MEDICAL MONDAY: Medicine for Preppers: Herbal First Aid

Hey, y'all, welcome to the show. You know, I'm a really practical guy. That's the basis of my entire philosophy of herbal medicine. It's having on hand what you need, being able to identify what you need in the wilderness. I don't get into a lot of exotic herbs or you know, woohoo far out type of stuff. I want you to be able to take care of things as they come up, be resilient, have your preps on hand, and of course the biggest prep, the best one you can have, is knowledge. So let's get started with a little herbal first aid. Obviously, the most important aspects of first aid are keeping airways open and stopping bleeding. Stopping bleeding is actually a little less complicated than keeping airways open, so let's start with that, because look, you cut yourself, we all do it. Priority stop the bleeding so you don't die. Pretty simple, really, I mentioned in the first episode I did that a couple of years ago. I was moving a washing machine for my mother. I was down at her place and I didn't have anyone to help me, and I had this giant, heavy, German made washing machine. I don't even know what this thing was was a monster on a dolly by myself, and I was lugging it up the stairs and I didn't have it strapped on. You know, I wasn't thinking that far ahead. Foresight is always lacking in when we were discussing an injury. We can talk about what we might have been in hindsight. But I was stupid, of course, and I went up, you know, one of the stairs, and the washer came off the dolly, and the dolly kickback with in tremendous force and split my shin open, and you know, I just kept writing going. I was really annoyed and frustrated, and I wrested that thing into the house and I got it hooked up. Meanwhile, my shoe, sock, everything soaked with blood and blood just everywhere. This was a bad cut and it wasn't stopping. And you know, I wasn't paying enough attention to it until I got that done and was able to realize what was going on. You know, I'm a guy, you know where we are. I had nothing at hand. I was away from home. There was no superglue, there was no there was nothing bigger than a tiny little bandage you might put on a blister or something. I mean a little band aid. I had nothing I needed. I had paper towels, I had rubbing alcohol. Okay, so I had those things. That was it. I didn't even have a duct tape. I mean, you know you can duct tape a wound shut, even a really bad one. Basically you put a duct tape on either side and you lace it up like shoelacism and pull it tight. But it's a very good way to do it. I had nothing, and I'm looking around. Okay, I go to the spice cabinet. Here's my first herb to help stop bleeding. Write this down or buy my book, you know, herbal medicine for preppers, homesteaders, and permaculture people. Cayenne pepper. It really doesn't burn as much as you think a m Cayenne pepper is a very finely ground powder of an absorbent dried pepper. It's that simple. If you put that in a wound, even really bad wounds, it's probably the most effective thing to stop bleeding. It is a pure stiptic. It's just it works. I mean, it is something you should have on hand. Recently, I was done at Dollar Tree, which is now you know, dollar twenty five tree, I blame Joe Biden far more than arn't Pope for that. By the way, recently I saw a video the guy was just going off on dollar Tree. I'm like, dude, have you looked at the price of gas? Have you looked at the price of diesel? Yeah, I mean twenty five cents is twenty five percent increase? But really not. The guy to be blaming is our Pope. And you know, well it was just outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. That's why the names so you know, close to mine because I'm from North Carolina and actually used to know him. But anyway, I picked up some cayenne pepper. Dollar twenty five best investment you can make. I can throw some in with some food. I can, you know, toss some in with some chili. I mean it's a it's a mild hot pepper. Really, it's I don't know why people think cayannes are that hot. Now the fresh pepper, that's a different story. But anyway, tried cayenne. You get a cut, rub it in there, sprinkle it on. Usually nine times out of ten we'll take care of it, even deep cut. So write that one down. But I didn't have it on hand. I didn't have anything I had need it on hand, I didn't have yarra. Yarrow grows all over my yard in the mountains in North Carolina. Yarrow is a remarkable plant. I mean it is one you mow it down, you cut it, you know, and it will actually grow sideways across the ground. I mean, yarrow is resilient. And for thousands of years it's been known as a soldiers are. It actually goes back to the legend of Achilles. Achilles was said to have stopped the bleeding of his soldiers, and I think even the wound on his you know, he or with yarrow. And if you look at the Latin name, it's Achialia. I believe achala milifolium. It means it's named after Achilles. And the leaves are actually broken to