What is the point of prepping? It’s to survive an event that causes the collapse of society and keep surviving, right? So much focus in the prepper community is on stockpiling food, firearms, water, and meds that we forget to talk about other important things we need to stay on top of while society is intact.

GO TO THE DOCTOR

Whether you’re a prepper or not you should be getting a yearly checkup. You can have enough preps to survive 30 years in the post apocalyptic world, but if you didn’t catch your clogged artery or spot of cancer on your lung you’ve spent time and money stocking up for the person who will step over your corpse to take your stuff. There’s no good reason not to take 2 hours every year to see a doctor.

Protip: Your doctor is a medical professional while you are a truck driver, laborer, farmer, accountant, etc. They know more about health issues than you no matter what you’ve read on webMD. There’s a valid argument to be made that some doctors are shills for big pharmaceutical but it’s up to you to find one you trust and you have the option to get a second or third opinion to verify what your doc said. Don’t disregard what you’re told by a doctor because your friend’s cousin’s sister-in-law’s best friend’s dog ate dragon fruit and was cancer free after 24hrs.

Quit Using Tobacco

It’s not even up for debate anymore that cigarettes, chew, and snuff result in cancer for the majority of users. You can comment all you want with anecdotal evidence about your grandma who smoked a carton a day for 200 years and died in a car accident. The fact is if you use tobacco(not nicotine) you are killing yourself. You can’t claim to be all about surviving with a cigarette hanging out of your mouth.

If your health isn’t a concern there are other practical reasons to be vise free. The money you’ll save and can put towards other preps is high on the list. Cigarettes range from $3-$12 per pack depending on where you live in the US. Assuming you only smoke a pack a day you are spending $1095-$4380 every year. That’s a lot of money to spend on shortening your life that could be put towards saving it.

Another reason is post-SHTF you’ll either need to be able to grow tobacco, have some stockpiled, or barter to keep your addiction fed. Do you want to be going through withdrawal while you’re trying to defend your preps? What if you have to bug out on foot? Gasping for air and smokers cough isn’t going to help your endurance.

There are several methods for quitting tobacco. I quit smoking using an e-cigarette/vaporizer. Within 2 months my morning cough was gone, I could walk up the stairs without being out of breath, and tit didn’t take long to work my way down to the lowest nicotine levels. Yes I just replaced a bad habit for a less bad habit. Most credible studies point toward vaping as being a much safer alternative to smoking while the studies that say it’s dangerous have largely been debunked, but it’s still something I have to quit. It’s easier to quit though by combining the cessation process of gum or patches with the hand to mouth of smoking a determined person can be nicotine free in no time.

Get Your Teeth Fixed

This might be the one that nobody ever talks about. We all know we need to brush our teeth, if you’re not brushing your teeth you’re gross. Did you know a toothache can kill you? You won’t drop dead from physical pain, though if you’ve ever had a toothache you may feel like you could die. What happens is a cavity left untreated can cause an infection between the tooth and gum, and like any infection it can cause serious health problems all the way up to death.

Like the doctor there’s no good reason to not see a dentist, you should go at least twice a year. Post-SHTF it’s going to be harder to get cavities taken care of, so you will want to go into the apocalypse with a healthy set of chompers. If you’re scared of the dentist, too bad, get over it. There are plenty of options now to help with that fear, get the gas or the sleepy pill and let them work on you while you’re nice and relaxed.

You’ll also want to make sure toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, and mouthwash are part of your stockpile for dental upkeep. Start making sure everyone in your family is using dental products properly then keep track of how long it takes to get through a tube of toothpaste and a spool of floss then stock accordingly. No matter how much you stock you’ll eventually run out so make sure you add a Natural Toothpaste Recipe to your prepping notes. There are also more natural options like chewing on tree bark or turning a fresh twig into a brush, charcoal toothpaste, and using strips of pliable tree branches for floss.

It’s very easy to get so caught up in the excitement of SHTF theories and taking care of our future selves that we forget to take care of the current us. Thanks for reading.