disease | Ascension Lifestyle

8 Natural Ways to Repel Insects Without Bug Spray

Unless you’re an entomologist (and on the clock), you probably hate being surrounded by bugs, especially if they bite. While these creatures play important roles in the environment, they can be a real nuisance to humans in the outdoors, and some of these bugs do transmit diseases. Your favorite store-bought bug repellent can keep them away for awhile, but what happens when the DEET can runs dry? Worse yet, what about when you’re in a survival situation and the bugs won’t leave you alone? Thankfully, there are some natural options to beat the bugs without all the chemicals.

Make Your Own Repellent

While it’s not the strongest option in the world, you can make your own bug repellent from essential oils and other household products. Make a trip to a health food store or similar shop for the essential oils (or order them online). Then you’ll be ready to blend and bottle your own bug repellent. You’ll need:

A one-quart spray bottle
1 pint distilled white vinegar
1 pint water
25 drops of tea tree oil
25 drops of lavender essential oil

Add the ingredients into a clean spray bottle and shake well. Spray your boots, clothing and skin with a generous coating before heading outside. Reapply every two to four hours for best results.

Check Often for Ticks

Ticks are more than a nuisance for our dogs. These troublesome arachnids are found in every habitat in the U.S., and we host more than 90 of the world’s 900 tick species. Many of these species pose a significant threat to outdoor enthusiasts, transmitting diseases such as Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Powassan disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF), ehrlichiosis, STARI (Southern tick-associated rash illness), tularemia and other diseases. Spot them by wearing light colored clothing and doing frequent “tick checks” throughout the day. Remove embedded ticks quickly to limit your risk of contracting a tick-borne disease. Use tweezers or a tick removal tool to grab the tick by the mouth, pinching your own skin if necessary, then pull it straight out.

Watch Where You Put Your Gear

Scorpions, spiders, centipedes and other venomous creatures may consider your unattended boots, gloves, or other garments as a fine new home, especially if they have been undisturbed for a few hours. Then guess what happens when you suddenly pick these items up and put them on? The animal gets pressed against your skin and it bites or stings you. The venom can range from mild to intense, depending on the creature that you’ve disturbed and its size.

Take scorpions as an example. With more than a thousand known scorpion species in the world, there are plenty we’ll encounter in our travels. Mercifully, there are only 25 known to carry venom that would kill a human. From that group, there’s just one that lives in the continental U.S. It’s the Arizona bark scorpion (Centruroides sculpturatus) and its venom is on the low end of the spectrum (fatalities are very rare, usually occurring in small children and those with health problems).

So how do we avoid the sting or bite? Don’t leave your clothing, gloves or footwear on the ground or outside overnight. Don’t hang your jacket on a tree. Don’t give them a chance to crawl into your open backpack. Gear that’s not being worn should be put away, closed up or otherwise moved out of the creature’s reach. Yes, it’s a pain, but it’s less painful than getting bitten or stung.

Use Wild Plants as Repellents

Depending on your environment, there may be many wild plants which contain bug repelling compounds. Some of these may be native species and others may have been brought to this continent for various purposes. Either way, it could be very helpful to learn about the plant species that can ward off pests in the outdoors. Before you start scrubbing wild plants all over yourself, use a wild plant field guide to make 100 percent positive identification of any plant or plant part.

Paw Paw (Asimina triloba): This native tree species is commonly found along rivers and waterways throughout the eastern U.S. It bears large tropical-looking fruits (edible to people) that ripen in late summer. The trees also bear large ovate leaves which can be crushed and wiped on your skin as a useful insect repellent. The leaves are at their best in the spring and early summer, when their strong scent can remind us of fresh asphalt.

Catnip (Nepeta cataria): This common mint family member is a non-native species, brought to these shores for more than just driving your cat insane. A tea from the leaves can have a calming effect in humans and the plant can repel mosquitoes and other flying insects. The easiest way to use the plant is to crush the fresh leaves and stems onto your skin and clothing.

Don’t Forget The Net

They don’t have to be expensive and they won’t be pretty. They might just save your sanity though, and block the transmission of disease. Mesh bug suits and netted headwear can block the bugs when they come on strong.

This is much more effective than wearing multiple layers of clothing, as some people do, or by applying buckets of bug repellent. Make sure your exposed skin is covered and eliminate all gaps in your mesh suit and headwear. The only thing worse than having multiple bugs flying around inside your head net is not having a head net in the first place. Consider a sleeping net too, as these save lives in parts of the world. Mosquitos are more than just bothersome, they can transmit the malaria parasite (plasmodium, which kills over 1 million people per year globally), and many different viruses that cause encephalitis and dangerous fevers (like chikungunya, dengue, yellow fever, St. Louis encephalitis, West Nile virus and Zika).

