Antibiotics and Meds

[IANMCDEVITT]

Liff makes a great point about prevention ie: water purification and soap.......Go even further and state that handwashing w/sopa and HOT water is the first line of defense. HOT water helps any soap by aiding in breaking down the cell walls of bacteria...........Just think of it as kicking up the effectiveness of the soap..........As far as the Antibiotics, I think it's a good idea to have a supply available. Along with an effective medication manual. If something happens (post-SHTF), you may be able to trade 'em for something you need, hell, maybe your kid gets sick with pneumonia or other bad respiratory, your neighbors a nurse or paramedic and they can give you some direction......gives you a better chance at a positive outcome.............Just having the antibiotics doesn't excuse you of continuing to educate yourself though. Learn about the Aseptic Technique, learn about seting up a Sterile Field, learn about vectors and how diseases are transmitted.........it's up to you to get what you need and educate yourself.

[Liff]

...Go even further and state that handwashing w/sopa and HOT water is the first line of defense. HOT water helps any soap by aiding in breaking down the cell walls of bacteria...........Just think of it as kicking up the effectiveness of the soap.......

I am a little busy at work at the moment, I'll find references later...

You are right in recommending hot water, you are wrong in why hot water is important. Very minor points follow. The major point is washing your hands correctly.

Think of it like this: How long do you need to boil water to kill the bacteria? Now put your hands in that boiling water. You wanted to kill the bacteria, right? Edit: Just in case: Blue is the ZS color code for sarcasm. Do not put your hands or anything else in boiling water.

Bacteria have lousy hands, in fact, they don't have hands at all. Bacteria 'stick' to surfaces by something called a glycoprotein. At its most basic, a bacterial "glue". A more detailed version: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC387777/

So, you know how a heat gun will lessen glue's ability to hold two things together? (like floor tiles) Same general idea with hot water vs bacterial glycoproteins. Soap and water (hot or not) more so removes bacteria from the surface rather than actually kill the bacteria. Better references when things slow down a bit.

[colemoge]

great thread

[Liff]

I would like to first apologize for not leaving a link and walking away like I said I would. Sorry about that.

Next, IANMCDEVITT is absolutely correct in the recommendation that hot water is better. Please don't mistake my intention as anything other than agreeing with him about that point. However, washing your hands generally just removes the bacteria/fungi/viri(viruses)/etc and not so much as kills the microbiota. About 120 F to scald your hands, about 140 F to start killing the microbiota due to the heat.

If you just read one link, I suggest this one as the "best". http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037063/

Thus, handwashing with soap took them only slightly longer than handwashing with water alone. It seems unlikely that this small difference can explain the large difference in the removal of bacteria. Soap on its own appears to have an effect on the removal of bacteria of potential faecal origin, independent of the possibility that soap use may cause people to wash their hands longer.

My emphasis.

If you were to go for two links, http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-ca ... shing2.htm This page goes into the idea of water temperature. The basic idea: More temperature is better, to a point.

If you were to read three links, this may be the next best. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hand-washing/HQ00407

Keep in mind that antibacterial soap is no more effective at killing germs than is regular soap. Using antibacterial soap may even lead to the development of bacteria that are resistant to the product's antimicrobial agents — making it harder to kill these germs in the future.

And one for the Canadians, http://www.healthunit.com/article.aspx?ID=14023
For the people with limited time, http://www.health.state.mn.us/handhygie ... owsoap.pdf
And one more that recommends against antibacterial soaps, http://www.tpchd.org/files/library/12b59c64cf77a8a0.pdf

Lastly, if your physician is prescribing you medicine for routine use, have a supply of that. Does not matter the condition that your physician has prescribed the medicine for (blood pressure, seizures, recurrent infections, ED, etc), it is a good recommendation to have a supply of that. If your physician isn't prescribing you this medicine, you probably don't need that medicine. Especially when more soap and water purification would be more effective.

And masks go on the sick people, not so much on the healthy people. (Not sure where that came from, but my brain said to type it.)

If you want an antiseptic scrub, not for normal use, Hibiclens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorhexidine) is my recommendation.

And yes; I suck at walking away from threads.

[painiac]

If you were to go for two links, http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-ca ... shing2.htm This page goes into the idea of water temperature. The basic idea: More temperature is better, to a point.

What the hell, I'll throw a little supplemental info in here too.
Some dirt (and with it, bacteria) stays on your hands after rinsing with plain water because it's not particularly soluble in water so has no particular affinity for unsticking from your skin. Soapy water removes foreign materials from your skin better than water alone because a molecule of soap has a component that envelops or sticks to these foreign materials and a component that sticks to the water molecules.

Very warm water, aside from being more pleasant on your skin than very cold water, is able to dissolve more solutes in it (meaning a little more soap and more foreign material from the surface of your skin). This is true up to about 100 degrees F, after which there isn't much appreciable benefit to continuing to increase the temperature.

[inkling410]

I have done a lot of reading on this Allow me to explain my belief. Every “drug” manufactured, SOLD, or brought in the United States (not smuggled) must pass FDA regulations (even animal drugs in case of human consumption), and is listed within the United States Pharmacopeia, or USP. For example if your dog gets pain meds they will have the same effect on a human as they will on a dog and is still a controlled substance, if caught with it without a script bad news. Also pills have to be marked differently if active substance in the pill are not exactly what the drug is claiming due to false advertising laws and again accidental human consumption. So if its Doxycycline its Doxycycline

So in my OPINION in a no other option scenario why not, if your stocking a drug for known effect i.e.- an Amoxicillin for swollen tonsils and not trying to run through the list of drugs trying to cure cancer and be a doctor, than fine. My only suggestion is know were they came from and make sure they are manufactured in the US.
Nothing is better than the real deal, but if you are in dire need and no help living in a petsmart do it up!