Covid19 Has Our World Gone Mad?

Covid19 Has Our World Gone Mad?

We here at The Medic Shcak. Like everyone has been watching and waiting for the next boot to drop with CoVid19. The United States, like other countries has enacted a national emergency status. Most of the nations 337 million citizens have no clue what that means. Hell I am not as sure as I normally am. And in reading websites from the far right to the far left, it appears we are heading for martial law, or a “welcome socialist status”. I’ll leave that discussion to other web pages.

This virus is scary. To a point. It is NOT the flu. It gives flu like symptoms. Its “mortality” rate is about 35 times that of the flu. Sounds scary, doesn’t it? What that means is the flu has a mortality rate of about .1% CoVid19 is about 3.5% That is not a firm number. The percentage will go up and or it will go down as more and more people get tested.

Right now Italy is on lock down. There are cities in America that are locked down. The National Guard has been activated in 6 states so far. Our media. Our information sources are politicizing this instead of disseminating information.

The Surgeon General of the US admonishes the media, and is instantly roasted by the same media for him criticizing the media. As Vice Admiral Adams said. There will be plenty of time for bickering, partisanship and finger point at a later time.
I say, Let’s be the America we were on 9/12/01.

Okay enough of my feelings. What can WE do to help each other during this time?

First before I get into that I need to say this:

Use of the information on this site is AT YOUR OWN RISK, intended solely for self-help, in times of emergency, when medical help is not available, and does not create a doctor-patient relationship. I and no one at  The Medic Shack is a doctor nor advertises to be one.

 

Nothing at this time will cure the Coronavirus. Nor any virus.

That being said lets get to work.

 

Lets work on some facts that we do have.

*Death Rate = (number of deaths / number of cases) =probability of dying if infected by the virus(%). The percentages do not have to add up to 100%, as they do NOT represent share of deaths by condition.

Those charts are from Worldometer. I am using it as an example, and have not personally checked the data.

We can see from the chart that the most people that have died are from 2 major categories 1, They are elderly and have pre existing conditions.

Heart disease is the number one pre existing condition.

Information

So now we have information we can work with.

We can’t do anything for age. As much as people dislike the idea, we are going to get old. But looking at these charts, we can work on getting some things under better control. I wish there were a chart that shows the difference between people with heart disease that is under control vs no under control.

Heart disease is for the most part non reversible. But there are techniques that can be used to help overcome and help the heart to work better.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon can help the heart in a multitude of ways. In 2013 a Review Study that looked at 10 previous studies, found a small dose of cinnamon daily decreed levels of total cholesterol, LL cholesterol and triglycerides. It also lowered blood sugar. That helps protect, and or partially control diabetes. By doing that it decreases the risk of an MI or stroke.

Garlic

Garlic has been shown to help the over health of the heart. Two studies, one an article in the Journal of Nutrition in 2016 looked at 20 previous studies that showed that garlic helps to significantly lower hypertension. The International Life Sciences Institute looked on how garlic worked on serum lipids. From the study, “The findings suggest garlic to be effective in reducing total serum cholesterol by 17 ± 6 mg/d and low-density protein cholesterol by 9 ± 6 mg/d in individuals with elevated total cholesterol levels (>200 mg/d), provided garlic is used for longer than 2 months”.

Ginger

This study on Ginger has shown to have potential preventive property against hypertension and coronary heart disease.

Curcumin

Curcumin is the active part of Tumeric that works on the heart. One study in the International Journal of Cardiology has said to have properties that work to prevent or lessen heart failure, prevent strokes by preventing clots to form and strengthen coronary vessels

Berberine.

This is one of my favorite herbs. Berberine works on the body is so many beneficial ways. One research study shows how it is used to help control Type 2 diabetes. lowering LDL cholesterol and triglycerides and increasing HDL cholesterol. On a different tack, Berberine has been shown to work against water born parasites. And is an excellent anti microbial.

Those are somethings that may help out the heart and help out someone exposed to CoVid19. Our friends for heart failure and other cardiac issues need all the help they can get. Please. Don’t be a hermit. Check on your Disabled, sick or elderly neighbors. Don’t be a hermit.

And lets not forget basic hygiene.

I’ve been in health care since the early 80’s. Either as an Army medic. Lab Technician. EMT, Registered Cardiovascular Tech, Cardiac Electrophysiology Tech. There are somethings in medicine that are distasteful. Body functions are one.

Toilet Paper Shortage 2020.

There are a lot of reasons people are buying toilet paper by the semi truck full. There is a paper product shortage. One of the more popular reasons is its made in China. I looked at the 3 brands we have in the house. (Yeah I bought a little extra.) The Charmin and the Scots both say Made in the USA. The Great Value Sandpaper Paper says Assembled in the USA. What ever.

The world will not end if you run out of toilet paper. Trust me and any veteran, cowboy who works on the range for weeks to months at a time. Long term back packers. There are alternatives.
First the obvious ones. Napkins, Paper Towels things like that. If Gods forbid your run out of those, well our ancestors made do with much less.

