Ask most people if they are strong and most people will likely say “yes”. If they don’t say it out loud, they still probably believe it to be true. At the very least, most people believe they are strong enough or stronger than average.
It is natural to feel that way because it should be no surprise to learn that being strong is actually very good for you. The bad news is, most people aren’t strong and in general people are getting weaker every year.
Obviously from a survival perspective strength goes beyond opening jars and bottles but doing work, fixing stuff and self defense. But what I find interesting is that being strong, in particular measured in regards to your grip strength, is strongly (wink, wink) lined to your health status.
A higher handgrip strength (HGS) means a lower risk of overall cardiovascular disease mortality, CVD being among the main causes of premature death worldwide. Beyond that a stronger grip is related in the medical community to vitality and better overall health.
But back to the question, the only way of knowing how strong you really are is to properly measure it. It’s a rather simple stat to track so I got myself one of these gadgets. (affiliate link to Amazon below in case you want to give it a go)
It costs just a few bucks and it lets you know how strong you are for real. “Strong” is best, at the very least you want to be on the right side of the “Normal” bracket and you definitely don’t want to be “Weak”. If you are though, you may want to start working out more, increase your general fitness level and keep track of the progress made.
Take care,
Walk around any gun show or prepper show and you see the irony: From an objective point of view, an alarming number of people are ignoring the clear, number one cause of premature death.
Poor diet biggest risk factor for early deaths worldwide A major study has found that unhealthful eating is responsible for more deaths worldwide than any other risk factor, including smoking.
A diet low in nutrients may cause more deaths worldwide than smoking or other unhealthful habits, suggests new research.
The Global Burden of Disease Study looked at dietary consumption between 1990 and 2017 in 195 countries, focusing on 15 types of food or nutrients.
In a paper that features in The Lancet, the study investigators conclude that, due to its contribution to noncommunicable diseases, poor diet accounted for 1 in 5, or 11 million, adult deaths in 2017. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324897.php
Survivalism is about surviving, about staying alive, and having as good a life as possible. The being alive part… kind of a big deal.
It makes no sense to worry about surviving if you’re going to ignore that which is clearly killing the most people and negatively impacting their quality of life the most.
I’m no doctor but certain things are obvious. If you’re morbidly obese you’re not a “big guy”, “big boned”, let alone “strong”. You’re just fat.
More fruits and vegetables (makes sense, its what you would naturally find the most trying to feed yourself in nature) less salt, reasonable portions and caloric intake. If a person needs 2,000 calories a day and an elite athlete needs and additional 50% or more, then the typical Joe with a mostly sedentary life has no business ingesting 3,000 calories, most of it from junk food with terrible nutritional value.
Take a good long look at yourself and be honest. If you need to make changes to your diet, do them.
After all the only one that gets hurt if you don’t is yourself and the people that care about you.
Remember that stockpile of rice and beans and lentils you have set aside for SHTF, the one you’re supposed to be eating already because a) you store what you eat b) its actually good for you?
Well, there’s yet another way of cooking it. God, I love how versatile this stuff is. Stews, salads, soups and now you can add burgers. Just scoop some leftover lentil and rice stew. Wait until it cools down or just keep it in the fridge from a previous meal. Form a patty with it and just heat it in a pan with a couple drops of oil. It will even get a bit toasty brown from the heat like a real burger.
No, its not as good as an actual beef burger but its surprisingly good, and some ketchup and nice melted cheese will go a long way into tricking your taste buds.
Keep in mind this is made with a dry staple you keep in your pantry, not fresh ground beef. Remember that burger scene from the movie “Demolition Man”? Exactly. I’ll take a lentil and rice burger over a rat burger any day of the week if SHTF.
It’s a pretty healthy alternative too.
Take care people and give it a go sometime.
If you don’t have a nice stockpile of rice and lentils by now, you haven’t been listening. You should look into sorting that out as soon as possible.
I’ve posted over the years about how rice and lentils can keep you not only fed but healthy.
You don’t need much more than that really. It’s not only enough, its actually some of the healthiest food you can eat.
This brings me to this video I wanted to share with you folks and why a plant based diet is so important. The health benefits have been proven ad nauseam. Soy bean boy and vegan joke aside, this is a survivalism website. If CVD and some of the most common causes of early death can be fought with a specific diet, then that’s our business too.
