survival supplements

Survival Vitamins and Supplements

Preparedness and one’s health. It’s important. I’m going to provide you with my opinion on what I consider important survival supplements and vitamins. Curious to hear yours as well.

One reason people can become vitamin deficient because they don’t eat right, or unable to get all of the nutrients they really need.

Lots of factors contribute to being healthy. Just to name a few… The food you eat. Physical fitness. Age. Environment. Your genes. I believe that vitamin supplements can also attribute towards health. I have my own regiment that I take each day. You might call them, ‘survival supplements’ (grin).

Anyway, regarding preparedness, you might consider stocking up on some of these. It can’t hurt, right?

In addition to food and preparedness supplies, we should not overlook the value of storing extra vitamins (and medications, be it prescription or over-the-counter) which could become very relevant – especially if a disaster turns into a long-term situation.

SURVIVAL SUPPLEMENTS
SURVIVAL VITAMINS

None of this should be considered medical advice. Rather, my opinion.

The Essential Vitamins & Supplements

Your most important consideration should be to stay healthy! Not only is this relevant for everyday life, but also in the context of preparedness. For example, during the time period following SHTF / long term disaster, many people will not be eating healthy, and many people will likely suffer from various vitamin deficiencies as a result.

Multivitamins

Although eating a proper diet rich in fundamental and beneficial nutrition is the best way to survive, a multivitamin supplement (at a minimum) could prove to be very important to overcome, or at least combat, the issues of vitamin deficiencies.

I believe that a multivitamin is perhaps the most important survival supplement. If you’re only going to get one vitamin, get this one! A multivitamin will (should) have at least the minimum daily requirements. Although perhaps arguably, additional supplements may further augment one’s overall well-being in a number of targeted ways.

I personally choose well recognized brands, tailored separately towards men and women (varying needs). And, the “over 50” crowd (also with unique nutrients).

Centrum for Men and Women
(amzn)

Vitamin C

D3 5000 IU (NatureWise)

Vitamin C is an important and essential survival supplement too! It is a water soluble nutrient well known for its vital role in the immune system. In addition to a multivitamin, consider specific supplements such as Vitamin C (or ascorbic acid powder, which is how I take it). I usually mix 500 mg with a glass of water in the morning and afternoon.

K2

K2 100 mcg (NatureWise)

C and K2 go together. They are recommended to take together for optimal absorption, and, strong bones and healthy heart. I take one a day with my C supplement.

Vitamin D

D3 5000 IU (NatureWise)

Important! Vitamin D (D3), the so called winter vitamin. I take it year-round. It’s a very essential survival supplement, especially if you live north of the Mason-Dixon line. Plus, today’s indoor lifestyles radically inhibit natural vitamin D production. In fact, an astounding number of people are presently Vitamin-D deficient, right now! I take 5000 IU in the morning.

[ Read: Vitamin D Equivalent versus Sun Exposure Time ]

Zinc

Zinc 30 mg (NutraBio)

Preferably Chelated Zinc. I supplement 30 mg each day. I dare not mention the apparent potential benefit against a particular ‘thing’ that’s going around right now (big tech may censor it if I say the word). But I think you know what I’m talking about (the ‘vid’).

[ Read: Foods High in Zinc ]

[ Read: Supplement Protocol For (ov!d-!9 ]

Quercetin

Life Extension Optimized Quercetin

Zinc and Quercetin should go together. I take a 250 mg tablet once a day with the zinc mineral supplement. Quercetin apparently promotes cardiovascular health and immune system support.

B Complex Vitamin

Super B Complex (Nature Made)

Apparent wide-ranging goodness. An immune support supplement. B vitamins are also apparently necessary for normal functioning of the nervous system. I take one a day.

More ‘Survival Supplements’

Those listed above are particularly important in my opinion. However, I also like the following.

CoQ10

Qunol Ultra CoQ10 100 mg (Qunol)

Other ‘survival supplements’ like Coenzyme Q10 which apparently may attribute to heart health. I take one a day. If you take a statin (for high cholesterol), you need to be taking this too. I no longer take a statin, however I continue to supplement with this.