these like ferny feathery type segments meaning million leaves. It doesn't have a million leaves. It just isn't very complexly, it's very easy to identify. To be sure that you learn to identify it. So it's never confused with poison hemlock. Now, poison hemlock does not look a whole lot like yara. It actually looks identical to wild carrot, But wild carrot has a tiny little purple flower, a tiny little purple spot right in the middle of its humble of flowers. You know, if you've grown carrots in your garden, you know what a carrot looks like. Right. Wild hemlock actually looks far more like a carrot. But when the plants are young, they can be confused. You can confuse wild hemli like with angelica. You can basically confuse wild hemlock with anything in the umbiliferous family, anything that has that type of flower at a small state, before the leaves have developed, before the flower's gotten very big. That's just a little warning, but you know, no big deal. You're probably gonna find yaro just about anywhere. Most people would make a tea an infusion we call it, and soak the wound in there. You know that doesn't work really great. I mean, honestly, that's not the best way to stop bleeding. The best way to stop bleeding is actually to use the flowers dry and the leaves dry and put them on as a compress. Now, if you don't have them dry, use fresh. Something's usually better than nothing. So yarro is easy, and there are versions of it that can be a pretty attractive flower. So even if you live in a subdivision, you poor sucker, you can get this one growing, even against your property owners association's objections, because it is actually an ornamental flower. Next, I would use oak bark. Oak bark has the e stringency of yarrow, it's actually a little more astringent, and the can be ground to a fine powder like impact. So oak oaks are everywhere, right, I mean, honestly, everywhere you look, you're probably going to see some kind of oak. I don't care if it's a white oak, red oak, water oak, live oak. I mean, if you're on John's Island in South Carolina and you need to grab a stick off the angel oak, use it. If you're going to bleed to death, oak is oak to no brainer, use the blackjack, oak, the post oak, whatever you got. Oak is a string and just really markedly useful. Also good for sore throats, and you know it helps to bring down swelling and spray joints and stuff. Oak's a good one to what I end up using those pine. I was near Fa, Carolina, and all of you with military service know two things. One h there are a lot of trees around Fatteville, and Fatteviel is basically hell on earth and a place you will ever be if you live there. It's all apologies, but hey, check the crime rate. It's always been bad. That's what we always call it Vietnam. You know, Fattevil is Fatteville, and it's you know hell. So anyway, I was near Fatteville and I pine pitch. Pine pitch is a steptic. It helps stop bleeding. It is a stringent. It helps close those capitalaries and shrink that wound. It is antiseptic. It helps disinfect the wind. Literally two days, well we'll call it a good pointy right from one day to the next at about the same time, I'm sitting there applying pressure for the wound. I'm doing everything I could think of to keep this thing from bleeding. And because it was on a lower e tremedy was on a shin. Every time I stood up and started bleeding. It finally hit me go outside and grabbed some pine pitch. I found a wound on a tree. I scraped it off. I slapped it on there a masking tape and a paper towel. Is actually I ended up using and I got it on there and the wound stopped bleeding within thirty minutes of keeping my leg elevated and the wound closed and it healed. And I don't even have more than just the faintest square. Had I been the type to go to a doctor, probably should have gone to urgent care or the emergency room and got the stitched up. It was that bad motivation to do so much, less the money to pay the bill. And my leg healed up just fine, no problem. I mean, honestly, pine pitch pine is one of the very best remedies or throats, coughs, colds, viruses. Pine is anti viral. A tea of pine can help with allergies, excellent for wounds, and technically speaking, in the entire tree is edible, believe it or not. You know, I've written extensively on pine. If you have a pine tree, you have a edible medicine cabinet. Now I'm not saying it's tasty. You know. Pine is an excellent survival plant. Now, one that's really traditionally used a lot in the mountains where I'm from is a little controversial. It's puffball mushrooms, you know, just those little brown puffball mushrooms say, if you press them like a little puff of smoke comes out. That is actually you know millions and millions of little fungle spores that are dried and they will stop bleeding, just like cayenne pepper. Okay, the problem with puffball mushrooms is if you puff it into the wound, yes, it can save your life, but that whole area turns black. Well, I'll tell you about a friend of