One of the most important preps I believe we can make is to stay healthy, or for those of us suffering the myriad of conditions that occur as we age, to improve our health.
I am one of those unfortunate people who have had poor health all my life. As a child I suffered a lot of pain that was variously diagnosed. Mobility became lessened and physiotherapy twice a week was instituted. Later I suffered extreme fatigue, occasions of massive inflammation, much pain and disability.
The labels don’t really matter as they changed from decade to decade. Sometimes I got a “respectable” auto-immune diagnosis. Other times they wanted to characterize it as a neurosis or psychiatric problem. But all that time I staggered through life, suffering and getting no help from the medical profession beyond occasional two week placebo effect from some of the pills.
There were also occasions when the doctors insisted the drugs they gave me worked when they actually made me feel worse. For decades suicide seemed a good choice as I was given no way out of the pain and suffering.
As a result of this I became very interested in healing and unexpected recoveries from severe illness. I knew there were always some people who had recovered when they weren’t expected to from stories in the Bible, to the miracles at Lourdes, to miracles claimed by the modern evangelical churches.
So I set out how to find out how to make a miracle healing more likely and along the way have learned how to be healthier than I have ever been in my life.
I became a researcher in a university department of primary care and later, I got a PhD in medicine studying people who should have died but didn’t. It was difficult to get patients for my study as the doctors did not accept that miracles occurred. However when I suggested I was interested in people who had less than a 10% chance of surviving they came up with people for me to talk to.
As a result of that quite major study I discovered the psycho-social-spiritual components of health that all the survivors had.
However, when I was publishing the paper a decade later (it took me a long time to be able to write it up in a way that my medical colleagues would accept) I went back to my survivors to see how they were doing. Many of them had died in that time and I had to accept that there was something in the physical arena that I had missed. The psychological, the social and the spiritual components were not enough.
I realized that all of the people in the study had eaten a basic vegetable and grass fed meat diet with little in common with the Standard American diet (SAD) pushed by the current dietary advisors. Because that was the way we all ate it didn’t seem remarkable to me at that time. However more and more industrialized food was being sold and eaten. Was that the reason they died? I had no idea, but from the perspective of my own health it was a good place to start.
After much thinking and researching, and trialling of foods I came to realize that there were some ways of eating in which I developed good health and some which triggered my autoimmune diseases. I became vegetarian for a year which was good for my food budget but not good for my health. I ate a lot of legumes which left me very, very ill.
Eventually it came to me that the only time I have been healthy was when I had eaten meat and vegetables without any grains or legumes and with severely restricted sugars, including fruits. This is the paleo or primal way of eating. I now endeavor to eat only free range grass fed animals and wild caught fish – though I think I’m only about 50% successful, largely on the grounds of cost.
I used to be fat, unwell, with increasing numbers of signs and symptoms. Now my latest autoimmune diagnosis has been retracted on the grounds that if I’m now better I couldn’t ever have had it (despite the diagnosis originally being made on the grounds of “objective” tests).
I have read reports of people with conditions as various as stage IV prostate cancer, ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroiditis, manic depression (bipolar) disorder, depression, heart failure, and type 2 diabetes improving dramatically on the paleo diet to the point of seeming to be healed, not to mention obesity and the general blahs disappearing.
Now many of the people added or subtracted various supplements as well and undertook many mind-body components along with the change in eating so I don’t think of the diet as a single magic bullet and there may also be other things that need to be done in addition to changing one’s diet as is suggested by Dr Jack Kruse, a neurosurgeon who treats some of the sickest sick. However the paleo/primal diet is a great place to start.
The paleo diet is often characterized as a fad diet, but it must be remembered that it is a diet that was eaten for probably hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of years before people started eating grains in quantity. Some dietitians and nutritionists get their knickers in a twist about leaving out whole food groups they have been indoctrinated into believing are necessary but my personal concern is what works for me.
Wheat flour, can set off my autoimmune eye disease just by eating two large slices of birthday cake leaving me in acute pain and unable to see if I don’t take the hint and stop eating things made with flour. Other grains give me other problems. It’s just not worth it, so I try to cut them out.
“Yes, it might work for you, but everyone is different.” Apart from the fact that some people have to be stricter or add additional restrictions, or do some additional things first and some can be more lax, I beg to differ. I didn’t find that the psycho-social-spiritual components differed from person to person and it does seem that aiming for food that is as close to the natural state as possible and as close to what our forbears ate before farming is likely to work well too.
So what does this mean from a prepping perspective? It means I have an extra freezer as I need to purchase the meat when it is cheap. It means I need a generator in case the power goes off. I have had people tell me they couldn’t possibly afford a freezer and generator and I’m sure that is the case for some. However being ill is horrendously expensive, eating up huge chunks of money in cash and insurance. If TSHTF and doctors are unaffordable or unavailable many people will be in a very bad way if they are totally dependent on them during a deep financial depression.
Many people believe what their doctors say, “there is no cure, we will just have to manage as best we can,” or even worse, “cut out all fat and lose some weight and you’ll feel better.” Well I cut out fat and kept putting weight on. It wasn’t till I increased my fat intake to 1970 levels and cut out grains and sugars and most overly sweet fruit that I managed to turn the tables on my weight and start to reduce instead of increase.
Am I completely well? No. Earlier this week I was irritated that I couldn’t do as much physically as I wanted to. I went to a colleagues site where he has a huge list of symptoms and discovered that I’ve recovered somewhere between 80 & 90% of the range of problems I used to have. I felt much better after that. My health is improving and I have nowhere near the signs and symptoms of ill health that was my previous experience.