The point is, in consideration for preparedness to offset potential vitamin deficiencies, there may be a need for ‘survival vitamins’ in your preps.

Also do some research and learn which foods, and other natural substances are rich in various vitamins. The pills won’t last forever, and are only secondary compared with eating a good nutritional diet.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

Don’t forget to also stock up on your prescription drugs, over-the-counter pain relievers, and other pharmaceuticals which may apply.

If you have regular prescriptions, particularly those that are absolutely essential for your well being, you should try to build up extra (although sometimes difficult to do, given insurance companies, etc.).

Try asking your doctor to prescribe more for the purpose of having some extra on hand. While an insurance company may deny a purchase of ‘extra’, you could potentially pay out of pocket for your own peace of mind.

Pain relievers such as aspirin which reduces fever and relieves pain (do not give to children). Advil (Ibuprofen), Tylenol (Acetaminophen), etc.

What are your thoughts on this subject? Any specific recommendations?

32 Comments

  1. I would also suggest niacin. It has been proved to shorten the length (&, possibly, the virility of a virus). Am currently without any & suffering through a nasty sore throat/ear ache combo, morphing into a head cold. bah humbug
    It is always a problem to know where to go & how to buy meds. There are ways, if you have a sympathetic physician, veterinarian, etc. Few & far between, however.

  2. Glad to see vitamin supplements being covered. I am a long time vitamin taker. Not an expert on all vitamins and herbal extracts but I know what works for me. I agree, that vitamin C crystals are a necessity for home health care. I take 1,000 mg (1/4 tsp.) in my daily water bottle. I also take a 1,000 mg. slow release tablet daily. That is basic. If I feel a scratchy throat or aching in my bones I take more. (I work in the hospitality industry, so I’m exposed to germs all the time.) A conveniently packaged product that also has 1,000 mg. of C plus other nutrients is called Emergen C, I put several packets in each of my kids Go Bags, plus our Evac Bin.

    Another important one is natural vitamin E (d-alpha), get a capsule that has mixed tocopherols: beta, delta, gamma. I take 400 IU daily, but often I take more in the evening because of leg cramps.

    Epsom salts is good to have handy. Not the kind you bath in, the purer form that you get in the pharmacy area, labelled for internal use. It is recommended for constipation, but it works for eliminating facial tics, improving mood, and magnesium is required if you are taking calcium supplements.

    I also always have broad spectrum digestive enzyme tablets on hand. Especially with my survival pantry consisting of lots of beans and rice. lol.

    Oh, almost forgot! I am middle-aged and despite all my efforts was having a hard time coping with my busy life. (work, aging parents, teenagers) Started taking Coenzyme Q10. I figure I take quite a bit, 2x 100 mg capsules daily, but it definitely helps.

    I also take daily 2 mega halibut liver oil capsules (vitamin A and D), B complex, extra B6, and holy smokes can’t believe I almost forgot my life saver, d-pantothenic acid, 1,000 mg, time release.

    Could go on… Love your site. Bye.

  3. Vitamin D! If you live in a Northern climate, or just don’t get enough sun (Most of us don’t get near enough), you need to be taking Vitamin D. I live in Northern Alberta and have had my levels monitored for the last 3 years. I have had to take 10000 IU daily for 3 months to get my level up and 5000 IU daily to maintain my levels.

    I have had a oncologist tell me that being low in Vitamin D for 2 years increases your chance of colon cancer by 250% (My dad recently recovered from Colon and Liver cancer, his doctor told me the stat). I haven’t been significantly sick since I started taking Vitamin D. I believe I had the swine flu (not diagnosed), and was over symptoms in 22 hours. It was a bad 22 hours, but I was still functional.

    I recommend “Vitamin D ‘Drops’“, as it is a liquid and is easy to take. It can be mixed with any drink or orally. It tastes like nothing, just slightly oily.

