The best cure is always prevention.
Many injuries are easily avoided, e.g., not playing with animals, using sunscreen, warming up before exercise, watching where you are going, wearing protective clothing.
Preventing illness is a matter of keeping in good health, and good health is basically comprised of four things: nutrition, exercise, recharging and hygiene.
Nutrition is everything that you put into your body. Here are some guidelines to follow:
Ø Avoid unnecessary drugs (including alcohol, cigarettes and overuse of pharmaceuticals) and excess fat, salt and sugar.
Ø Eat a diet high in fruits, vegetables and legumes.
Ø Detoxify your body every month or two. A simple way to do this is to consume nothing but water for 24 hours.
Ø Drink at least one liter of water a day, preferably two and even more when exercising. Even better than water is green tea (it’s packed with anti-oxidants).
Ø Eat a varied diet.
Ø Everything in moderation.
Ø Consider taking an immune system boosting supplement and/or other multivitamin every other day, especially when traveling.
Ø In everyday life, use more garlic, ginger, chili and raw honey in your cooking: apart from adding flavor, between them they are jam packed with anti-everything properties.
In a survival situation, a common plant filled with vitamins and minerals is plantain. Make a tea out of it. Also, do not avoid sugar, salts and fats. These are the things that keep the body running, and you need all the nutrition you can get. It is just in modern life we get far too much of them - everything in moderation.
Exercise is any physical activity you do which results in an increased heart rate. Here are some guidelines to follow:
Ø Exercise regularly. As little as twenty minutes of focused exercise a day is enough.
Ø Stretch every day.
If you are in a survival situation you may want to conserve energy. Survival activities will probably prove to be enough to keep fit, e.g., hunting.
Yoga is highly recommended and is referred to in some of the treatments in this book.
To learn more about healthy living visit SurviveTravel.com/Healthy-Living.
Recharging refers to allowing your body and mind to recuperate.
Get enough rest, i.e., sleep at least 6 hours a day, preferably 7 to 9.
Lower stress levels. Things like aromatherapy, massages, meditation and relaxing baths can all help to lower stress.
Good nutrition, exercise and recharging work together to keep your body strong to fight infections and injury. Good personal hygiene will help to stop infections entering your body in the first place.
When traveling to unfamiliar places you will be exposed to things your body has probably not encountered before. Your immune system will not be built up enough to combat these things, so personal hygiene becomes even more important than it already is.
Everything your mother told you as a child (e.g., wash your hands after using the bathroom, cleaning eating utensils after each use) do it religiously when in an unfamiliar environment, especially if your travels lead you into a survival and/or wilderness situation. Even seemingly small things can turn disastrously bad.
Daily Hygiene Routine for Survival/Collapse Situations
Start from the top of your body and work your way down, i.e., from head to toes. This is an example routine aimed at the worst possible scenario, i.e., a survival/collapsed society situation. You may not have to be so strict.
Keep as dry and clean as possible.
Wash every part of your body, preferably with soap. Drinking water is always the priority, so make the best with what you have.
Shorter hair is always easier to keep clean.
If the water is available, rinse your mouth out first thing in the morning and after every meal.
Ø Dental Floss: thin string-like substances can be used as dental floss, e.g., para-cord inner core, fishing line, plant fiber (as long as the plant is safe). Tie an overhand knot in it to remove any difficult objects.
Ø Mouthwash: a solution made of water and 1 to 3 % of hydrogen peroxide or clove oil will make a good mouthwash alternative. Beware that too much hydrogen peroxide or clove oil can burn your mouth.
Ø If clove oil or hydrogen peroxide is not available, simple salt water is better than nothing. These alternative mouthwashes are also good to use as toothpaste if there is nothing else.
Ø Toothbrush: a hardwood twig (live wood) that you have frayed by chewing can be used as a makeshift toothbrush. A piece of cloth could also be used. Even just your finger is better than nothing. It is also important to brush your gums. If your toothbrush is too harsh, use your finger.
