Can you prevent or heal an infection without antibiotics?

Well you'd prevent it the same way they do in most Asian countries today. Wear a dust mask.

There are various natural 'antibiotics' which can help your immune system but nothing that is as effective as pharmaceuticals.

Antibiotics won't work on a virus. Even in modern medicine it's very difficult to treat a virus, in a post-apocalyptic setting you'd pretty much just have to rest and let it run its course.

Pro-biotics can help bolster a person's immune system. If your guy/gal has access to the right plants, they could binge.

Natural remedies are somewhat limited in efficacy depending on how soon you start taking them, but they do work to a certain extent.

The info I offer is purely anecdotal; I shun prescription antibiotics except for absolutely raging staph infections and the like. For flu-like symptoms I take apple cider vinegar and water, good for both viral and bacterial stomach and respiratory infections. In the absence of acv, regular white vinegar will do. If your MC can find old bottles of wine that have gone to vinegar these will also help.

Another possibility is juice or wine made of elderberries. Note: Elderberries are toxic if ingested raw. I've had a small cordial glass of elderberry wine every night during flu season for nine years and have escaped the flu each year. Elderberry juice, tonic or wine have been proven to have remarkable results against the H1N1 flu virus. There are certain limited studies showing Elderberry effectiveness against MRSA, as well.

I'm sure you can google elderberries (or, vinegar) and infection to get info you might be able to use.

hth

We're all here because our ancestors survived bouts of whatever bacterial-or-viral infection was going on when they were alive. Or they at least survived long enough to reproduce...

Stay hydrated and warm are two key elements and the way many a pre-modern era mother kept her sick children alive. The strong would pull through (sometimes), the weakest usually not.

One thing I find discomforting, though, is how a wound, if it went 'septic' often spelled the end. A cut on a hand or finger, if not cleaned and treated, could kill a person. Even in these modern times, I had a friend nearly die from a paper-thin slice in her thumb. She spent a week in a hospital with an IV drip until they found the 'right' antibiotics to kill the bacterial infection.

Bodies can fend off infections. Antibiotics speed things up, and help guarantee survival, but prior to penicillin we didn't all die every time we got a sinus infection.

I've not bothered treating my last two sinus infections. I get a lot of snot, headaches, sometimes earaches, and occasional fever-chills, and they last for about 2.5 weeks. But I'm still able to do work and school and haven't died yet. If I went to the doc and got meds, they'd be gone in 4 days.

For cuts and things, honey is somewhat anti-bacterial, and I've seen it used in fiction, spread over the wound before it's bound.

Anything containing alcohol will also kill bugs. It hurts like a bitch though to pour booze on an open wound. Hydrogen peroxide also kills them, and doesn't hurt but it fizzes nicely and kinda tickles as it reacts with the iron in blood. Bleach of course, but I don't think that should be applied to humans, only surfaces to clean them.

Also, not touching your eyes, nose, ears, or mouth, and washing your hands with plain old soap.

For helping prevent infection in open wounds, honey is an old remedy (I think it's the sugar content). The other common one is spirits, such as whisky or vodka being used. Certainly it's common enough to use as sterilising fluid in a lot of modern catastrophe films/books/TV.

Mind you, I had a 'modern day' character thrown into a fantasy world treat a wound with both alcohol and honey and the wounded man still died. Probably the four hours he spent outside with a bandage that wasn't as clean as it might be and the fact that an arrow went through his shoulder.

Garlic is supposed to have anti-bacterial, pennicillin-like properties. Raw, not cooked. Something about cooking is supposed to change the medically beneficial properties.

There's also tea tree oil, which I think I recall also has anti-fungal properties.

Well, if the wound becomes gangrenous and the flesh starts rotting, cover the wound with maggots, they'll eat away the rotting flesh.

JanDarby said:

Garlic is supposed to have anti-bacterial, pennicillin-like properties. Raw, not cooked. Something about cooking is supposed to change the medically beneficial properties.

There's also tea tree oil, which I think I recall also has anti-fungal properties.

Click to expand...

Garlic is definitely anti-fungal. If you put it raw into bread dough you'll kill the yeast. (this also works on yeast infections... use your imagination)

Tea tree oil, lavender oil, oregano oil, and rosemary oil all have antifungal and antibacterial properties. They all contain the same family of aromatic compounds that bugs don't like. I use them around the house (a bunch of drops in a water/alcohol solution) instead of lysol spray.

Depending on the medicinal qualities of the plant used, echinacea has been used for ages with success.

