Living with inflammation can be a rough life, but luckily it is highly manageable with natural remedies. When SHTF and inflammation is a problem, these remedies can help out a lot. Look below for just a few excellent options to potent medications.

Managing Inflammation When the SHTF
If you get one of the diseases that come under the banner of inflammatory conditions, especially one of the more severe types, you will usually be offered certain drugs that help the condition. These drugs are usually a corticosteroid like Prednisone, NSAID drugs, like Celebrex, which reduces inflammation and helps with pain, and aspirin (also a type of NSAID).
Can you stock up on the drugs needed to treat inflammatory conditions?
The answer to the above question is that, yes, you can in some cases. Aspirin, for example, has a long shelf life (several years) as long as you keep the bottle closed so no moisture gets in. However, the shelf life of some of the drugs is not the issue. The issue is using certain drugs, such as corticosteroids and immunosuppressant’s, is dangerous. And of course these sorts of drugs cause your immune system to be suppressed so you catch bugs; catching bugs when the SHTF is not a good idea.

Curcumin (found in turmeric):
Curcumin is a type of naturally occurring chemical compound that is found in the spice, turmeric.
You can buy high dosage pills and stock up on these, the shelf life, if kept unopened would be several years. There have a been a lot of studies into the use of turmeric on inflammatory conditions, studies showing that you can take up to 8000 mg per day without adverse effect, over short periods. However, over longer periods, dosages of around 1500-2500 are effective and have little side effects.
If you don’t have access to high dosage pills, but do have turmeric, you can make a drink by mixing it with milk. I will warn you, it tastes pretty bad, but you can mix honey in if you like sweetness.

Natural Aspirin
The studies show you need a reasonable dose of aspirin to see anti-inflammatory effects, doses of around 75 mg per day can be tolerated long term. If you are using natural aspirin, i.e. salicin, as described in our article on natural aspirin, then you need to work out the equivalent dosage. White willow bark contains around 15% salicin. Therefore if you had 100 mg of white willow bark, you would have 15 mg of salicin.
NOTE this is milligrams NOT grams. So you don’t need much to get your dosage, per day, to alleviate inflammation.
Omega 3 Fish Oils
The trouble with omega oils as a liquid is that they don’t last very long. So as far as sticking up for when the SHTF is concerned, you will have limited use from that form. Capsules may last longer, especially if kept in a cold place. In the long term, you need to take it in natural form. However, the dosages that are required for effectiveness are around 1.5-5g per day, which is quite a lot of fish.
Chili Pepper
Chili pepper is a well-known anti-inflammatory. It has been used by native American Indians for 1000’s of years as both a medicinal drug and as a weapon (the smoke from burning chili peppers warding off enemies).
To make a cream from chili peppers as an arthritis rub
About 3-4 cups of an oil like olive oil
A cup of beeswax
Four tablespoons of habanero powder or around 3.5 ounces of dried chili peppers, ground up.
Heat the oil up and add in the habanero powder or dried and ground chilies. Heat the mix gently for about 10 minutes. Take off the heat
Warm the beeswax and add to the mix. Stir until all the mix is homogenous. Cool it down and then add to the lidded bottle. It should keep for up to 2 weeks.

If you require prescription medications, by all means, keep taking them and even stock up on them if you can; you never know when you may no longer be able to get your hands on new stock.

What this information does provide are some excellent alternatives that you may still be able to come by even after SHTF. If you grow your own food– an excellent practice — by the way, then this will give you some ideas as to other crops to add to your plot of land.

For more helpful information on fighting inflammation, check out the original article at Ask A Prepper.