Take the time and watch it. Better yet my friend, give that stockpile of rice and lentils a go, think of it as a test run for SHTF. 30 days of rice, lentils and pasta with a good bit of fresh fruits and vegetables. Maybe a tiny tin of tuna if you get bored in the mix.
This is because the main flu strain for 2017-18, known as the H3N2 virus, is more deadly than the swine flu of 2009. To make things even more complicated, traditional flu vaccine is not very effective because of the virus mutation.
All this taken into consideration, its better to remember some effective, common sense advice from the CDCfor dealing with flu.
1)Avoid catching flu in the first place by avoiding crowds and keeping your distance from people as much as you can. Careful with touching surfaces in public places, offices, schools, etc.
2)Avoid touching your nose, eyes and mouth.
3)Wash your hands often, especially before eating. My wife and I (and our kids) we keep alcohol-based hand sanitizer handy.
4)If you’re sick, stay home so as to avoid spreading the disease to others.
5)Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing
Also, even if not very effective for this season’s flu, consider getting flu shots, especially if you are in a High Risk Group:
Children younger than 5, but especially children younger than 2 years old
Adults 65 years of age and older
Pregnant women (and women up to two weeks postpartum)
Residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities
American Indians and Alaskan Natives
People who have medical conditions including asthma, neurological and neurodevelopmental, chronic lung disease, heart disease, weakened immune system due to disease or medication (such as people with HIV or AIDS, or cancer, or those on chronic steroids). Check the link from the CDC for more information.
FerFAL
We have corresponded slightly in the past but nothing of importance. However, I would like to draw your attention now to a new medical book put out by myself and others, basically a significantly updated version of our original book. Updated as in over 400 pages more.
The book is titled Survival and Austere Medicine: An Introduction 3rd Edition, and it is available for FREE as a pdf document. We also have planned actual printed copies which will be sold royalty-free. In other words no payment to the author team, only the printer. We make absolutely zero profit from this book.
We have one download site up and running and plans for at least 3 more. The 2nd one is due up tonight if all goes well.
Please check this out when you have a chance, and if you like it we can forward the other download sites, and information on the print edition when it is available.
This not some half-baked manual that claims to be 'the ultimate' on survival medicine. The authors are all experienced medical people, including doctors and nurses with real world experience outside of the hospital or clinic. The authors represent 3 continents as well. You will find material within that you will not find anywhere else.
Now this I know is a topic that rarely gets covered but man is it important. How well are you resting?
A number of factors come into play. You need a quiet, dark room. The
suggested bedroom temperature should be between 60 and 67 degrees
Fahrenheit for optimal sleep. But above all, you need a good
mattress. This is by far the most important piece of furniture in your
house, the one that directly impacts your quality of life the most, how
well you rest during the night and how well you perform during the day.
It’s the one you spend 7 to 8 hours sleeping on. Make that nine if
you’re lucky. What’s this got to do with survival you ask?
Everything. Proper rest is almost as important as a proper diet. It will
directly impact both your mood and physical condition. Many people just
get a cheap piece of foam and consider the matter done, only to wonder
why they feel tired all day, or why their back, neck or head hurts. To
heal, to be productive during the day, to be rested and therefore alert
you simply need to sleep well. Personally, I guess I was spoiled
from the start. Knowing how important a good mattress is, it was the
thing I spent the most money on when I first got married. We bought a
Simmons Beautyrest with pocketed coils. Man was that nice. Maybe the
best mattress I ever owned. Because of that Beautyrest I learned to
appreciate pocketed coil springs and always stuck to those until last
year. I somehow ended up with one of those spring mattress that aren’t
pocketed, just a bed of connected springs. It was cheap garbage and by
far the worst mattress I even slept on. For almost an entire year I
dreaded going to bed, woke up with a stiff neck, felt tired all day. You
know how that is, you know something needs to be done but you keep
postponing it. One day I woke up and promised myself I would not
continue to suffer this nonsense, especially given how easily my
“problem” could be solved by just buying another mattress. Well, that
was the beginning of period of days dedicated to research and finding
the right mattress. This is what I learned: 1) You get what you
pay for but sometimes you over pay. If you want quality then it wont be
cheap. The Simmons Beautyrest I mentioned before is a classic, still in
production and a top of the line mattress, but some of their best models cost over $2,500. You can buy a lot of foam mattresses with that money.