Home made Butt wipes

For those of us that have had, or currently have kids and used cloth diapers, well we are ahead of the game.

Buy flannel. Its getting cheaper now, that winter is winding down. Cut into 4×4 or 6×6 squares. If you can sew, sew the edges to prevent fraying. Old wash cloths, t-shirts, about any scrap cloth will do. The thicker the better Do your business, wipe as usual and rinse the cloth in the sink and toss into a covered can. Y’all remember the diaper pail. Its making a comeback. Keep a pair of those Playtex rubber gloves in the bath room if you. Use soap. For soap makers, those old batches that did come out the way you wanted and are sitting in a bag to be remelted? Use that to clean the cloths. If not then a bit of regular soap is fine.

If your family is a bit on the “OH HELL NO, I AM NOT USING THAT AFTER BOBBY USED IT. I DON’T CARE IF IT HAS BEEN WASHED” person. Buy different colors and assign a color to each person.
Was the used ones with how water and bleach. Oh hell. There is a bleach shortage. What ever will we do? In a prior blog, we talked about alternatives for bleach. One that we have is Pool Shock.  This link to our prior blog will give the lowdown on making your own bleach. If you don’t have bleach, then wash at the highest temperature you can and use plenty of soap.

Cowboy other kinds of TP

Most leaves are scratchy and, well abrasive. Look for soft leaves. Also. MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT USING POISON IVY, OAK OR SUMAC, OR ANY POISONOUS LEAVES.

Common mullein Is found just about everywhere.

Lamb’s ear is not as wild as it once was, but is still found in older flower gardens and is a bordering plant along walkways.

Moss is comfortable, but messy if it falls apart. These are just a few of the plants that are usable. Each state has its own “soft leaved plants” .

Sponges. The Dollar store sells 8 packs of sponges for a buck. Cut off the green scrubbie, save it for cleaning pots pans etc. And use the sponge. A bit of water is help full. Use it rinse it wash it.

Peri bottles. These are bottles that are made to rinse the perianal area of moms who are postpartum. And for folks that have had hemorrhoid surgery. Wiping after either one of those is unpleasant and painful. This Peri bottle comes in 2 pack and is reasonably priced. I’d recommend one for each household member.

It’s that time of the Month….

OK I’m a guy. Been married for almost 30 years. Bought THOUSANDS of female products for my wife. While exploring the no mans land of the Feminine Hygiene at our local Walmart, I noticed tampons and pads literally flying off the shelf into carts. And it seems that they are not immune to the panic buying of paper products. There are reusable alternatives. My female ancestors, up until the early 20th century used them. I asked Freya what she recommended, and she said Diva Cups and reusable cloth pads

Freya will be writing a post on this later on. I may be a medic, but I am not an expert of this topic.

Hand sanitizer.

This and paper products is turning into the grab of the decade. And the debate of the century. Which is better. Hand sanitizer or Soap and Water?

Soap and water is the preferred method. A 20 second wash , may not kill the bacteria or virus, but it will remove all of them from your skin. Hand sanitizers work by trying to kill the bacterial or virus on your skin. It is not always effective. It is also documented that it does not work on Nora virus. The little guy that gives us the “stomach flu”. It is also infective on C-difficile bacteria. Cryptosporidum and Giardia. It may not kill all the bacteria or viruses on your hands. But it is far better than doing nothing. And there is now a national shortage on it.

And yes there is a starting to be a shortage on Aloe Vera gels.

My wife has been working on this. Amazon. Walmart and most large stores have been ransacked of aloe vera products. She has been using Lubriderm non greasy hand lotion. 2.5 fluid ounces to 7.5 fluid ounces of pure grain alcohol. That ration will give you about a 70% alcohol content. It doesn’t dry the skin as bad the aloe everclear blend and for the time being its available. And it will dry the hell out of your hands, but a 70/30 mix of at least 90 % alcohol and water will do the trick.

Oh remember those flannel butt wipes we talked about earlier? Soak those in your water alcohol blend, toss in zip lock and you have your own ready made handy wipes.

Finally

Depending on how you look at things we are either in the SHTF or heading to SHTF. As I said earlier, I want the America to be the America we were on 9/12/2001. We do not need to be selfish, self centered uncaring people we are and I feel a lot have become. We need to check on our neighbors. Especially the elderly and infirmed. Help them to help themselves. Show them how to make the things they need. Or better yet have them teach you to make the things we need. They may not have the physical body to do the work. But they have the experience and memories to teach us how to do it the old way.

Am I saying to open our well thought out and put together pantries to them? I’m going to leave that answer to you, our readers. During times of trouble and hardship, we Americans have come together. Let’s remember how to do that once again.

 

PS. Don’t forget we are hosting an online webinar on The Basics of Herbal Medicine. on March 28! Get in while the getting is good!

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *