"History Doesn't Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes" - Mark Twain

We have seen throughout history, both modern and ancient that the closure of ports or sudden ceasing of major imports can cause mass panic, resource hoarding and have major ripples for years. We also know that the first thing that collapses from resource stress is the health care systems.

Economic crisis' have been seen in countries like Venezuala as recently as 2018. The Pharmaceutical Federation of Venezuela reported that pharmaceutical Shortages had reached 85%. With multi-hour long lines around the country just to enter a pharmacy, with many leaving empty handed.

The effects of natural disasters, which are becoming more common & violent combined with a loss of major imports; even if just for a few weeks WILL be a disruption to our way of life. Determining all the ways this will effect us is impossible. The volatility in the country is at an all time high and this could truly go ANY way.

But fear not reader! There are ways to prepare for a major disruption to the medical supply chain, but few talk about the things in nature and only advise on "What to buy" or "Where to go". Many of these people who consider bugging out do not fully understand the raw difficulty of surviving outdoors for extended periods. Think of the TV show "Survivor", these are expert survivalists hand picked due to their backgrounds in outdoor survival. And very few can make it 90 days without getting sick, losing weight too quickly, or giving up to return home. When you bug out you no longer have a home or base to return to. Always bug IN as long as possible first.

The First step to true medical independence is being able to identify wounds on yourself and family members. Watch videos, read books and educate yourself on how to read the signs of the body. Obviously there are vast limitations over having a trained medical professional inspect you, but you might be all you have one day. Being able to tell when someone has an infection in a wound could be the difference in life and death.

The Second step to becoming self reliant is what I teach, the identification and traditional uses of wild plants. Once you have identified the problem, you can begin to use local (often fast growing and invasive) species to begin a remedial plan

The education on this must be induvidal research. Learn your neighborhoods trees, shrubs, flowers and grasses. They are all medicinal but you must know which is which. For this process I reccomend the app, PlantNet. It's the most accurate plant identifier in my opinion, and provides alternate species with a percentage of likelihood. It is crucial that you ALWAYS USE TWO SOURCES to identify a plant and verify with measurements, leaf style and layout, colors, patterns, and seasons.

During this step it is important to learn:

• Plant historic uses

• Plant modern research

• How to process into remedy

• Plant/Drug interactions

Once you have identified the plant you can begin researching it's medicinal uses.

DO NOT just use Google and trust the AI response, ever. View multiple websites and videos and cross check medicinal uses with an NIH published paper.

Plants have a vast catalouge of medicinal and food uses and are often combined in about a dozen uses per plant. Some of course are more specific in use like Yarrow for wound healing. While some are more for overall wellness like the common herbs Turmeric and Ginger. Though these may be unavailable during a supply shortage.

The Third step is to process the plant for use medicinally. This often varies widely from plant to plant but should be explained during research from the last step. Common ways to process herbal medicine is:

• Tincturing

• Tea / broth

• Decoction

• Salves

• Liniment

• Essential Oils

I have written in-depth articles on each of these, and how to facilitate their creation without electricity or modern appliances.

The Third step will be to create an herbal treatment plan that includes the Timeline and Dosing for each herb used. This is often more simple than you'd expect but some herbs are more potent than others. There are also species that are most potent at certain times of the Month or Year.

The loss or decrease in access to medicine will hurt or kill thousands of people. But you can learn how to use nature and the plants around you to survive.

Your survival is up to you.

ex natura venimus