2) Then again sometimes you are also getting ripped of. A +$1.000 foam
mattress is still a piece of foam, even when fancy trademark names and
new foam “technology” is used in the marketing of said product. 3)
Get pocketed coils. This is what the best, most expensive mattresses
have always been made of. This means springs in individual wrappings, so
that each one works independently. When this method is done properly
there is no movement transmitted from one side of the bed to the other.
Even if you jump on one side and try to sleep in the other. 4) Get one that offers at least 6 months of trial and +10 year warranty. 5) Get one that uses quality, if possible natural fibers. 6) Get one that has a good thick bed topper(pillow top) as pictured below.
7) Go with “firm” for your mattress. When combined with a pillow top it makes for the best of both worlds.
After researching for several days I went to IKEA and got myself their
top of the line mattress, Hesseng. The Hesseng is made of thick gauge
pocketed coils, uses horsehair as filling, along with cotton and wool,
all natural fibers. The topper, Tromsdalen is also natural silicon. This
makes for a super fresh, well ventilated mattress.
If you need a new mattress look for this one in IKA (although I don’t
believe its available in America yet, better check). IKEA gives you 12
months to try the mattress and a 25 year warranty. That’s pretty good. IF not go for the Simmons Beautyrest. You cant go wrong with either one. They aren’t as cheap as a piece of foam but the quality is on another level as well.
If still on the fence and looking to save a few bucks at the expense of
the quality of your rest, remind yourself that you deserve the best you
can afford. Especially for a bed in which you’ll spend 1/3 of your life
in. Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse”and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.
It
is obvious enough, isn’t it? Staying healthy is essential for survival
and nothing else is as strongly linked to health as our choice of fuel,
whatever constitutes our diet.
With the right diet, your body
works better, it repairs itself better and even your mind works better.
One of the big problems with processed foods (among others, including
pesticides, GMO, etc) is the addition of sugar. With moderation, sugar
as found in fruit is cool, as found in Froot loops its not.
It
doesn’t take a brain surgeon to understand why our brain craves sugar
and how food companies figured out how to exploit that to maximize
profit at the expense of our health. You can literally pick up horse
manure, if you add enough sugar and some artificial flavouring you can
wrap it up and sell it. Someone will buy it. And like it.
I firmly
believe that if it wasn’t for the billions food companies pump into the
medical establishment, we would know a lot more about the disastrous
effects it has on our bodies.
If you think I’m nuts try this: One
week without food with added sugar. Fruits yes, but no sodas, no junk
food or even a teaspoon of the stuff in your coffee. Just one week and
you’ll see for yourself how you can concentrate more and basically think
better.
Take the time to read the article linked below.
Dry Organic Whole Wheat Pasta, 99.9% Ethanol and a Super Cat Stove.
Food
is critical for survival. That’s no secret. Air, water, food and
shelter, those are the rules. Although air related preps do exist
(respirators) and are critical (try not breathing for a few minutes see
how that works out for you) its pretty much all around you all the time.
Shelter is key as well. Exposure kills, but we have evolved a good bit
and its not as hard to find adequate clothing and shelter although both
are vast survival topics. Something similar goes on with water. Yes,
water is essential and water purification itself is tremendously
important. I’ve been without running water and its no fun. Far worse
than not having power.
Now food. Food’s the thing. You need air
every few seconds, you need water every few hours, and food too you need
every day. But the thing about food is that even today it’s a) not as
plentiful, not when compared to water let alone air b) Its far more
expensive.
Lack of food is the thing that has killed millions
throughout history. It still does. Its easy today to lose perspective of
how important it is but in places like Venezuela where most barely have
a couple servings of food in storage, they know the truth.
I
never went through anything quite that bad but got a bit of a taste of
it myself in Argentina, especially right after the economic collapse.
All of a sudden all prices doubled, then tripled, then quadrupled.
Suddenly it became damn hard to buy anything. Its ok if you have a hard
time buying a new phone of stupid crap like that but having a hard time
buying enough food to keep you going is serious business. What are you
going to do? Ask friends and family? (Who happen to be going through the
same thing themselves)? Beg? Eat out of the trash? Oh wait, you’ll grow
your own right. That’s nice, and by all means do, but let me tell you
one thing: When things are SO bad that a country can’t get its act
together to keep rice and oil stocked, then finding
seeds/fertilizer/supplies/tools and the long etc needed for gardening is
almost impossible. If anything having a garden helps, but it not a
solution to the food problem. There’s a reason why when famines occur
millions die. Very few people are truly self-reliant food wise, and even
those that are they need a good amount of supplies and infrastructure
to keep their operation running long term. Now if you’re one of those
fully self-sufficient persons in all aspects of survival including food
production then more power to you. If you’re just another mere mortal
wondering how to tackle this issue in a simple manner keep reading. Lentils, Canned Olive oil and whole Grain Rice Crunching numbers…
I’m
no cook. I’m no Mr. Pantry either. Some people love the food and
cooking side of prepping but that aint me. Like any Argentine worth his
salt I can cook any dead animal with charcoal or firewood and I make a
mean pizza, but other than that and a handful of basic recipes that it.