Ø Toothpaste: baking soda makes good alternative toothpaste.
Wash your entire body and check for parasites (lice, fleas, ticks etc.), especially in hairy and moist areas, e.g., groin, armpits. Be careful not to crush any that you find. Pick them off; Diagnoses and Treatments – Environmentally Induced – Animals, Terrestrial
Wash your hands before handling food or water that you are going to consume. If no disinfectant is available, just using running water is much better than nothing - the stronger the water pressure the better.
Whether you have soap, hand sanitizer or just water, make sure you wash your hands properly. It should take about a minute to clean and dry them. Get into all the nooks and crannies, e.g., between fingers, under finger nails.
Do your best to keep your nails clean, especially if you get a cut underneath them. Cut them if possible, but be careful not to overcut them as that may lead to ingrown nails and/or infection.
Your feet are extremely important. You must keep them protected from injury. Wash, dry and massage them regularly. Likewise, change and wash your socks regularly.
When hiking, check your feet often for blisters and/or hot spots. Take preventative measures; Diagnoses and Treatments - Integumentary System – Blisters.
Keeping covered will protect you from the elements and insects.
Wash your clothes regularly for hygiene, as well as to make them last longer.
If no insect repellents are available, you can use smoke to fumigate them.
Minimize your exposure to mosquitoes; Diagnoses and Treatments – Animals, Terrestrial – Mosquitoes.
Defecate in a designated spot at least 50 m away from your water and also away (preferably downwind) from camp. Make it out of the way, but not inconvenient. You want to be able to get to it at night if needed.
After defecating, cover the feces with earth.
Establish a drinking water collection-point and ensure no-one washes upstream from it. Downstream from the drinking water, choose a point for washing your body and clothes, and downstream from that, wash dishes.
All water from natural and other questionable sources should be purified. Boiling it for 5 minutes is best, but bleach, iodine, UV light (e.g., Steripens) also work.
When caring for, or in the presence of, a sick person:
Wash hands before and after contact.
Wear a mask.
Wear gloves.
Wash down all possibly contaminated surfaces with disinfectant, e.g., diluted bleach.
The sick person should:
Cover their mouth and nose with tissues when coughing, sneezing etc.
Dispose of tissues correctly, e.g., in the trash.
Keep their distance from others, at least 150 cm.
Be quarantined if a high fever is present.
White ashes, sand, loamy soil (a mixture of sand, clay, silt, and organic matter) and even some plants can be used as alternative soaps.
You can make soap by mixing animal fat or vegetable oil with alkali, and alkali can be produced from wood or seaweed ash:
Ø Wash the ash with water.
Ø Strain then boil it with the oil or animal fat.
Ø Once it is boiling, bring it down to a simmer to burn of all the liquid.
Ø Adding pine resin, clove oil etc. will give it antiseptic properties.
Ø Let it cool before using.
Note: too much alkali will dry your skin.
The following vaccinations are recommended for world travelers by the World Health Organization. They are accurate at the time of writing.
It is a good idea to have all your vaccinations recorded in the World Health Organization (WHO) International Certificate of Vaccination. Who.int/ihr/IVC200_06_26.pdf?ua=1
These are vaccinations that everyone should have:
Diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.
Hepatitis B (Hep B).
Haemophilus influenzae type b.
Human papillomavirus.
Influenza.
Measles, mumps, and rubella.
Pneumococcal.
Polio.
Rotavirus.
Tuberculosis (BCG).
Varicella.
These are vaccines that you should have if intending to go to high-risk areas:
Hepatitis A.
Cholera.
Japanese encephalitis.
Meningococcal.
Rabies.
Tick-borne encephalitis.
Typhoid fever.
Yellow fever.
These are vaccines that some countries require you to have if entering certain countries:
Yellow fever.
Meningococcal.
Polio.
Check for latest information on required vaccines at WHO.int/wer.