Transcript Use only in a survival situation, not for routine use.

United States Air Force:
Plants, Medicine and Temperature
Objective:
 Know how plants can aid the
survivor
 Describe how to identify, prepare
and use plants for medicinal
purposes
 Know the factors causing changes
in the body core temperature.
 Describe the result of exposure to
extreme temperatures
The Elements of Surviving
 Basic Plant Terminology and
Safeguards
 Specific Remedies
 Body Temperature
 Heat Transfer
Goals of a Survivor
The two fundamental goals of a
survivor:
 Maintain Life
 Return
And in survival medicine, the
goals have not changed
Survivor Medicine: Basic Terminology
 Poultice: Crushed leaves or other
plant parts, possibly heated, that you
apply to a wound or sore either
directly or wrapped in cloth or paper
 Infusion: Boiled with water (think
tea)
 Decoction: The extract of a boiled
down or simmered herb leaf or root.
 Expressed Juice: Liquids or saps
squeezed from plant material
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Survivor Medicine: Specific Remedies
Diarrhea
 Drink tea made from the roots of
blackberries and their relatives to
stop diarrhea.
 You can stop diarrhea by eating
white clay or campfire ashes.
 Tea made from cowberry or
cranberry or hazel leaves works too.
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Use only in a survival situation, not for routine use.
Survivor Medicine:
Specific Remedies
Anti-hemorrhagic.
 Make medications to stop
bleeding from a poultice of
the puffball mushroom,
plantain leaves, or most
effectively from the leaves of
the common yarrow root.
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Use only in a survival situation, not for routine use.
Survivor Medicine:
Specific Remedies
Antiseptics. Use to cleanse wounds, sores,
or rashes.
 You can make them from the
expressed juice from wild onion or
garlic, or chickweed leaves
 You can also make antiseptics from a
decoction of burdock root, mallow
leaves or roots, or white oak bark.
 All these medications are for external
use only.
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Use only in a survival situation, not for routine use.
Survivor Medicine:
Specific Remedies
Fevers
 Treat a tea made from willow bark,
an infusion of elder flowers or
fruit, linden flower tea, or elm
bark decoction
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Use only in a survival situation, not for routine use.
Survivor Medicine:
Specific Remedies
Colds and Sore Throats.
 Treat these illnesses with a
decoction make from either
plantain leaves or willow bark.
 You can also use a tea made
from burdock roots, mallow
or mullein flowers or mint
leaves.
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Use only in a survival situation, not for routine use.
Survivor Medicine:
Specific Remedies
Aches, Pains, and Sprains.
 Treat with externally
applied poultices of dock,
plantain, chickweed,
willow bark, garlic, or
sorrel.
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Use only in a survival situation, not for routine use.
Survivor Medicine:
Specific Remedies
Itching.
 Relieve the itch from insect
bites, sunburn, or plant
poisoning rashes by
applying a poultice of
jewelweed or witch hazel
leaves.
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Use only in a survival situation, not for routine use.
Survivor Medicine:
Specific Remedies
Sedatives.
 Get help in falling asleep
by brewing a tea made
from mint leaves or
passion flower leaves.
Gas and Cramps.
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 Use a tea made from carrot
seeds or mint leaves to
settle the stomach.
Use only in a survival situation, not for routine use.
Survivor Medicine: Miscellaneous
 Make dyes from various plants to color
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clothing or to camouflage your skin.
Make fibers and cordage from plant
fibers.
Make fish poison by dipping walnut
hulls in a small area of water. This
poison makes it impossible for the fish
to breathe, but doesn’t adversely affect
edibility.
Make tinder for starting fires from
cattail fluff, cedar bark, or hardened
sap from trees.
Make insulation by fluffing up female
cattail heads or milkweed down.
Survivor Medicine: Temperature and You
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The body functions best when core
temperatures range from 96ºF to
102ºF.
Climatic Conditions. Factors causing
changes in body core temperature are
the climatic conditions of
temperature, wind, and moisture.
Temperature. As a general rule,
exposure to extreme temperatures
can result in considerable decreases
in physical efficiency.
Wind increases the chill effect and
causes dissipation of heat, and
accelerates loss of body moisture.
Survivor Medicine: Temperature and You
Moisture
 Precipitation, Ground
Moisture, or Immersion.
Water provides an extremely
effective way to transfer heat
to and from the body.
 This rapid heat transfer is
the reason survivors must
always guard against getting
wet in cold environments.
Survivor Medicine: Temperature and You
Heat Transfer. There are five ways
body heat can be transferred.
 Radiation,
 Conduction,
 Convection,
 Evaporation
 Respiration.
Survivor Medicine: Temperature and You
The New Sled
January 15, 1984, in Chicago, at the foot of some of the tallest buildings in the world, Lake Michigan begins
to ice over. Four-year-old Brandon Smith, impatient to try out his new sled, stands on the shore and faces the icy
cold winds with his father.
Suddenly the sled slips down the bank and comes to rest below on the dark ice of the lake. The child jumps
from the bank and breaks through the thin film across which his father is already walking. Both fall into the icy
waters. The father manages to get to the bank, but his son sinks.
The rescue team arrives within 5 minutes, but it takes the divers 15 minutes to locate the boy's body.
After 20 minutes under water near 32F (0C), the child is clinically dead, his skin color is blue, there is no sign
of respiration or heart beat, and he displays the clinical symptom that signals death, dilation of the pupil.
Nevertheless, the rescuers have incredible faith and do all they can. They administer artificial respiration and
repeated cardiac shocks. The oscilloscope continues to register a discouragingly straight line, which is not
surprising since all known limits of survival have been far exceeded. The child has been dead for 1 hour and 30
minutes with an internal temperature of 77F (25C), when suddenly a spike appears on the electrocardiograph.
What should the rescuers do from this point?
a. Spare the child the pain of living with brain damage.
b. Consult a doctor and continue to do what they are doing, but to warm the child up very slowly.
c. The child’s body temperature is low, one way to increase the child’s body temperature is to put him in a hot
tub of water.
d. The rescuers and Brandon’s father should all gather around him and radiate their body heat to Brandon.
United States Air Force:
Plants, Medicine and Temperature
Objective:
 Know how plants can aid the
survivor
 Describe how to identify, prepare
and use plants for medicinal
purposes
 Know the factors causing changes
in the body core temperature.
 Describe the result of exposure to
extreme temperatures