally anytime and anywhere in the U.S.: at churches, clubs, holiday parties, schools, the mall, at 2 in the morning or in the middle of the day. They’re part of what I call the “New

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In this episode of the Survival Medicine Hour with Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy (Joe Alton MD and Amy Alton ARNP), Dr. Bones discusses the upcoming ban on the useful but, perhaps, addictive herb Kratom, a Southeast Asian herb used for centuries to treat chronic pain and depression, and used by some today to replace addictions to opiates. Also, Nurse Amy discusses the many medical uses of Rosemary, and Dr. Bones discusses dental trauma, and what to do about that

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In this companion video to a previous article, Joe Alton, MD, aka Dr. Bones, discusses a fighter pilot strategy that might save your life in a terror event. Originally meant for aerial dogfights, the OODA loop was developed by Colonel John Boyd and has been used in everything from business to active shooter scenarios. Incorporating the OODA loop into your mindset will help instill the culture of readiness that is so important in the New Normal of the uncertain future.

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Zika virus has been in the news since the beginning of the year, and there’s a lot of information out there; some of it is reassuring and some, well, not so much. Here’s some things you should know that will make you worry/not worry about this infectious disease that’s been reported worldwide.  1. Worrisome: Reported cases of Zika in the U.S. and its territories will soon hit 20,000. The number of Zika cases IN THE U.S. and its territories reported

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You may or may not be an environmentalist, but a part of nature that everyone should support is the honeybee. It’s thought that every third bite of food that you take is there because of pollination by bees. Honey, when raw and unprocessed, is a versatile product that may even be used as a wound covering for burns and other injuries. In the last decade, bee colonies are reported to be experiencing die-offs that have taken out a significant percentage

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In this episode of the Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Hour with Joe Alton, MD and Amy Alton, ARNP, a Florida landfall occurs for a hurricane for the first time in more than a decade. Were you ready? What should you do to prepare for the next one? Plus, Dr. Bones discusses new tragedies for the native bee population in the U.S. What will be the straw that break’s the bee’s, I mean, camel’s back? With every third bite of

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