understandable, actuarial-based insurance is still the best way to go.
PART II
GETTING PREPARED
7
ADDICTION
O bviously, the most important thing you can do to survive a medical care meltdown is to be so healthy and safety conscious that you will not need a doctor’s intervention. It is beyond the scope of this book to educate the reader about all aspects of wellness, but in appendix A you will find a reference list for further reading that is well worth the time and effort to work through if you want to maximize your health.
Regardless of your current health, there are several things that are basic to wellness. I will outline these, then provide a clear strategy for attaining optimal health based on the latest science.
I don’t need to outline the risk of disease from smoking, chewing tobacco, or doing harmful drugs – do I? And if you are a smoker, you are already finding the cost of your habit getting higher and higher. But imagine for a moment a time in the future when suddenly your supply chain of your addictive substance is cut off. Imagine if you woke up today and could not get a cigarette anywhere at any price because of an economic collapse. How would you feel? Now, imagine going through withdrawal from cigarettes or drugs (even legal, prescription ones) at a time when there is no food in the stores. When you should be worried about your children getting enough toeat, instead you are focused on your own physical withdrawal from cigarettes or alcohol or some other addictive substance. America is approaching a 300 percent debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio. No country has lasted for more than a few years at that level without experiencing a severe economic “readjustment” (less politely, a “collapse”). At such a time in the future, you will need all your wits focused on day-to-day survival. You cannot afford to be “jonesing,” as you are suddenly forced into abstinence from your habit. It is far better to stop now in a controlled environment than to suddenly be forced to withdraw from the habit due to collapse of the economy.
Regarding cigarettes, I suspect, too, that American socialized health care will significantly discriminate against tobacco users, even denying some treatment options to smokers as being “futile.” And of course, tobacco vastly increases your risk of cancer, heart disease, bone fragility, and other aspects of premature aging. You cannot afford to increase your dependence on a medical system that will no longer be able to respond to your needs.
Ditto for anyone addicted to alcohol. Time to clean up this act. Not every alcoholic experiences the withdrawal symptoms known as DTs or delirium tremens – a very serious disruption of normal body function with skyrocketing blood pressure, increased heart rate, sweating, total body itching, and hallucinations. In the old days, before modern medicine, DTs were 50 percent fatal. The fatalities often were from hallucinations that caused the alcoholic to jump from a hospital window. Again, you don’t want to have this happen to you suddenly because the supply of alcohol is unexpectedly disrupted. (You can’t get your “still” working in the three days it takes to experience DTs or other withdrawal symptoms.) You don’t have to give up the occasional martini or the dinner glass of wine. But you must give up the excess.
Everything I just wrote about alcohol also applies to people who regularly take antianxiety drugs, such as Xanax or Valium. Sudden withdrawal of these drugs – in the family known as benzodiazepines – may cause you to experience delirium tremens just as you wouldduring withdrawal from alcohol. You cannot suddenly stop such medications. While time permits, discuss with your doctor how to get off all substances that – if suddenly stopped – will produce physical, not just emotional, withdrawal. If, for example, you take Xanax for anxiety, your doctor can slowly wean you off and replace it with something
PART II
GETTING PREPARED
7
ADDICTION
O bviously, the most important thing you can do to survive a medical care meltdown is to be so healthy and safety conscious that you will not need a doctor’s intervention. It is beyond the scope of this book to educate the reader about all aspects of wellness, but in appendix A you will find a reference list for further reading that is well worth the time and effort to work through if you want to maximize your health.
Regardless of your current health, there are several things that are basic to wellness. I will outline these, then provide a clear strategy for attaining optimal health based on the latest science.
I don’t need to outline the risk of disease from smoking, chewing tobacco, or doing harmful drugs – do I? And if you are a smoker, you are already finding the cost of your habit getting higher and higher. But imagine for a moment a time in the future when suddenly your supply chain of your addictive substance is cut off. Imagine if you woke up today and could not get a cigarette anywhere at any price because of an economic collapse. How would you feel? Now, imagine going through withdrawal from cigarettes or drugs (even legal, prescription ones) at a time when there is no food in the stores. When you should be worried about your children getting enough toeat, instead you are focused on your own physical withdrawal from cigarettes or alcohol or some other addictive substance. America is approaching a 300 percent debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio. No country has lasted for more than a few years at that level without experiencing a severe economic “readjustment” (less politely, a “collapse”). At such a time in the future, you will need all your wits focused on day-to-day survival. You cannot afford to be “jonesing,” as you are suddenly forced into abstinence from your habit. It is far better to stop now in a controlled environment than to suddenly be forced to withdraw from the habit due to collapse of the economy.
Regarding cigarettes, I suspect, too, that American socialized health care will significantly discriminate against tobacco users, even denying some treatment options to smokers as being “futile.” And of course, tobacco vastly increases your risk of cancer, heart disease, bone fragility, and other aspects of premature aging. You cannot afford to increase your dependence on a medical system that will no longer be able to respond to your needs.
Ditto for anyone addicted to alcohol. Time to clean up this act. Not every alcoholic experiences the withdrawal symptoms known as DTs or delirium tremens – a very serious disruption of normal body function with skyrocketing blood pressure, increased heart rate, sweating, total body itching, and hallucinations. In the old days, before modern medicine, DTs were 50 percent fatal. The fatalities often were from hallucinations that caused the alcoholic to jump from a hospital window. Again, you don’t want to have this happen to you suddenly because the supply of alcohol is unexpectedly disrupted. (You can’t get your “still” working in the three days it takes to experience DTs or other withdrawal symptoms.) You don’t have to give up the occasional martini or the dinner glass of wine. But you must give up the excess.
Everything I just wrote about alcohol also applies to people who regularly take antianxiety drugs, such as Xanax or Valium. Sudden withdrawal of these drugs – in the family known as benzodiazepines – may cause you to experience delirium tremens just as you wouldduring withdrawal from alcohol. You cannot suddenly stop such medications. While time permits, discuss with your doctor how to get off all substances that – if suddenly stopped – will produce physical, not just emotional, withdrawal. If, for example, you take Xanax for anxiety, your doctor can slowly wean you off and replace it with something
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