Medical Health

A pharmacist once told me, “You have to do it for the next guy.”

A doctor once told me, “You are their movie and they want you to be the bad guy.”

Although a number of medical professionals still recommend applying a tourniquet to rattlesnake bites (and then briefly releasing the tourniquet every 15 to 20 minutes), Tony Nester, the author of Desert Survival. Tips, Tricks, & Skills (Flagstaff: Diamond Creek Press, 2003), writes that most of the doctors he spoke to advise against applying a tourniquet (it simply concentrates the venom in the tissues immediately adjacent to the bite) and that your best treatment is to get to a hospital or clinic as quickly as possible: do not delay.

Nester says that two important rules of desert living are 1) “Don’t put your hands where you can’t see” and 2) “Vigorously slam your boots on the ground and shake clothes before you put them on.”

Watch out for Gila Monsters, Africanized Bees (Killer Bees), Black Widow Spiders, Scorpions, Rattlesnakes, and Coral Snakes.

And if you end up spending way too much time in the sun out there in the dry desert, you can always consider getting plastic surgery. I’m sure that there is a great selection of cosmetic surgeons out there in the West, and I know that you can find a surgeon through the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, an association that represents thousands of reconstructive surgeons throughout the world.

When you look up a hike in one of the many popular books on the subject or you find a good reference on the Internet (for example, http://www.toddshikingguide.com), keep in mind that if you are over 40 and have not regularly worked out for at least a year of two, you should choose the easiest (and shortest) trails. And irregardless of your age (you might be 18 or 52), your best estimate of the time it will take to complete a hike is to double the times reported in the various paper and online publications, because it seems that many of these top-notch hikers and outdoors writers treat their outings as workouts, and push hard, and do not often stop to enjoy the views and the endless allure of nature in the wild.

Buyer Beware:

We hear on the news that we should eat right and exercise, that fruits and vegetables help prevent cancer, and that the right foods and daily exercise help prevent heart disease. Furthermore, we are told to restrict fats and cholesterol and avoid deep-fried and fast foods. We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic and obesity brings about heart disease and cancer. But sometimes common preventive measures are not enough, either because we are burdened with genetic predispositions or, for example, because we have sustained a lifetime of pollution.

Given our present health concerns, many individuals and practitioners of alternative health strategies have expressed their faith in the benefits of chelation therapy, a process whereby alternative health practitioners (but NOT certified medical doctors) claim that EDTA (Ethylene Diamine Tetra-acetic Acid) binds molecules (metals or minerals) and removes them from the body. When so-called patients undergo oral chelation, using liquid EDTA, hardened mineral and metal deposits are apparently removed from the circulatory system, improving blood flow and increasing the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the tissues. I say APPARENTLY because the therapy is unproven and does not appear to be backed by hospitals and insurance plans.