This is more about having calories to keep you alive. So with that in
mind here’s the idea: Stores are closing, there wont be any power, what
do you stock up today to keep you alive? Oh, to make things interesting,
its just one food item you can pick. The rest you will have to pick
yourself, grow, trade for /work for or buy later down the road. Now some
folks with go for bulk red winter wheat and that’s fine, but I’ll go
with this: dry pasta. Its basically the same thing as flour, only that
already processed into a form that is easy to cook. Its cheap, lasts for
years, cooks in 5 minutes and keeps you alive. A pack of pasta can cost
about .50 cents. Around here you can get somewhat nicer organic whole
grain pasta made in Italy for 1.50. This may not be the cheapest, but
its affordable and good quality. Each pack has 500gr of pasta, enough
for four servings. For 60 servings, enough for two months, that’s 15
pack of pasta or 7.5 kilos, which costs 22.5 Euros (roughly the same in
dollars in USA). Caloric wise 100gr of pasta gives you 350 calories,
which means 875 calories worth of pasta per day which isnt even close to
the 2000 calories you need per day. You either need to have either four
servings rather than just two per day, or (more likely ) complement
your diet with something else. Rice and lentils would be my suggestion
(they will need more fuel for cooking though), and plenty olive oil over
whatever fresh vegetables you manage to procure. Realistically speaking
though two servings of pasta per day makes sense to crunch the numbers
for a basic staple that will be supplemented with other food, but a pack
of 500gr a day per person is doable and this gives you either food to
eat four meal of a day, or more clever, eat two and trade the other two
for something else so as to vary your diet. A pack of 500gr a day per
person costs 45 bucks a month, still very doable, and where using the
more expensive type of pasta that costs twice as much compared to the
cheaper store brand. In most American Walmart you have Great value
spaghetti going for $2.07 for 908gr. (2lbs). Buying 17 packs per person
should be enough for a month (eating or trading) which is just 35.19USD a
month. I get it, you wont eat pasta all day for the rest of your life,
but at this rate a year supply of pasta is $422.28, 1800 calories a day.
In case youre wondering, you can live on that. Thin, but alive. Throw
in some fruit, vegetables or multivitamins to cover vitamin C
requirements and avoid scurvy and you’ll be better than you imagine.
With pasta as your main staple and little else to round up a more
balanced nutritional diet a dollar a day per person is possible when
buying bulk.
So pasta rocks. It keeps you alive, its dirt cheap,
lasts for years (decades if stored away from bugs and humidity in a
sealed container) and it cooks fast. Now if the world is ending, or a
bit less tragic if you go Venezuela, how are you going to cook it if you
don’t have electricity? A Super Cat stove and alcohol is a viable
solution. Lets crunch those numbers then. You need 50ml of alcohol to
get a pot of water boiling for 5-6 minutes. If you do this twice a day
that’s 100ml per day, or 3 litres per month. Around here a bottle of 250
ml of 99.9% ethanol costs 0.7 cents, so its 2.8 Euros per liter. 8.4
Euros of fuel per month, 100.8 Euros a year.
This is of course and
oversimplification of a topic that is pretty complex but having food in
your belly makes all the difference in the world. With a dollar a day
per person and 110 USD worth of fuel for cooking having 6 to 12 months
worth of food really isnt as hard as some people believe it to be.
FerFAL Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.
