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Fourteen Low-Tech Ways to Stay Healthy (Besides Handwashing)
Fourteen Low-Tech Ways to Stay Healthy (Besides Handwashing)
Health is not just an absence of illness. At the very least health includes a well-functioning immune system, our bodies’ first defense against pathogens that cause disease. This includes COVID-19, the coronavirus.
We are all constantly exposed to bacteria, viruses, and parasites even if we wash our hands twenty times a day. If our immune system is working well, it creates a barrier that stops the antigens from entering the body altogether. This is the first line of defense. If this fails, the second line is for the immune system to produce white blood cells, chemicals and proteins that find, attack and destroy the antigens before they can reproduce. If that fails, the immune system destroys the antigens as they multiply. If the antigens are able to multiply a lot you will feel lousy as your body fights the disease in earnest. You will have unpleasant symptoms. A large part of your energy will go towards your immune system’s battle. You will be sick.
I don’t know about you, but I want to stay at defense levels one and two. And this is more than possible, even with the coronavirus. Don’t get me wrong—handwashing and not touching your face does reduce the amount of pathogens that make it to your immunity barrier, but it doesn’t eliminate them entirely unless you live in a special isolation bubble. To be healthy, you also need your immune system functioning robustly. The following suggestions (to do before you become sick) may strike you as common sense, but, to paraphrase Voltaire, in the middle of a pandemic common sense is sometimes not so common.
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5 Simple Pieces of LIFESAVING Medical Knowledge
5 Simple Pieces of LIFESAVING Medical Knowledge
There is almost a preparedness fixation with gunshot wounds and having sachets of quick-clot in your first aid kit. But in terms of bang for your buck, there other things which are frequently overlooked and very under-rated that much more likely to be life-saving than your hemostatic agent.
Use soap and water to wash your hands.
This to me something that seems so incredibly simple and but it seems lost completely on some. Can you honestly say you have never forgotten to wash your hands after going for a poo?
It is almost unanimously accepted that the understanding of microorganisms spreading infectious disease and the connection that hand washing substantially reduces transmission of disease has been the single most important advance in medicine ever.
Simply forgetting once to wash your hands can result in transferring bacteria from your hands to food, your mouth, or into others’ wounds (if you are caring for them) and exposing them or you to a potentially fatal infection.
While the use of soap is important – the action that is most important is the friction of the rubbing of the hands combined with the water washing the bacteria away. So even in the absence of soap, there is still real value to hand washing (and drying – removing the bacteria containing water).
Drink clean water.
This goes hand in hand with (1) – germ theory explains why you need to be extremely important with your drinking water.
No matter how thirsty you are, taking the time to ensure the purity of water is vital – regardless if it is filtration, chemical sterilization, or boiling, it is time worth taking. While you may get away with it 9/10 or 49/50 the risk isn’t worth it, especially in a grid down situation where a serious gastrointestinal infection can be fatal.
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