I personally have much better results with two other herbs that have historical use as well: Cat's Claw, and Olive Leaf. Olive Leaf works for viruses as well.

Many (most) mushrooms are very helpful, too. Depending on the system involved, remedies like cranberry juice can truly work. Basically, a lot of herbs and foods act like mini-medicine, at least. They work for different reasons.

That's not even getting into the herbs and foods that can help health in general, or provide a bit of 'detoxification', so to speak.

For sinus or lungs, etc, it's also helpful to do things/use things that keep the bodily fluids from getting stopped up (sometimes to reduce swelling for this, too). The stopping up creates more of a breeding ground for bad bugs. So it's not a direct effect, but it really can help.

Calendula is another one that works well as an antibiotic. When my index finger got mangled by a cat it abscessed really badly and swelled to three times its normal size. I didn't have any health insurance. My last ditch treatment effort before going in consisted of repeatedly soaking the finger in epsom salt water so hot I could barely stand it, then following up with calendula infused oil. The next day it was down to normal size and healed quickly after that.

We used the oil to cure my daughter's diaper rash, and for deep open wounds on my dogs. Once in a while they'll slice a paw pad on a seashell. It looks like a knife slice usually about 2 inches wide and 3/4 inches deep. With triple antibiotic ointment it takes two weeks of bed rest before they can run again without it splitting open. Grapeseed oil infused with calendula gets them back in the field in about 8 days. It would be really easy to cultivate in a post apocalyptic setting, or even find naturalized in someone's old garden.

Myrrh resin is highly antibiotic and antifungal. Historically it was one of the few substances that could cure leprosy. Unless your post apocalyptic world takes place where myrrh trees grow it would probably be easier for them to find some leftover stuff from a pharmacy.

jennontheisland said:

Bleach of course, but I don't think that should be applied to humans, only surfaces to clean them.

Click to expand...

Actually - Dakin's solution is nothing but diluted bleach. After the "professionals"
managed to allow my father's diabetic leg ulcers to become infected, my mother took matters into her own hands and got them uninfected.

I'm thinking the best things outside of having access to modern medicine are general cleanliness/good hygene and eating a healthy diet, perhaps with vitamin supplements.

And also, staying away from sick people as much as possible.

defyalllogic said:

While wounds are an issue for folks in the wild, I'm thinking more about sickness than side effects of wounds.

Generally trying not to catch something from someone or some place or however we get sick... and trying to prevent and treat that kind of infection or illness.

Click to expand...

defyalllogic said:

...
This is in a post-apocalyptic setting. The knowledge of the present is around but not everyone has it and most resources are not available.

Click to expand...

And that can make doing all these things I said before more complicated and "interesting" for the story - how often can you bathe/shower? Is the water clean? Got access to good food? Got vitamins? What's your current "job?" I can imagine the only way to earn food is by taking care of the sick. Better hope those herbal remedies work...

True Believer said:

Note: Elderberries are toxic if ingested raw.

Click to expand...

This one always interested me, as I eat raw elderberries (I was taught to eat them in small numbers, but not that they shouldn't be eaten). I've never been sick. But looking at anecdotes of getting sick or hospitalised from them, it seems as though people prepared the raw berries for juice and the like, crushing the seeds inside or the attached stalks.

So a person who couldn't cook the berries might be able to pick out the seeds and eat sufficient quantities raw.

Er...

I'm confused. I thought that antibiotics were a waste of time as far as flu and most viral infections.

backslashbaby said:

Many (most) mushrooms are very helpful, too.

Click to expand...

This is true, mushrooms often have interesting properties, but they can also easily kill you if you don't know what you're doing... unless your characters are fungus experts they should approach mushrooms with extreme caution.

Pdr: You're right, there's not much anyone can do for the flu or viral infections besides treat the symptoms, even with antibiotics, but bacterial infections (and fungal I think?) can be treated.

pdr said:

I'm confused. I thought that antibiotics were a waste of time as far as flu and most viral infections.

Click to expand...

You're right; prescription antibiotics are only for bacterial infections. They're useless against viral infections. Some of the natural solutions (such as acv) mentioned above are to varying extents anti-bacterial, anti-viral and, also, anti-fungal.

Hey DAL,

I'm too drunk to read the whole thread, but anti-biotics are a recent invention.

So a viral infection is all down to the immnunity of the person involved. Some people, if the Readers Digest is correct, can't even catch AIDS.

Regards

Whacko

Rose hip tea. It would probably work best as a preventative, but IIRC it is loaded with vitamin C.

General inflammation can be controlled to a degree by diet, heavy on the greens, avoiding sugar and the like.