Hello
1 I am a retired lawyer - for 30 years I defended dentists in
malpractice suits. I can tell you with some authority...you are exactly
correct!! Many years ago I started going to see other dentists every
time one told me I had a cavity. I'd go to another dentist, never
mention I'd already been to see one, & the 2nd one would never
mention a cavity. I also learned to never say I was having tooth
pain (they are taught to ask). Just say "no problems" & see if they
can find it. Obviously, there are exceptions, but... 2 As for
why we have such an inefficient medical system, Milton Friedman
accurately described it back in the 1970's. The problem is too much
money. Government programs pump billions in to medical schools &
they have to spend it. This is why we have studies on pregnant pigs,
studies on insects, conflicting studies on the most minute aspect of
everything. They have to spend that money. Way too much supply for the
demand. So medical folks create more demand! 3 I'm enjoying your book on the Argentina Collapse. Very good! Thanks for writing it. Do you have an opinion on Bitcoin in preparation for an economic collapse? I don't see it on your site.. Thanks! Jack
. Thanks Jack for sharing your experience. I’m glad you’re enjoying my book too.
I agree about this being a money problem (seems its always the issue).
They just have to milk money out of the sheep any way they can.
About bitcoin. I may have talked about it before but I’m no expert. Some
of the most evil people in the planet seem to hate bitcoin so that
makes me like it already. It may be a huge thing in the future, and
today it does have a place for sure. It’s hard to understand what
digital money actually is. I know it took me enough time, but once you
understand why it’s “mined” and why that is important you understand it a
bit better. I think its another tool in the tool box. I think of it as a
digital version of gold, with some advantages over it and obviously
some disadvantages, the greatest one clearly being the lack of time
proven acceptance over thousands of years like precious metals. In a
diversified portfolio I think it does have a place and I understand why
people are excited about it although I try to be cautious. Regards, FerFAL Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.
Well,
recently I followed my own advice so I hope telling you about this
inspires you too to take control of your own health and not accept
everything your doctor says without question.
Last week I went to
the dentist. This one would be new to me since I moved to Spain. In
spite of the free (I know, nothing is really free but you know what I
mean) medical care I have private. The plan that I have is pretty good
from a well-known company in Spain. So I go to their hospital in the
nicest part of town and after a bit of looking around and a fancy 3D
scan of some kind I get told that I need two teeth pulled plus implants
and work done on 6 other teeth. I already knew I had one in pretty bad
shape that probably needed removed and have an implant but I was sure
the other one could be saved and the other stuff, most of it honestly
sounded like BS.
An important part of developing modern survival
skills is learning to “read” people. Not just listen to what they are
saying, but learn to tell read their voice tone, body language, gestures
and of course using your own common sense. This is how you avoid scams
and con artists, how you get good business deals and how you learn to
get an upper hand on all kinds of social interactions. This dentist guy,
he just didn’t seem honest. His hurry to quickly get started with the
pulling of teeth was pretty disturbing as well. After politely but
firmly telling him that no, I was not getting my teeth pulled then and
there I made an appointment for next week. This gave me time to get a
second opinion. Thank God I got that second opinion.
Turns out I
only need one implant as I suspected. There’s no need to pull the other
one. This second dentist didn’t mention any of those six other teeth
that needed to be fixed, just one that has a small, visible dark spot, a
cavity on top. It’s not just that I was going to get charged almost two
thousand Euros worth of BS dentist work, I was also going to have this
guy pull a teeth unnecessarily and probably mess up five others.
The U.S. Health-Care system wastes $750 Billion annually
on unnecessary health-care costs. You should expect your doctor to act
accordingly and, pretty likely, either suggest or assure you that you
need surgery, treatment or medication you don’t actually need. Accept
this is very likely to occur.
People: You know yourself better
than your doctor or dentist. Always get a second opinion if you have the
slightest of doubts. If you feel worried/confused/not sure of what to
do, just do what I did. Say you can’t do it right now and get an
appointment for some other time. This gives you time to think things
over, get another opinion and cancel if needed.
FerFAL Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.
I
have personal knowledge knowing Air Force surgeons and having been an
opthamologist that the procedure recommended is not LASIK but thermal
keratoplasty.
The difference is that thermal
keratoplasty uses the laser to modify the corneal shape without slicing
through the cornea like LASIK. The sliced flap can be dislodged rendering the vision in the eye completely blurred.
Thermal keratoplasty is more uncomfortable than LASIK but has equally good results and less risk.
That being said you're better off with LASIK than glasses for your purposes.
Thanks for all your insights.
Robert McBratney retired Ophthalmologist
.
Thanks
for your email Robert. You are right. Keratoplasty is the recommended
procedure when possible for patients that are likely to suffer trauma,
such as military personnel and of course survivalists as well. At the
time I wrote that it wasn’t as common as it is today and LASIK had
become a procedure accepted by the Air Force for their pilots.