    If SHTF, your probably not going to be out suntanning, so I would recommend a few bottles per person be stored. Mine had a shelf life of over 3 years.

    1. Too much vitamin D (and for some it does not take a lot) can thin your blood, and make you bleed easily.

      check out

      Vitamin D “Rat Poison”

      it is added to Rat Poison to make them bleed internally.

      1. Excessive vitamin D intake is rare. It’s probably as rare as argyria (excessive silver intake). Both could happen with obsessive intake but to find either happening ordinarily? Not very often, Anon. Those with excessive vitamin D would be more likely to have calcium deposits or other issues.

        In fact, the vast majority of Americans are vitamin D defficient, and possibly the only way they are getting vitamin D is usually in fortified milk. Tanning by sun exposure is far less common than in my youth when we all were nut brown most of the year from playing outside or working. Instead a lot of Americans have pasty complexions.

        Under ordinary conditions with a healthy diet and exercise, a lot of vitamin supplementation would be superfluous. Many vitamins are excreted during micturation to prevent toxicity since they are not needed for metabolism.

        However during healing, the body needs a lot of vitamin C due to collagen production. Vitamin C has been used to acidify (alter the pH) the urine to deal with urinary tract infections.

        Babies are commonly given a Vitamin K injection while in the hospital as many would have bleeding issues otherwise. If you know some young lady who bruises easily or has dark circles around her eyes, there’s a high likelihood she has low vitamin K.

        But under sustained disaster and post-collapse, then vitamin/mineral intake is one of the best ways of maintaining the health of your tribe, especially children. During those times malnutrition is one of the main medical issues.

        Low calcium will be a major concern, for while calcium can be found in many meadow herbs, not many American children will eat tons and tons of salad even if hungry for it doesn’t provide saiety. I’m far more worried about rickets than bleeding from excessive vitamin D. In medicine, under collapse conditions would be a horse and bleeding from excessive vitamin D would be a zebra. A horse is common; a zebra is rare.

        The most common initial and persistant nutritional defficiency will be scurvy (lack of vitamin C), but that is easily remedied by pine needle tea.

  4. Store them and keep them cool. Don’t worry about exp. dates. I’m taking some 3 years out of date and they work just fine. The gov. inforces very consertive guidelines as far as exp. dates are concerned. (I have a friend that ownes a health food store.) If exposed to too much moisture you will know when you open the bottle and then you can throw it out. I’ve only had to do that once.

  5. FWIW…One way to get vitamin c is to make a tea out of pine needles…now I tried it about 7 months ago and it tasted like crud…but it was easy to do and didn’t cost me a dime…it did smell really good while I was letting the needles steep. Was reading a book about Ojibwa Indian medicine and saw they used pine needles and white pine bark for colds…

  6. Yes, rarely do you hear more than rose hips in the wild for “C”. The fresh new growth needles are a great spring addition to the wilderness salad. As the needles mature there is less “C” and you loose the available fiber that new growth supplies. It is seasonal wisdom combined with preservation methods that will get you through a wilderness trek or bug out… Fresh growth is also quite tasty. Like legumes, there are enough types of ever-green out there for everyone to find a taste they like. The down fall is it’s a short harvest season in the early spring. One day at a time… Survive-All… One day at a time here/now…

  7. @Douglas, Do you have recommendations for fish antibiotics and an amount that would be close to human dose in an emergency?

    1. Most of the aquarium antibiotics are the antibiotics made by major pharm manufacturers- labeled for aquarium use. They are available in 250mg or 500mg capsules or tablets. There is no profit to be gained for the pharm companies to make different products for human and vet use. If you are in doubt order a bottle and open it up- compare the markings to a drug identification guide in the library or online. cephalexin, amoxicillin, ketoconazole, and sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim or easily available.

      1. Not really a profit issue. Federal law says that pet drugs have to be approved for human use. Same with canned dog food. Not hoping to do the yum-yum on either.