mine. He was out in the woods and he got a very serious injury. I think if I can't remember if he cut himself with a chainsaw or an axe, but we're talking. He was not making it out of those woods unless he figured out how to stop that bleeding. It was. It was bad, and he actually passed out, he lost so much blood. But he found some puffball mushrooms and he puffed him on there and he had the wherewithal to think, take an again and write on his thigh. It was a thigh wound, a big deal, you know, blackness from puffball mushroom. The reason was he was he was He had been a paramedic at one point, and he knew if he went into an emergency room and he was unconscious. Someone was going to look at that and they might amputate that leg. It really looks that bad if you use puffball mushrooms, but it can save your life again. You know, oak bark probably more accessible, Pine probably more accessible. Popball mushrooms will certainly do the trick. Other great wound herbs Shepherd's purse. Shepherd's purse is a wild edible we often eat. It's sort of like a wild mustard or a wild lettuce. Very stringent. It works a lot like yarro just in shrinking down those capillaries. It's particularly good for internal bleeding. Shepherd's purse can be used for internal wounds or minstrel issues. Very safe and actually quite healthy for you. One of my favorites is bukele weed a Juga repins. It is often considered a weed. It is just a common herb that grows all over. It tolerates shade well. I think it's a very pretty plant. A lot of people considered an evasive weed because it spreads. In fact, the Latin name repins actually means spreading google just like mint, can get out of control. But along with shepherd's perse that was those were probably the two men herbs that soldiers were carrying into battle to treat their wounds. Even into World WARLD W very useful for stopping bleeding, but bugle also slows and strengthens the heart rate. That's what we call cardiotonic, also a mild narcotic. It can calm and help a person who has been wounded. So whether the soldier was carrying bugle for stopping bleeding, or just to help with the trauma of the wound, or really just to make life on the battlefield a little easier, bugle would have been in their kit. And bugle is generally considered safe. Of course, anything that affects the heart rate could be dangerous and large amounts I'm not recommending it, although I do use it myself every spring I gather in great quantities. It's one of my favorite herbs, A nice edible bitter that could be added to salads. It takes psych ridicio and you know, lower's blood pressure, lower's heart rate. It's basically like having a glass or to a wine Plantain. Plantain is a common next to dandelion, probably the most common weed in your lawn that you spend thousands of dollars soaking and poison trying to get rid of if you're an idiot. Okay, smart people don't do that. Smart people eat the weeds by offend as you're sorry, whise up. Planting is one of the most health of roops. It is so good for colds and allergies and sore throats. It's one of the two go tos for a bug bite, like a bee sting or a hornet sting. You just chew up a leaf and put it on there. The other one is actually tobacco. By the way, tobacco works better, but plantain is very anti inflammatory. Plantain is useful for stopping bleeding, and the leaves can actually be used as a natural band aid. Plantain is an absolute go to. It's a primary urb. I'm just going to run through a few more. Arnica. Arnica is the ultimate wound herb. Should always have arnica on hand. I recently spoke with the clinical herbalist up in Canada. A snowboarder had fallen on a small stump, you know, like a little piece of brush that was cut off in a very tender spot and had serious bruising and bleeding under the skin. And you know, this guy was a good one anywherey time. Soon they applied a liniment of arnica or an oil of arnica, I can't quite remember. The next morning where the liniment had been applied, all the bruising was gone, all the soreness was gone, all the swelling was gone. Where they missed a few spots, you could actually see the fingerprints in the bruise. Arnica disperses bruising and inflammation also helps with That's right up there with yarrow. It is an absolute god too. Others that are very useful kind of work in similar ways as yarrow being a string, you're a stringent herbs drink those capillaries and work as a stiptic agrimony ladies mantle speedwell. Speedwell was actually planted by Roman troops as they invaded countries, knowing they may need it. Dead nettle another common weed, grape burnett tormental, which is too what things in the rose family, anything in the rose family is astringent. So yes, you can actually use rose leaves and rosebuds, BlackBerry, jerry, cherry, and pear. I mean those are all Rose family plants. These are all the same family as the rose bush, believe it or not. Down two like oh, I don't know. Strawberries, geraniums even, I mean, you know, these are astringents. Some