LASIK
involves the cutting of a small flap while keratoplasty shapes the eye
surface itself, without the cutting of a flap. The flap may be
completely cut off during surgery by accident or become detached by
trauma. Keeping things in perspective, its very unlikely to suffer
accidental flap detachment during surgery and even in thousands of cases
of very strong trauma flap loss is a very rare incident. Having
said that, indeed, if I was doing it today I’d go for Keratoplasty. Its
cheaper, safer, and there’s no flap to mess up in the first place. FerFAL Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.
So
yes, it’s not humans but the not so humble mosquito. Malaria, yellow
fever, Chikungunya, west Nile virus, dengue fever, filariasis and Zika
virus are just some of the deadly infections this little pest can
transmit. Ironically enough, during a large scale disaster where
mosquitos are vectors of transmission, it is in larger urban areas where
mosquito control efforts are more successful while rural and wilderness
areas are much more exposed. This has historically been the case for
Dengue fever across Latin America where the larger cities are kept under
control through anti-mosquito campaigns, breeding water prevention and
anti-mosquito fogging. If you live in Southern USA, especially in
rural areas, it makes sense to stock up on repellent in case of an
outbreak. Surrounding your house with citronella plants is also a good,
natural mosquito repellent to consider. Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse”and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.
I’ve been in forum discussions (recently) where people get so worked up
over which handgun caliber is best they literally can’t keep the debate
civil. Articles and posts about gear are all over the place, I know I
do my fair share of those as well. We talk so much about emergencies and
out of the ordinary events we sometimes lose touch with reality and
either neglect or completely forget about the undisputed top causes of
early death such as heart disease. I’ve written before about how
important it is to keep a healthy diet, exercise and maintain a
reasonable body weight. It sure isn’t always easy but it needs to be
discussed and insisted upon more. It’s not zombies or Mad Max style
raiders, its this stuff that is by far the thing most likely to leave
your kids without a father or mother before their time. So, now that
I hopefully caught your attention, how’s your weight, and when was the
last time you checked your blood pressure and cholesterol, let alone a
complete blood test. CHOLESTEROL RISK CHART
Today I got my results and fortunately they are very good. I did gain
some weight recently which I need to lose ASAP (too much Spanish food
since we moved here) but still everything came back within normal
parameters and the cholesterol and triglyceride levels are low enough to
place me in the “very low” risk of cardiovascular disease, so that’s
good news. Its not always easy and quite frankly its sometimes a
PITA but this is important and needs to be talked about and taken care
of. I’m not preaching here, I’m sure thinking about myself as well as I
write this. If discussions about calibers can end up in forum wars
you can imagine what happens when someone speaks honestly and goes
“Dude, you’re not big, you’re fat”. Fat has somehow become a politically
incorrect word, yet given its link to cardiovascular disease it is, by
far, the leading cause of death world wide. Survivalism is pointless if
we only focus on the fun stuff and can’t be bothered with keeping it
real and that means seriously working on the extremely high risk threats
such as diseases involving poor nutrition and unhealthy lifestyles. FerFAL Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse”and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.
Just a reminder that here in the US the
Red Cross offers a combined CPR/AED course which is well worth the time.
The instructional video with the HeartStart is good but the course
gives some hands on use of the AED. It would also be good for one to
have CPR training if one owns an AED.
Don't be
fooled by this call for infrastructure spending, the guy you quoted is a
notorious big spending politician. Obama and his buddies supposedly
spent $1T on infrastructure which actually went mostly to support their
union friends, i.e. teachers unions, bailing out UAW union, and public
employees unions among others. Obama has increased our national debt by
over $8T since he has been in office so I'm skeptical that he can spend
more money wisely.
I
dont actually have a problem with spending as long as its done right
and to benefit people, rather than doing it do benefit personal friends
or themselves directly. Unfortunately, that happens a lot all over the
world.
Someone was asking over at ar15.com: "Will
shock with an AED significantly improve the survival chances of a heart
attack victim if hospital care is not immediately available? And how
immediate is immediate? 15 minutes, 2 hours, 24 hours?"
AED stands for automated external defibrillator and yes, yes it would. According to the American Red Cross,
“Sudden cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death in the
U.S. Over 350,000 people will suffer from sudden cardiac arrest this
year .” Keep in mind that the average 911 response time is 8 to 12
minutes and during sudden cardiac arrest, for each minute defibrillation
is delayed, the chance of survival is reduced approximately 10%.
