A tough question for any serious prepper
- Thread starter Skeeter
- Start date
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I think of this in terms of being a diabetic. I'm currently insulin dependent. Even with refrigeration, my supply would be intermittent or degraded in weeks. Without it, days. I will revert to metformin and other non-refrigerated pill types of blood glucose reducers, which should tack on a few months, or a couple of years. Basically, though, it's down to reducing carbs and increasing exercise and still facing a shortened life span, as many people will for various reasons when SHTF if it's pervasive and long-lasting.
I've wondered about diabetic issues post SHTF.
I've worked in healthcare for almost 30 years, and diabetes is part of my job security.
I wonder, therefore, if insulin can be frozen. Medical freezers can store medical substances at -90° F.
I haven't been able to find an answer, but I would think that amy drug stored at that temperature would last almost forever.
If there are forms of insulin that can be frozen (or, perhaps, frozen in a concentrated form and reconstituted later on an as-needed basis), then a lifetime's worth could be stored in one freezer...perhaps with solar panels.
In the book about an EMP attack, One Second Later, I think it was, the protagonist's daughter who is diabetic succumbs after her insulin runs out. They talk about how hard it is to process from pig's insulin, and how it's done in one lab in Germany, and it's rationed to diabetics towards the end as it runs out. IF you could maintain your electric supply and secure and defend an adequate supply, it might work as you describe, freezing it, though.
