DIY -- health

So of course you'd like to save money on meds but what you probably don't realize is that you might be able to save if you would do the hard stuff.

1. Eat right. Medicine has clinical studies since 2012 that show supplements are a waste of money. I've posted about that before. Get your veggies and fruits, your whole grains, ditch the processed foods and their chemicals, buy a bread maker and make your own. Oh, and by the way, supplements never were regulated by the FDA. Unless they made medical claims. Without the FDA, you're even farther up shit's creek. 

2. Exercise any way you can. Yoga will help. Cooking from scratch will help, especially things like kneading your own bread. Between this and eating right, you can reduce your dependence on cholesterol and blood pressure meds, and exercise has a positive effect on depression. I've done it.

3. GET YOUR SLEEP. Set a schedule, set a routine (brushing your teeth, cooling shower in hot weather), ventilation and air movement (closing your door will interfere with this), cut back on tech at bedtime, exercise stopping an hour before bedtime. Obesity and heart problems can arise from lack of sleep. I have a history of insomnia, and I know half a dozen tricks that fixed it without using meds.

4. Clean house. Not only is this a great form of exercise, but you can detect and eradicate mold and mildew, both of which can cause illness. Those of us with dust mite allergies need to clean regularly. This includes clearing food from the fridge when it's going over. If you buy vegetables in bulk because it's cheaper, you may be able to freeze them. Some need to be blanched before freezing. There are websites about that.

5. Herbal remedies. There's a lot of bullshit out there about herbals. Clinical studies show that echinacea and black cohosh aren't what they're cracked up to be. White willow bark, on the other hand, is what aspirin was developed out of. Some herbals you can grow for yourself with a full-spectrum LED lamp: feverfew, horehound, arnica, chamomile (but don't use this if you have a goldenrod allergy), comfrey (natural source of allantoin for your skin). Mullein, plantain and calendula are others. If you have a yard, you can plant things like elderberry and juniper.

6. Environment. A number of plants will make your yard inhospitable to mosquitoes, including bright-colored Mexican marigold, classic lavender, bee balm, lemon basil or verbena, and any kind of mints. Dill grown in the yard will attract beneficial insects and you can use it in cooking. Don't dig up or poison your dandelions; most of the plant is edible. Grow mint in the house; mice hate the smell. Grow aloe vera indoors under your LEDs; not only can you make an excellent skin care product doped with comfrey infusion, but it also purifies the air. A lot of classic herbs like parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, tarragon, and oregano will grow in many US agricultural zones. You can grow your own coriander/cilantro and cumin. And don't forget the birds. Insect-eating birds love fruit. My holly and mulberry trees support lots of them for part of the year and I put out mealworm and things in the winter.

7. Outside the box. US agricultural zones 6a and above can grow tea, a form of camellia. Every winter you need a frame wrapped in burlap and stuffed with raked up leaves, to protect the plant. You can avoid the high prices coming on coffee and still get your caffeine. There are websites showing you how to process the leaves. You don't have to buy Celestial Seasonings: you can grow roses and use the hips, as well as your herb leaves, to make tisanes. 

8. Mental health. Along with exercise to combat depression, you are faced with increasing prices for drugs that combat dementia and Alzheimer's. If you have no symptoms yet, get started on prevention. Exercise and eating right are key to staving them off. But you also have to take care of the connections in your brain as well as the chemicals. Studies show keeping your brain active will do that. Whatever it is you think you're not good at, take it as a challenge. The object is not to get good, it's to use the experience to keep your brain ticking over. Math, art and music, learning a foreign language, getting into crafts, will all help. Sitting in front of the boob tube or doomscrolling will not. It doesn't take finding a class somewhere. Youtube has videos on just about everything you could want to do. I've used it to help me learn the techniques I use in my knitting. I've seen videos on flint-knapping and processing animal skins. I've found websites that taught matrix math, which helped me understand Dr. Susskind's physics lectures -- the videos of which are on Youtube. I recently posted a laundry list of resources.

Don't ever go off a medication without your doctor's assistance. OTOH, we know that drug companies bribe doctors, one way or another, into using their products or recommending them for things that there are no clinical studies for. Check with the Mayo Clinic website or the Merck website. For example, the Merck website specifically says that Ozempic for diabetes works WITH DIET AND EXERCISE. The entry also warns about adverse effects. WORK WITH YOUR DOCTOR. But get yourself set to do the hard stuff, and when you can't afford the Ozempic any more, you'll be ready to go it alone.