Given that cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in America, an
AED is more likely to save you than a gun and pretty much most other
gear you have.
Having said all this, common sense still applies. If
you’re in your 20s or early 30s and in good health you probably have
better things to spend your money on than dropping a grand on an AED. If
you’re in your 50 and live in an area where response time isn’t as good
as it could be, then you might want to give it some though. If you’re
in your +50, have a history of cardiac problems and have little chance
of getting first responders to help you in time, then you might want to
give it some further thought. At the end of the day, is an AED worth it?
That’s up to you to decide.
My
son had a visible amount of ear wax our doctor told us to use “olive
oil”. This was new to me and I honestly didn’t have much faith in it. I
had used more traditional ear wax drops before and they had worked ok
but I didn’t know about such a use for olive oil. I was surprised to
learn that olive oil has in fact been used for literally thousands of
years to treat ear infections and pain as well as removing ear wax.
Turns out it works very well! After applying 5 drops three times a day ,
the following day most of the wax was already falling by the time I
applied it the second day. It is advices to slightly warm the oil a
bit (lukewarm, the ear is very sensitive) this helps relief pain and
melts the wax better. Although pharmaceutical olive oil is available, it
is just olive oil and the one found in most kitchens works just as
well. This is a pretty good tip for everyone to keep in mind, especially those with children! FerFAL Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.
Eat
them when pregnant and expose your kids to them from an early age seems
to be the way to go. In doing so, a child is ten times less likely to
become allergic to nuts.
The study followed
hundreds of children from the time they showed a slight sensitivity to
peanuts -- between 6 and 11 months old -- until they were 5 years old.
Those who avoided peanuts were more likely to develop full-blown peanut
allergies than those who didn't, according to the study published today
in the New England Journal of Medicine. Only 1.9 percent of those who
were exposed to peanuts early developed the allergies compared with
13.7 of those who developed allergies after avoiding peanuts, the study
showed. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/early-peanut-exposure-reduce-allergies-game-changer-study/story?id=29169847
Hi Ferfal,
I was just looking through your site. Looks like there has not been
much on ebola. You may recall I am a licensed healthcare person,
although not a nurse. I have a personal intellectual interest in
infectious diseases, so I get this email digest from the International
Society for Infectious Disease. http://www.promedmail.org/ They had a
period when it seemed like no messages were going out, but they seem
back in the game now. As a result, I guess I have been following the
ebola outbreak since pretty close to when it started. I also just have
kept an eye out for other articles about it. I distinctly remembered in
the summer reading that the people who purport to study this kind of
thing were heavily implying that it could be transmitted by droplets.
The CDC et al. always go out of their way to insist ebola is not
airborne. That is technically true, but to the layperson I think they
don’t make a distinction between droplet transmission and airborne.
Already at the beginning of August, the health authorities were giving
guidance that was clearly intended to avoid droplet transmission.
Anyway, you know the CDC now has been going on and on about we have such
a great healthcare system in the US, etc etc. I think anyone who
actually works in the industry would be quick to tell you differently-
including me. Last winter we were constantly running short of simple
masks during flu season. So it was not hard to figure that they would
not have a good supply of space suits for ebola care. Just because I
have been keeping an eye out, I have seen a few memos go past in the
work email since the start of the outbreak, but they all have been
beyond superficial. There has been no education, no drills, no stocking
up that I can see, no designating areas to care for suspected cases,
nothing like that. The vague, ebola related emails were just mixed right
in with employee parking spot winners and foolishness like that.
Just yesterday morning we got an email ‘[Our hospital] remains prepared
to deal with Ebola’. It was almost like a pep talk for people who
already worked there. The only substantive bit was to tell people to
look at the FAQs on the CDC website. There was nothing like ‘personal
protective equipment can be obtained from so-and-so’ or ‘please put any
suspected ebola cases in room 2′ or anything that would be immediately
useful. So last night the emergency department had someone come in
who fit the profile for a potential ebola case. Guess what? No one knew
what do to. They were calling around to see if anyone knew what to do,
looking on google to find out what kind of PPE they should be wearing
and how to isolate the patient. I was surprised to learn that the
people working didn’t even know about the potential for infectious
droplets, because I had thought that was already established back in the
summer. So basically, it sounds like it was a big clusterf*k. This is
at a community hospital, so maybe they didn’t think it would be a
problem for them. I am on the email list from another hospital I
used to work at- i.e. a ‘big city hospital’, and they were doing a
training session today on PPE apparently. It says ‘ebola overview,
resources, donning and doffing of PPE’. I only got the email first thing
this morning which leads me to believe it was probably put together at
the last minute. I personally have not heard of anyone, anywhere,
saying anything like, ‘Wow, we have done so much training for ebola,’ or
‘wow, my hospital is really on top of this.’ Everyone is like, ‘What’s
going on?’ Just thought you might be interested.
