Right In Front Of Your Nose

Something that is taken for granted are your eye glasses. Some have been fortunate to live all their lives without glasses. Others cannot get out of bed without putting on a pair. You must have plenty of spare glasses and even sunglasses and prescription sunglasses. If you break or loose your only pair you will be handicapped forever if the economy and society collapses and you are unable to have them replaced. Have many reading glasses too. As one gets older, closeup viewing is needed for repairing small items, sewing a stitch, removing a splinter, reading fine print, etc.

As you get older your prescription changes so it's important to get your glasses replaced every year or so. You may get three or four years on one prescription depending on the health of your eyes.

Often overlooked items to consider are hearing aids. As you get older, you will start to loose your high frequency in your ears. Birds, crickets, whispers, and even normal conversations will be difficult to hear. Everything will start to get muffled or you can't hear weak sounds and voices. This is a high security risk if you were asked to guard an area. There are many different types of hearing aids. Some are very expensive but have many features. They can be adjusted via a bluetooth connection from your smartphone. They range from US$2000 to US$5000 and may not be covered by insurance. Unfortunately most all require battery replacement every few days. Once the battery supply is gone, so are your hearing aids.

Recently there have been a number of newer types that are much cheaper. I've seen them selling for US$60 a pair to US$350 a pair. They may not have all the bells and whistles, and no way to equalize the response like the more expensive ones, but in a disaster scenario at least they will give you a boost in hearing. Some of the newer ones are also rechargeable via USB. This makes them more desirable if our economy collapses and our supply lines are cut. Also if they are tight fitting they can be used for hearing protection when shooting. In fact there are companies selling specialized hearing aids that double as hearing protection too.

Another thing that is taken for granted are your teeth. Much of this subject is covered in other prepper books so I will not go into depth except to say you should have your teeth in good shape. Any old silver fillings should be replaced if possible with the new plastic fillings. The problem is, drilling out the old fillings could severely weaken the tooth and no amount of filling will prevent the tooth from cracking and opens up many bad issues.

Ceramic caps are expensive, over US$2,200.00 each. Ignoring them can cause tooth aches and abscesses including deadly infections. With a collapsed society you may not find and pay for a dentist to repair or pull your tooth. Also no Novocain may be available so it will be a very painful procedure.

Have your teeth cleaned and x-rayed to determine your tooth health. Get it done!

In Chapter 6 Part 4 I touched on First Aid and antibiotics. As we get older our bodies wear out. Things like high blood pressure (hypertension), high cholesterol, prostate cancer, other organ cancer, diabetes will be what causes your "engine light" to come on. The first thing the medical profession wants to do is get you addicted to prescription drugs. Lots of them with deadly side effects. How did people survive before "Big Pharma" came on the scene?

There are a number of ailments that I will not cover here but if you or a family member do have this or these, you will have to seek professional assistance as to long term planning to remedy the situation. These are diabetes, dialysis, O2, and meds for mental issues. You may not like the answers you will receive from doctors pushing the Pharma mantra and they won't have a clue in helping you prepare for some "far out long term economic collapse". You will need to search for support groups outside the medical field for proper advise.

There are many vitamins and supplements that can effectively treat many illnesses and diseases. As stated before, I'm not a doctor, scientist, or medical professional. What I say here are treatments that have been around for many hundreds if not thousands of years and have been ignored by the medical "profession". Many times I am asked by the healthcare provider what over-the-counter pills I take. After giving them a list, they seem dumbfounded and don't know what they are for. This shows that they have been forced to discount any and all supplements as quackery.

Shane Ellison of "The People's Chemist" states in his book, 3 Worst Meds¹ "Big Pharma is complicit in mass poisoning via prescription meds". He speaks of "ditching the meds" and explains how to do it.

I urge you to use search engines and study reputable websites for what supplements do and how much you should take. Here is a table of some herbs, supplements, and plants that can be used to treat some illnesses.

For almost all the supplements I find swansonvitamins.com has the best prices. ThePeoplesChemist.com has some great combinations of natural herbs that treat many illnesses.

The book in Volume 1 in my prepper library I believe is worth having is "The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies" by Nicole Apelian.

1. Page xiii, 3 Worst Meds - Shane Ellison MS,   ISBN 978-0-692-96841-3