Smoke the Bugs Away

Some savvy fishermen know how to beat biting flies and other pests around the water. They smoke cheap (or very good) cigars when the air gets buggy. For non-smokers (and those who’ve run out of cigars), there are plenty of other options – ones that won’t get you hooked on nicotine. It turns out that any smoke can act like a natural bug repellent, though some are much better than others. Remember grandma’s cedar chest full of blankets? Cedar has long been known as a natural bug repellent and cedar bark is famous for smoldering (rather than bursting into flame). So a bundle of smoldering cedar bark can help to keep the bugs at bay, and it’s also a fine way to transport a fire in the form of embers (for example, if you were leaving one camp and moving to another).

Another option for smoke uses a plant that normally grows by the water, like cattails. The dead brown seed heads can be found atop the tall grass-like plants. Grab one of these “burnt corn dogs” and apply an open flame to one end of it. Once smoldering, smoke will begin to drift out of it. Place the seed head upwind from you with the glowing end into the wind, and sit where the smoke can bathe you. Similarly, a fireproof container of crumbly rotten wood (aka punk wood) can also be lit to provide smoke. This is especially useful for “smudging” primitive survival shelters. Place the container of burning punk wood on the bare dirt floor of your shelter and allow the smoke to fill the structure. This will drive out insects, spiders and other unwelcomed guests. Repeat every few days in warmer weather, weekly or as needed in cooler weather.

Cover Up With Mud

You’re really serious if you go to this is extreme, but certain bug-infested environments may require this drastic solution. When smoke and wild plant scents aren’t strong enough to keep the bugs off your tender skin, you can create a physical barrier by coating your skin (and any thin clothing) with a layer of mud. Not only is this an effective camouflage against humans (remember the movie Rambo?), the mud suit is also effective when hiding from bugs. With the mud fresh and wet (and after it dries into a crusty shell), you’ll be wearing a surprisingly effective barrier that most bugs will not try to penetrate. It’s also useful for hiding your scent, which could come in handy while hunting.

Avoid Chigger Habitats

Sometimes, avoidance is the best way to win a fight. Chiggers (red bugs and harvest mites) are tiny biting arachnids that are found globally. Here in the U.S., there are only two species that impact us as outdoor enthusiasts. Eutrombicula alfreddugèsi is the main culprit, and the recently hatched larvae are the troublemakers. Too small to see with the naked eye, these hatchlings are hungry for any blood they can find (human or animal). Though they don’t transmit diseases, the intense itching of their bites can last for weeks. This has led to the popular (and incorrect) belief that these creatures burrow under your skin. In actuality, the larvae inject an enzyme into your skin, dissolving some skin cells (for them to drink) and hardening other skin cells (to make a “drinking straw” known as a stylostome). It’s this transformed tissue that causes such a severe itch, not a bug under your skin.

The best defense is to avoid likely breeding grounds where the larvae would be plentiful. Since they dry out easily, damp grassy areas, swampy spots, low lying and riverine environments are hot spots. Avoid these in late spring and early summer. If you do suspect you’ve wandered through their domain (due to a sensation of tiny prickly bites under your clothes), change your clothing immediately. They can crawl around in your clothes for hours, biting you in many different places. If you only had one set of clothes (say, in a survival setting), take the clothing off and hang them to dry for 30 minutes by a hot fire (socks and underwear too). This dry heat will kill the larvae.

Original article here

What a Body Built to Last 100 Years Would Look Like

The process of human evolution has resulted in bodies that are optimized for successful reproduction and child-rearing but are not necessarily designed for healthy, long lives.
Medical problems associated with aging are often described as diseases that are our own fault, but it is unfair to blame people for inheriting bodies that were not designed for extended use. We can shorten our lives, but not prolong them indefinitely.
If humans were built primarily for longevity and perpetual health, our anatomies and even our bodies’ molecular processes would look very different than they currently do.
The single-minded pursuit of life extension could actually be harmful to our species’ long-term survival.

Bulging disks, fragile bones, fractured hips, torn ligaments, varicose veins, cataracts, hearing loss, hernias and hemorrhoids: the list of bodily malfunctions that plague us as we age is long and all too familiar. Why do we fall apart just as we reach what should be the prime of life?

The living machines we call our bodies deteriorate because they were not designed for extended operation and because we now push them to function long past their warranty period. The human body is artistically beautiful and worthy of all the wonder and amazement it evokes. But from an engineer’s perspective, it is a complex network of bones, muscles, tendons, valves and joints that are directly analogous to the fallible pulleys, pumps, levers and hinges in machines. As we plunge further into our post-reproductive years, our joints and other anatomical features that serve us well or cause no problems at younger ages reveal their imperfections. They wear out or otherwise contribute to the health problems that become common in the later years.

In evolutionary terms, we harbor flaws because natural selection, the force that molds our genetically controlled traits, does not aim for perfection or endless good health. If a body plan allows individuals to survive long enough to reproduce (and, in humans and various other organisms, to raise their young), then that plan will be selected. That is, individuals robust enough to reproduce will pass their genes—and therefore their body design—to the next generation. Designs that seriously hamper survival in youth will be weeded out (selected against) because most affected individuals will die before having a chance to produce offspring. More important, anatomical and physiological quirks that become disabling only after someone has reproduced will spread. For example, if a body plan leads to total collapse at age 50 but does not interfere with earlier reproduction, the arrangement will get passed along despite the harmful consequences late in life.