        Really pisses me off that most drugs made here cost more here than the same product shipped overseas.

        In my state feed stores sell common inoculations and drugs for pet usage. The same medications will work for humans. The rabies vaccination is an exception.

    2. Get a used book on medications the kind doctors and nurses use. These tell you any and everything you need to know on what meds to use for what condition how much how often for how long. Toss it in your bug out or in boxes.

  8. To be perfectly honest, there is both a science and an art to discerning the illness of the patient, based upon their subjective descriptions and the level of their illnees, and upon the objective (mostly) opinions of the healthcare team, then comorbity issues (other disease states), then pregnancy.

    It is complex.

    It is so complex that any advice given would be in error. One could never know all of those things or discern them from a casual conversation.

    The reason that of the loss of efficacy of antibiotics is that they are over prescribed as well as misprescribed…over due to the urgency and the inclinations of the patient.

    One could easily take the wrong antibiotic for their condition(s), and worsen the health of a patient, even harming them severely. See Clostridium dificile for that topic, as many antibiotics kill helpful bacterial flora while killing the hurtful bacteria, and then other harmful bacteria take over.

    Give the wrong antibiotic to a pregnant patient who doesn’t realize that she’s pregnant, and you could potentially harm a whole family mentally as well as physically.

    Be very careful about telling people to take fish antibiotics for all of those reasons. Patients when ill, or frightened in an emergency condition, may not be the most calm thoughtful healers. That means a deep study of medicine within your tribe to use that methodology.

  9. @HNH, Thanks for the comment. You appear to be especially knowledgeable in this subject area. If you feel inclined to write a guest-article on these deficiencies and/or solutions to these issues, feel free to contact us via the ‘Contact’ link at the bottom of the page and we’ll arrange to get it posted. Otherwise, your comment above has at least alerted folks to the potential problem that they may face.

    1. Thanks Ken. I considered writing an article or articles since my comments are often so long. That probably would be better and then spell and grammar checked as well. I’ll consider it, and would include references if you desire that as evidence. I sure don’t want to give you more work to do to fact check or edit that article, but of course all editorial decisions would be up to you as you may not wish to point to outside sources for multiple reasons.

      Because of the Peace Corps and diverse work by numerous NGOs, a lot of that information is applicable to the USA under disaster as well as sustained collapse. As such, you may find that a search of those kinds of archives will provide an abundant source of future articles.

      Those volunteers have to teach in diverse multidisciplinary ways for they may be solely responsible for all aspects of seeing a project come to fruition and under very low technology conditions, though with a pre-existing agricultural foundation. That means if they teach rocket stoves, then they also teach how to gather the clay, make the wooden brick molds, fire the bricks, alternative recipes adapted to the rocket stoves, etc. As such all of the methods are entwined from multiple angles and not just, “Let’s make a stove from common materials…”

  10. Learn to forage wild edibles, and start seeding down your properties with as many medicinal herbs as possible. Remember, up to 70 percent of pharmacy meds are derived from herbs. These can be powerful and contain rich amounts of vitamins and minerals. Strengthen them by tincturing them. Store up plenty of 80 proof vodka to use for tincture. Start now, if stored well, tinctures stay viable for several years. If you don’t like the idea of the alcohol, just put into hot tea, and most will work off. This is free for the learning and herbal remedies work. They are more symbiotic with our bodies…wild herbs-plenty of micro nutrients, NO pesticides, NO GMOS, mostly free. Avoid collecting in areas of high vehicle traffic or intensive factory farming. 200 years ago this information was common knowledge. We’ve bee suckered and duped.

    1. Thanks for bring up tincturing. We grew our heirloom plants this yr. and have made a few different tinctures. So far the purple cone has been great. It has helped both myself and hubby several times this yr alone.

  11. I have some of the silver. Have been warned about the possibility of the skin turning blue in some cases. Prefer honey myself.

  12. NAC, an amino acid, is a must have. It will cure Bronchitis in three days taking three pills a day, one in the morning, one at noon, and one at night. In studies , it was shown more effective than anitbiotics.