of them are much more mild. Any of these would be if you had like oak bark on one end of the spectrum, these would be on the other end of the spectrum. As far as the stringency oak, you know, oak galls can actually be used to the tanned leather. Horsetail is an herb that is very high in silica. Silica can work to you know, as a as a step to stop leading wild cala buck bean, bearberry uv yours. That's a really good one, really excellent herb, false solomon seal, wild indigo. There's a plant called Queen of the Prairie if you live on the prairie. It's philip Indula ribera. It's in the rose family, so it's one of those pennsylvanya smartweed, which is a really common weaed I mean smartweed is probalygonum. You know this stuff. Farmers hate it. People with golf car Salawans hate it. Excellent herb for wounds, salad burnett. It's another old soldiers herb that would have been one that the soldiers would have carried with yarrow and bugle and all that salad. Burnett is actually an herb you can put in salads or cook into your eggs. Quite tasty. Actually, Purple loose stripe, yeah, that thing. Another one of those hated weeds. Excellent for wounds, excellent to stop bleeding. Iron weed alum root. Alan root is also called al hoof in some places. It has a really unique leaf and is often used ornamentally. It also grows well in shade like bugle, So you know, if you're in your property owners association, you're in your POA. That's when you can have on hand amaranth, which is often a weed. I mean they call it pigs weed or goosefoot, and in some cultures it's one of their most essential grain plants. I like amaranth quite a bit. Actually, I'll throw some of the seeds into my bread. Great great or for stopping bleeding and helping with wounds. Button bush is a stringent staghorn. Sumac one of my favorites that just grows everywhere around here. Sumac berries can be used to make a lemonade like beverage, very good for colds and fevers, and sumac is a really good and it helps stop diarrhea because it can be used internally as a stringent. The Indians around here used to take the dried leaves and mix it with the backup as a smoking mixture. Staghorn sumac really good a stringent stop bleeding. Hemlock or suga or arbabiot eighties are all in the same family. Great very much like pine. And you know, if I had to pick one pine and go with the white pine, I thing he's a little stronger than the others. But using the uny of gout and hemlock tea is so good for internal and external bleeding, but also for like soret roads and again anything you need that stringent. The Kentucky coffee tree, if that grows in your area. Butternut which is hickory. The nut is in the same family as pecan or pecan however you want to pronounce it, or walnuts, and it's it's the nicest stringent, very very useful tree. Rag wead, that thing that causes all your allergies. It's really good as stringent. Use it, poultice it on a wound. Ragweed has a lot interesting herbal qualities will get into later. Actually the leaf is helpful against the allergies that the flower causes, so we would definitely revisit ragweed. But the last is so very southern. I mean, honestly, it's a usnia. It's old man's beard. You probably know one variety of it as Spanish moss if you've ever been in the south, obviously you take that put it on a loan. It soaks up the blood, it helps stop the bleeding, and it has antiseptic, anti fungal, anti viral, and antibiotic properties. Now, the old man's beard, the official usnia that grows more in northern climates, is considered to be far more medicinal than our Spanish moss. See what grows in your area. I have a little bit of the northern variety where I live in the mountains. I have, of course, in counter tons of the Spanish moss toward the coast. Grew up with it, in fact, and there is one caveat on that. There is a similar lichen known I think as wolf fungus wolf's beard. It has many common names. I don't think it's gonna be a problem using it externally, but taken internally is a little toxic. But usnia is a really, really useful herb anti viral. It's really good to have on hand or at least snow were you can get done pretty quickly. Y'all have a great week, they say, they use some common sense. Get out there and look around, see what herbs may be either already growing on your property or nearby, and consider what you can have on hand. These are prepped. Basically, if China invades Taiwan, our shelves are gonna be empty and you're not gonna be able to buy anything that you need. To stop bleeding if you are bleeding, and we will all bleed at some point in our lives. So find me on Amazon j Justson Carroll, Judson Carroll dot com, all my books aner the name of Justson Carroll. I will see you next week, and don't forget. Please send me any questions justin at justsin Carrol dot com or Southern Apalachian Erbs at gmail dot com. I will be glad to interact with you and answer any questions you may have. Have a great week, stay safe on Memorial Day, and please remember it's all about