– JM
Hi JM,
As you know I have a very practical, no-nonsense approach to modern
survivalism. I especially try to keep a level headed attitude and avoid
fear mongering. Having said that, I just cannot believe how
irresponsibly ebola is being handled. “NOT EASY TO CONTRACT” this is literally what cnn has to say about ebola.Of
course then it goes on to say in the same video presentation that it is
carried in bodily fluids, blood, saliva, tears, mucus, feces, urine,
sweat, semen and vomit. How can we say on one hand that direct contact
is needed to get infected, but on the same video clip they say that
saliva and mucus carries ebola and it can get into your body through
your nose, mouth and even your eyes. Cant anyone makes the elemental
connection between saliva and the thousands of droplets flying after a
patient sneezes or coughs? Just yesterday I saw CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta
argue with ebola expert David Sanders. Sanders was explaining the
possibility of ebola being spread through aerosol transmission (sneeze,
cough, vomit) but Gupta cut him short claiming the chances of such a
transmission were so small, it was not worth talking about while other
things were more important…??? You’re talking about ebola, and you don’t
think its important to learn how you can actually catch it? I can’t
believe relatively smart grown persons are either a) so stupid b) so
irresponsible. The only option left I see is that these claims we see on
the press are very misguided attempted to keep people calm. In any
case, it is very concerning to still see talking heads in the media
claiming ebola can’t be transmitted in such a way. Thanks for sharing your experience JM!
Guys, unless specifically told not to, I'll post the reply here in the blog so everyone can read it. I'll just leave the first name, and remove the last name, email or any other specific information for privacy reasons. Thanks
Leatherman Charge Ti
Fenix Lights
I love this light. Runs on a single AAA and is capable of big boy lumen output (80 lumens) in a keychain package. Also has low and mid mode for longer runtime.
Fenix PD20
Single CR123 cell. 6 modes including 180 lumen turbo mode.
General Mode: 9 lumens (35hrs) -> 47 lumens (6.5hrs) -> 94 lumens (2.6hrs) -> SOS
Turbo Mode: 180 lumens (1hrs) -> Strobe
15 days of survival use (2 continuous hours per day on the lowest setting)
Thanks for the Positive Reviews!
Energency gadget... on steroids.
Asus Eee 1005HA
Basic Door/Window Alarm
Emergency gadget
Both tool and weapon, just the right size
Straight edge makes it easier to sharpen, + tougher tip
Gorilla Tape
By all accounts and reviews I’ve read so far, it truly is “The toughest Tape on the Planet”
Transportation
I talked about these some time ago in an article, remember someone asked where to get one.
"Alternative Transportation"
Just found one reasonably priced and with excellent reviews in Amazon.
Best Folder
Emergency blankets. I Have several of these around.
Katadyn water filter
for the kits
and food ...
Got to have water: Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel
Moleskine, the ultimate little black cover notebook :)
Fenix L0D-CE. Perfect keychain light. 80 Lumens in a single AAA
Nice combo. The Soldier is an excellent product.
Sabre Red OC spray
Made in USA
This is the brand I use and always have one in my bag and car. ( same brand used by NYPD)
My wife keeps one in her purse too.
Sabre Red Tear Gas
Sabre Red for ladies
You guys have the coolest stuff up there.:)
Jack Bauer’s bag.:) I’d like to get one of these and try it out.
Fox OC Spray
Don’t have this one but it’s the hottest OC spray out there.
Someone once called it “bottled lava”
Pick your poison people, but do carry OC
1) Even if you carry a gun
2) SPECIALLY if you don’t carry a gun
Firesteel
Classic, and one of the few things I’d call a “must have” I own two of these.
My EDC bag: M1936 Musette Bag
Victorinox I bought recently. Most excellent tool, review coming up soon.
Make that "potable" water
And a more pricey alternative by Tikka
Just added one of these to my EDC bag, mostly for smoke, dust and debris
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