  13. I was reading this post and wanted to throw my 2 cents in. First, I hold a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. I’ve been a practicing Pharmacist for over 22 years now. Most literature will tell you to pitch you prescription medicine after 6 months to 1 year, depending upon the medication. It’s also advised not to store medications in a hot steamy area such as a bathroom too. The main culprit in medication degradation is oxidation. Heat and steam can accelerate this process. Most meds when they undergo oxidation just loose potency, however, erythromycin will degrade into harmful components which is toxic to the kidneys. In theory, prescription medications could be vacuumed sealed and then sealed again in Mylar bags with o2 absorbers to prevent oxidation. This could theoretically increase the shelf life of prescription meds to 10 to 15 years….in theory.

  14. This is a most informative topic with comments. Perhaps one of the best, at least on this topic, here at MSB. This quote from the comments: “Iodine defficiency was a major issue causing goiters, thyroid metabolism issues, and cretinism.” should get our attention.

    Iodine deficiency can occur with all of us using sea salt, which doesn’t contain iodine. I have a supplement made from sea kelp. A lot of attention is given to herbs, vitamins but minerals not so much.

  15. Another source of vitamin D is rose hips. They are easy to dry.
    In many areas Multiflora roses are wild, a nuisance, and very common.

    1. Paleo, actually the whole flower is useful for teas, very nutritious too

    2. Paleo, are you sure hips are D? I know they have C, was not aware of D, as it is a fat soluble vitamin. I have multi floras abundant too.

  16. If, like me, you are prone to cold sores L-lysine is worth storing. Wally world has 1000 mg tablets fairly cheap. I take up to 5000 mg daily when I have an active sore, fwiw. This will clear it up in three days for me.

  17. How do you stock up on prescription drugs other than get a 90 day supply (which I do) ? Will the docs run it out longer ? Any savings ? I only take a few, but there is a days limit to how frequently they will refill. Nothing heavy duty – no pain dope, but still requires a prescription. Remember they don’t use paper any more except for the real low level stuff (creams and the like) so it is all electronic. <bb

    1. Renew as soon as possible. Most times the time limit on renewals gives a couple days leeway, so you gain one or two pills each time. Better than nothing. If you fill your prescriptions monthly the stock will build up faster but the prescriptions will be more expensive.

    2. If it is not a controlled substance and you pay yourself (say, using an app like GoodRx), you can ask for refills in advance of using up the first batch, sometimes ask for all refills at once.

  18. bb, there are work arounds for most meds and supplements ,,, look for book “let food be thy medicine..” don’t remember author…some docs will increase daily dosage on paper to give more days supply. each fill.if a tablet that can be halved, in bigger pill size. can maintain dose by cutting pill. meds for blood pressure.. ala w/ l carnitine+/tea blood sugar, prediabetes and type 2 can be replaced by bitter melon(takes 60 days for full effectiveness but taken 30 days straight then every other day for rest of time, i take itfor 3 monthsskip a month then 3 more- bec i hate pills,,, and even huckleberry tea.(14 days) they do not work as quickly, but effective to get in system while meds available. low iron?desscated liver.. buy a lb of organic beef or rabbit liver mince, dehydrate at low meat temps, and powder…put in capsules . when getting multi vitamin make sure you are getting at least 100% copper and iodine..they are needed for heartbeat and blood vessel integrity…just my take… and from what i havexperiencewith.

  19. bb_in_GA,

    Ask your doctor…tell them your reason for wanting to stockpile.

    Most times they write prescriptions based on what your drug plan insurance will pay for. Ask them to write prescriptions for generic equivalents and carry the script to a different drug store than where you normally trade…mainly to avoid having your normal druggist telling you the insurance won’t pay for the extras.

    This has worked for me…maybe because I use the same doctors every visit and they know me…may not work for someone using the walk-in clinics popping up all over, or the VA which I avoid like the plague.

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