Had we been crafted for extended operation, we would have fewer flaws capable of making us miserable in our later days. Evolution does not work that way, however. Instead it cobbles together new features by tinkering with existing ones in a way that would have made Rube Goldberg proud.

The upright posture of humans is a case in point. It was adapted from a body plan that had mammals walking on all fours. This tinkering undoubtedly aided our early hominid ancestors: standing on our own two feet is thought to have promoted everything from food gathering and tool use to enhanced intelligence. Our backbone has since adapted somewhat to the awkward change: the lower vertebrae have grown bigger to cope with the increased vertical pressure, and our spine has curved a bit to keep us from toppling over. Yet these fixes do not ward off an array of problems that arise from our bipedal stance.

What If?

The three of us have pondered what the human body would look like had it been constructed specifically for a healthy long life. The anatomical revisions depicted on these pages are fanciful and incomplete. Nevertheless, we present them to draw attention to a serious point. Aging is frequently described as a disease that can be reversed or eliminated. Indeed, many purveyors of youth-in-a-bottle would have us believe that the medical problems associated with aging are our own fault, arising primarily from our decadent lifestyles. Certainly any fool can shorten his or her life. But it is grossly unfair to blame people for the health consequences of inheriting a body that lacks perfect maintenance and repair systems and was not built for extended use or perpetual health. Our bodies would still wear out over time even if some mythical, ideal lifestyle could be identified and adopted.

This reality means that aging and many of its accompanying disorders are neither unnatural nor avoidable. No simple interventions can make up for the countless imperfections that permeate our anatomy and are revealed by the passage of time. We are confident, however, that researchers will be able to ease some of the maladies of aging. Investigators are rapidly identifying (and discerning the function of) our myriad genes, developing pharmaceuticals to control them, and learning how to harness and enhance the extraordinary repair capabilities that already exist inside our bodies. These profound advances will eventually help compensate for many of the design flaws contained within us all.

Health and Longevity

Our research interest in redesigning the Homo sapiens body is a reaction to the health and mortality consequences of growing old. We focus on anatomical “oddities” and “design flaws” not only because they would be familiar to most readers, but because they represent a small sample of lethal and disabling conditions that threaten the length and quality of life. It is important to recognize that we live in a world in which human ingenuity has made it possible for an unprecedented number of people to grow old. Our redesign goal is thus to draw attention to the health consequences associated with the aging of individuals and populations.

Even the term “flaw” requires clarification. Living things, and everything they make, eventually fail. The cause of failure is a flaw only when the failure is premature. A racecar that fails beyond the end of the race has no engineering flaws. In the same way, bodies that fail in the post-reproductive span of life may contain numerous design oddities, but they have no design flaws as far as evolution goes.

There are countless other aspects of human biology that would merit modification if health and longevity were nature’s primary objective.

For example, gerontologists theorize that aging is caused, in part, by a combination of the molecular damage that inevitably arises from operating the machinery of life within cells and the imperfect mechanisms for molecular surveillance, maintenance and repair that permit damage to accumulate over time. If this view of the aging process is correct, then modifying these molecular processes to lessen the severity or accumulation of damage, or to enhance the maintenance and repair processes, should have a beneficial impact on health and longevity. These wondrous modifications, however, would have little effect unless the common sense that is needed to avoid destructive lifestyles becomes more widespread among people.

Living things are exceedingly complex, and experience teaches us that undesirable consequences invariably arise whenever humans have taken over the reins of evolution to modify organisms (microbes, plants and animals) to suit their purposes. The most worrisome trade-off for genetic manipulation directed toward living longer would be an extension of frailty and disability rather than an extension of youthful health and vitality.

Though cobbled together by the blind eye of evolution, humans have proved to be a remarkably successful species. We have outcompeted almost every organism that we have encountered, with the notable exception of microbes. We have blanketed the earth and even walked on the moon. We have even figured out how to escape premature death and survive to old age.

At this point in history, we need to exploit our expanding knowledge of evolution to enhance the quality of our lives as we grow older because the single-minded pursuit of life extension without considering health extension could be disastrous.

Our fanciful designs of anatomically “fixed” humans are not intended as a realistic exercise in biomechanical engineering. Given what is known today about human aging, if the task of designing a healthy, long-lived human from scratch were given to a team comprising the father of evolution, Charles Darwin, the great painter Michelangelo, and the master engineer and scientist Leonardo da Vinci, they most certainly would have fashioned a living machine that differs from the one we now occupy. Indeed, anyone who tries his hand at redesign would probably construct a human body that would look unlike the ones we have created on these pages. Yet we invoke this approach as an instructive way of communicating the important message from evolutionary theory that, to a significant degree, the potential length of our lives and, to a lesser degree, the duration of health and vitality are genetic legacies from our ancient ancestors, who needed to mature quickly to produce children before they were killed by the hostile forces of nature.

Original article here