Remember that it only takes one person to get better to disprove a doctor’s claim that something is incurable as if it is possible for one person to recover or go into remission there is a physiological pathway which means it is possible for another can recover as well. The primal, paleo and epipaleo diets are worthy of exploration.
So if you have health problems might I suggest you trial a paleo or primal diet. To keep it really simple just get one book and follow it.
Thank You Harriet! The Paleo Diet sounds like an intriguing solution to many health problems.
Bev :)
Harriet, good article! Thank you for the link to Dr. Kruse. We have found benefits to a more paleo diet as well, mostly in the areas of digestion and energy. I have even found a difference between home-made and store-bought which I attribute to preservatives.
If you are interested in genuine miracles, read “Christ The Healer”, by F.F. Bosworth. Never underestimate the power of the Son of God.
I enjoy and appreciate your contribution, keep it up.
Pam, I go home-made in almost all things, certainly where there is quantity involved. And I’ve done a lot of work on miracles. I did find it interesting though, that when I came to interview people who had been healed that they disappeared into thin air despite huge assertions by my fellow church members. Every one I followed up came to nothing. But that didn’t stop my belief in the ability of God to heal. To me it is no less miraculous when I insist there is a physiological pathway for healing to occur.
The subject of health has been on my mind today, to the exclusion of almost everything else. My new doctor commented first thing that I really took very little medicine–premarin and levothyroxin. Then, he proceeded to tell me I needed to get exercise. That was code for “you are fat.” When I wanted a handicapped tag, he refused, saying I should park far away and walk. When I asked for a helper for housework, he said to get up and do it myself. Finally, he said very suspiciously and in an accusatory manner,”Are you trying to get a disability?”
This was a shock, “I have a 100% disability!” That upset him mightily. He did not check with me; he just assumed. I had told everything to the nurse: last vertebra is sitting on bone; two herniated discs; L5 out of place; torn lateral meniscus in knee; torn rotator cuff in L shoulder; carpal tunnel in both hands; severe injuries to both hands; fibromyalgia. “No, you need exercise.” I was stunned. He refused to give me the handicapped tag for my car and help in the house. I cannot bend over, almost cry to stand and do dishes or empty dishwasher. AND, he knew i lived alone and had no family anywhere near here.
Throughout my life, I have lived and eaten healthfully. Injuries have caused me to gain weight and have excruciating pain now and limited my mobility.
He insisted I have high blood pressure. He refused to have the nurse recheck my blood pressure. I had had to walk two blocks on concrete because the internet reported a wrong address for him. Someone else had a nurse check my blood pressure. It was withing the range of normal, but not low.
It seems that once again, I must have to fight and insist on treatment I need and refuse what I do not need. He started with: walk 20 minutes each day. I cannot walk to the end of the block on the pavement. However, I can walk on grass to care for my three hens and hang clothes outside, going up and down stairs outdoors. He was shocked I did that.
I can depend on him to perform tests and write prescriptions, it seems. However, losing weight will be all on my own. he was absolutely convinced I drank Mt. Dew. I wonder why. ??? He made lots of assumptions. He assumed I was depressed and stayed in bed lots.
He is 41 and newly minted doctor. This is going to be a trial and will take all the energy I can muster to make myself stronger and healthier.
I am really sorry to hear of your health issues and the difficulty you have with your doctor. Some of them are a real pain in the neck to add to all of our other problems. Personally I find that exercise is really easy to do once I no longer have inflammation. I have the energy. I have the drive. But in the middle of a flare or when I’m in a lot of pain then I have no energy at all. I’m on a senior committee in our state’s health department looking at self management in chronic conditions. The two patient and carer representatives agree that excercise can and does contribute to our problems as well as improve it, so you are right there. Medically we say that exercise is proximally (ie closely) related to increasing disability, but distally (distantly) related to health. Might I suggest that you continue to explore healing. Do look at Dr Kruse’s site. To many he seems a crank. But he is getting results in previously intractable cases.
There comes a time when we have to take charge of our own health. Remember if one person can heal that there is a pathway for that healing to occur. Go for healing. And is it possible for you to find a better doctor? You need one that is sympathetic to a more integrated approach to managing your health.
I went Primal/Paleo three years ago. I’m 50 now and feel better than I did in my 30’s. Great advice and wonderful testimony on eating, living, playing, and even prepping the way we are genetically structured. Long term health is our best hope in surviving.
I’m sharing the first part of your article at my blog with a link back to your original of course.
Excellent advice and writing!
Todd
Thanks, Todd. We need to get the message out there. Feeling healthy is just SOOOOO good.
Thanks for the link back Survival Sherpa!
Hey Practical Parsimony, hang in there! Find a new doctor! Bob and I went to one for several years, he had Bob on blood thinnner and other meds and me on so many meds I couldn’t keep up with them. Long story short, Bob got into a terrible motorcycle accident (hit six deer, killed two, Mayo One lifted out to hospital)several years back, lost his spleen, the doctors at Mayo said they almost lost him due to the blood thinner and he never needed it to begin with.
Bottom line, that doctor was nothing but a pill pusher (probably gets kickbacks from the drug companies) and about the only thing he could do was remove a wart! Just because they have a degree in medicine does not mean they are competent! Just my opinion…
Bev :)