Posted on 09/14/2012 4:31:38 PM PDT by Kartographer
As a recently-retired physician who is married to a nurse-midwife, my preparedness group looks to us as the post-TEOTWAWKI hospital and medical staff. Medical progress has been exponential and even just the last decade of scientific breakthroughs can equal a century of improvement in medical treatments, surgical techniques and pharmaceuticals. However, in the years (months?) ahead, the crumbling of the infrastructure and devolution of society in general will very likely throw us back to a medical system that existed in the 19th Century.
Let’s take an example: When the U.S. was a young nation, the average woman could expect to be pregnant 10-12 times during her reproductive lifetime (no reliable means of birth control). One out of four women would not survive the pregnancy, either from issues relating to blood loss from miscarriage or childbirth or Infection (no antibiotics) following same. A myriad of other complications occurred which are treatable today but weren’t back then. I collect old medical books, and even relatively modern obstetric textbooks devoted entire chapters on how to crush a fetus’ skull in order to expedite its removal from a critically ill mother, with instruments that clearly had no other purpose. When childbirth was successful, she could expect perhaps 3-4 of her children to survive to become adults, on average, with many minor children succumbing to simple infections that had no known effective treatment at the time.
This is the grim reality that we, in modern times, will face when the inevitable happens and current medical technology and treatments are unavailable to us.
(Excerpt) Read more at survivalblog.com ...
No I didn’t. Go back and read my post again. The example I used to present my case was the antithesis of a modern factory farm – it was a small old fashioned family farm and presumably “organic”.
Family farms don’t store sewage as you described. That only exists in locations where people try to cram cattle into as little space as possible.
Organic is misused in many cases and what you described does not meet the criteria.
Proper diet is essential to meeting the bodies needs. This in turn is critical for avoiding and even curing many diseases. To think you can reduce it to 4 elements is simply ignorant. Keep your body strong and you can reduce the need for antibiotics and other medicines which will not be available after TSHTF.
I absolutely agree with you that eating a wholesome balanced diet, a diet rich in a wide variety of lots of fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, whole grains and lean meats along with getting regular moderate to vigorous exercise, not smoking, drinking if at all only in moderation and staying fit overall, can help reduce one’s chances of getting sick, help that person deal and combat certain diseases or recover more quickly or help them to some extent from developing certain diseases; diabetes, heart disease and HBP especially but not always necessarily.
Take a look at that young woman from GA who lost both her hands and one foot to a flesh eating bacterial infection. She was young, healthy and physically fit and yet, and ironically BTW given she was injured and became infected while doing something (swimming/zip lining) that most people who are not fit and overall healthy, probably wouldn’t be doing, she would have died had it not been for antibiotics.
Some diseases are genetic in nature and some diseases like cancer effect people of all ages, overall health and fitness level. Heck, there have been a good number of instances of marathon runners and other elite athletes dropping dead from heart attacks or succumbing to cancer (and no, I’m not including those who may or may not have used steroids).
The idea that you can, if you simply reduce it down to eating well and exercising regularly, that this alone will somehow make you immune from disease or that you won’t, if you are overall healthy and fit never need an anti-biotic if infected with a bacterial microbe, is simply ignorant and not supported by the scientific realities of disease processes and how our actual bodies work.
Which is why I never made such a connection. I said you could reduce your need, not eliminate it.
The govt has an amazing amount of control over our foodchain, all in the name of food safety.
Not many chest freezer these days have a defrost cycle. Mine doesn't. Looks like I'm set.
Huntin’ dawg puppies?
In any emergency or hit the fan scenerio, your mental stress levels will rise and your diet won’t be what your system is used to which might lead to constipation. Keeping well hydrated and eating fresh high fiber foods but those may be in limited supply. So, add to your medicine cabinet acidophilous tablets and magnesium citrate.
Yogurt is simple to make (heat source, milk product, starter) but make sure your starter contains live cultures. A few spoonfuls of yogurt can be saved as your starter for up to 4 future batches.
Much like the rancher who raises cows.
Other than it's a waste of time, that's the main reason I don't like eating out.
I did however, back in the day, take comps. Best one I ever got was at a high end restaurant I had done slave labor (internship) at right before I deployed. My date was another Sergeant of appropriate gender and rank (female, same rank as me, and very, very pretty).
The owner even comp'ed the wines. All I had to pay was tip and taxes. 60 bucks.
That kind of meal, I'll go out for, others, I'll cook myself. ;)
/johnny
>>Take a look at that young woman from GA who lost both her hands and one foot to a flesh eating bacterial infection. She was young, healthy and physically fit and yet, and ironically BTW given she was injured and became infected while doing something (swimming/zip lining) that most people who are not fit and overall healthy, probably wouldn’t be doing, she would have died had it not been for antibiotics. <<
Did it ever cross your mind that when you eat genetically modified foods you will also have genetically modified bacterias that your auto immune system hasn’t the slightest idea how to fight?
Monsanto and their “God, Move Over” stance” is not something I admire.
A man that spends 12 hours a day with a knife in his hand knows what works for him.
Jap knives work for me for a full day of work. Swedish or German steel is ok for a Thanksgiving day over at the family house.
Believe it or not, my back-up knives are the cheap, plastic-handled 8" Ace-Mart(tm) specials. Those are also the ones I loan out. ;)
/johnny
The farm you describe is not a ‘traditional farm’ and you know it. Check your email, if you would.
You’d be surprised at the number of ranchers and farmers who grow organic for themselves while raising standard for the business. This has been going on for over fifty years that I know of. When Mom decides that those cows are no longer welcome in her kitchen, it does cause an uproar. All it takes is for the fish to die in the pasture ponds after one application of the latest and greatest fertilizers being pushed in the trade magazines.
I don’t know any country folks that don’t use Heritage seeds in the family garden. Monsanto is not a welcome name in their kitchens.
Back in the good old days, we used root cellars and canning to save our soft vegetables and fruits throughout the winter months. The meat was killed after the deep freeze began and hung in the coolers to keep the freeze burn off of it.
The cattle were fed corn silage and hay during the winter months. The chickens were mostly in the cooler wrapped in cotton sacks.
>>The truth is that back in the “good ole days” unless you were very wealthy, most people ate a diet of meat and potatoes and cheap grains. The meat they ate was often “salt cured” or canned, canned vegetables being loaded with salt and canned fruits being loaded with sugar BTW, and before the days of modern refrigeration and freezers and preservatives, while people who were farmers or those who had small gardens could eat fresh vegetables and fruits, they only did so only a few months out of the year, most of what the average person ate during the year was not all that fresh or even “healthy”.<<
The salt was sea salt and the sugar was natural not processed.
A jug of Apple Cider Vinegar will do all and more for balancing the system.
When we go to the store half the cart is fruits and veggies.
Look around and the majority of folks have nothing but boxes.
I do hope that you use hydrogen peroxide in the wash before you eat them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38ofe1lJ4sE
If you do that after the normal local harvest date, you aren't eating natural.
Most of humanity mostly ate bread of some kind with a little meat sometimes, historically.
You are living in an artificial world, and claiming it is natural.
You are still going to die, just like I will, except without the cigarettes and good beers.
On the other up-side... I don't annoy friends and neighbors with my 'holiness' about how I eat. ;)
/johnny
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