There is more to health than just being free of disease. Sometimes challenges arise unexpectedly, challenges that can have a major impact on heath. Over the past week, much of the United States has had to contend with extreme weather. In some places, such as where I live in Oregon, that extreme weather took down huge chunks of the electric grid. Bitter cold, hazardous driving, and even uprooted trees and falling tree branches have represented threats to life and health.

Where I live, the electricity was out for three whole days. That meant that our electric heating system ceased functioning, and the temperature in our house gradually went down, despite our attempts to stop or at least slow heat leaks through windows and doors. You could say we were lucky, and that would be true, but we were also prepared. We have a room that we can seal off from the rest of the house. It contains a wood-burning stove. We had a supply of firewood that we could burn to keep warm, as well as to cook food. Now our supply of firewood is almost gone, but it did carry us through. We have a lot more out in our yard, in the form of tree branches that broke off from trees from the weight of the ice that built up on them. I’ll need to gather the fallen wood and cut it into fireplace-sized logs.

What does this have to do with Creating Health?

The first requisite for health is to meet the basic needs for life. That most definitely includes providing a temperature range that our bodies can at least tolerate, if not feel comfortable in. It also includes necessities such as water and food. Luckily, my family was stocked with the essentials to meet this challenge.

• Our water supply was never interrupted.
• We had a woodstove and enough wood to carry us through three days without electric heat.
• We had enough food on hand, and the ability to cook food that required cooking.
• We had candles and battery-powered lights, for illumination after dark.
• We had each other, as well as neighbors we could have called upon if we needed to.

Luckily, we had no medical emergency while we were hunkered down in the room with the woodstove.

All good!

We did well this time, in coping with what for us was the worst storm in a generation. I take a lesson from the experience, though. We need to be even better prepared next time. There’s bound to be a next time, and it may come sooner than we anticipate.

BIO:

Allen G. Taylor is a 40-year veteran of the computer industry and the author of over 40 books, including Develop Microsoft HoloLens Apps Now, Get Fit with Apple Watch, Cruise for Free, SQL For Dummies, 9th Edition, Crystal Reports 2008 For Dummies, Database Development For Dummies, Access Power Programming with VBA, and SQL All-In-One For Dummies, Third Edition. He lectures internationally on astronomy, databases, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He also teaches database development and Crystal Reports through a leading online education provider. For the latest news on Allen’s activities, check out his blog at wwwallengtaylor.com or contact him at allen.taylor@ieee.org.