It feels like a uniquely American capitalist take to assume these traditions will make you completely self sufficient. You need a lot of people, a lot of time, a lot of knowledge across a lot of subjects, and a lot of luck to provide for everyone's nutritional needs.

So should you even bother trying to be more self sufficient with your food? I argue yes. Foraging and gardening are fun and will teach you so much about many things. They are deeply rewarding activities that can supplement your diet. There are herbs I haven't bought in years because I grow my own. There are dishes I can only make with foraged ingredients because I can't get them in stores.

There are a number of people asking about what do we do if the food supply lines breakdown? The simple answer is A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DIE.

Not all land is tillable, not all harvests go well, there are so many areas ravaged by ecological disaster after ecological disaster they cannot support enough biodiversity presently to support us. Even the people who right now who live entirely off of what they and their community grow and harvest from the wild are probably uncomfortable with the idea of having zero back up plan if there is a bad season.

Does that mean learning how to grow food, forage, or hunt are meaningless? Absolutely not. Learning these skills now does make you more self sufficient, it reconnects you to the food web, and it will absolutely make you more aware of what industrialized food supply lines offer. These are good, rewarding, and meaningful skills to have that often align with many people's personal values. I may not get along with my MAHA in laws, but we are always excited to give each other garden updates and share our harvests when we can.

That is all basically just a rehash of the first post. I truthfully cannot dismiss the anxiety people have about supply line failures. I remember during covid lock down when it was hard to just get flour and toilet paper, let alone fresh produce.

So what would I recommend people do with that anxiety? Find community.

You are never going to survive the apocalypse on your own, that is a myth. Humans are a social species. We evolved to help each other, we have survived because we help each other. Even in hunter gatherer societies, trade was a massive, massive benefit that kept people from dying of malnutrition.

If it's any consolation, I really doubt that society is going to crumble over night. You may as well plan for the rapture happening. At least in the states, I think it's much more likely we are going to face rising food costs, and have highly questionable food safety standards. Learning how to garden, forage, or hunt with a community is a much more reliable safety net.

Sunrise Swim

Now they're skeleton gloves 💀✨️ my knee braces are next

*****

I was walking around my area doing my daily trash pick up and I found someone's discarded stash.

It smells like Mexican dirt weed but it's not seedy at all

I kept this and I'm going to try it this Friday.

It’s okay

Our bodies, generally speaking, are pretty good at recognizing self and differentiating that from non-self. When our immune systems detects cells or components made by our body, it shouldn't react. When it detect foreign, potentially harmful substances, our white blood cells can respond in a variety of ways. One type of white blood cell, called B cells, produce antibodies.

Usually, we think of antibodies when we talk about diseases and vaccinations, but there are several types of antibodies which get produced in different kinds of reactions. In all cases, antibodies are proteins that recognize and bind with specific substances, known as antigens. That means each antibody has a target, like a specific protein or sugar, that it matches with like a lock with a key. The process of binding together is called agglutination and sometimes lots of antigen-antibody complexes get clumped together. Agglutination often acts as a signal for other cells to come respond to the threat, although it can sometimes neutralize targets directly.

Note: antigen =/= allergen! Allergens are a type of antigen that cause an allergic response

We can imagine with disease, once the body recognizes a foreign microbe through infection or vaccination, it can produce antibodies that target some part of the virus/bacteria/etc, like a protein structure on the microbe's surface. The antibodies bind to their targets and often work as huge flags to the immune system that there is a foreign material that needs to be destroyed. Many blood transfusion reactions work in a similar way. Our red blood cells have many antigens, mostly proteins on or in the cell membrane. A, B, and D (the +/-) are examples of antigens, but there are a ton more. Our bodies are familiar with the antigens we produce and can react when exposed to foreign ones. When someone receives blood with antigens they don't make themselves, they may have an immune response as their body recognizes and attacks the foreign cells.

This image shows how agglutination can happen with 2 types of antibodies. They bind to red blood cells and can cause them to stick to each other. "Complement activation" refers to proteins involved in increasing immune system response to destroy and clear cells from the body

These types of antibody-mediated transfusion reactions can be acute and occur minutes to hours after the start of the transfusion, or they can be delayed days or weeks after. The antibodies signal for the immune system to destroy the foreign donor red blood cells, which is called hemolysis. The breakdown of cells can cause mild to severe side effects and complications as the pieces of red blood cells flood the body. It also ruins the intent of the transfusion itself, since the destroyed blood can't help fix the original blood problem.

Note: As a term, "blood transfusion reactions" can refer to a variety of reactions, including immune-mediated (hemolytic, non-hemolytic febrile, allergic reaction, and TRALI) and non-immune (infection, TACO) responses. Blood bank testing is mostly focused on preventing immune-mediated hemolytic reactions

Now, antibodies can be weird. People produce them in different amounts and strengths, they can be affected by age or illness, and our bodies remember how to produce them for different periods of time. Not everyone who is exposed to blood with foreign antigens produces antibodies against it or will have the same response. There are also a lot of different blood antigens; some can cause stronger or longer antibody response.

Many transfusion-related antigens also only cause reactions after repeat exposure. Much like vaccines or allergies, the first exposure primes the immune system, showing it what the foreign substance looks like. Then, the next time that substance appears, the immune system can respond faster and harder than it did before. Most antibodies in transfusions, including the one that targets D (the +/- of your blood type) antigen, work like this.

This means people may be exposed to new blood antigens during a transfusion, transplant, or through pregnancy (including ectopic and aborted pregnancies), and not have a significant response. But during a following exposure, their body then produces lots of antibodies against the antigen it has seen before and causes a reaction. People who receive multiple blood transfusions are at a much higher risk of repeat exposure to antigens they don't make.

The exception to this is ABO mismatching. A and B antibodies are naturally occurring, meaning that our bodies can produce them without having ever been exposed to other blood before. This means that we can have a large antibody response on first exposure to an incorrect type. Different countries and transfusion centers have different testing procedures and requirements, but ABO typing is given priority because of its ability to cause immediate, severe reactions.

Remember, people make antibodies against what they don't already have themselves. Those with type-A blood have A antigens, so they will not make A antibodies, but they can make B antibodies. Type-B blood can make A antibodies, but not B. Type-AB have both antigens, so they don't make antibodies for either.

Ok so first lemme say that there are several types of blood products people can recieve (and donate) and each has their own purpose. Red blood cells combat anemia by providing the ability to carry oxygen throughout the body, platelets and cryoprecipitate help with blood clotting, and plasma adds volume and some clotting factors for proper transport and functioning. Whole blood has all the components together.

Sometimes it can be preferable to give whole blood over individual units of packed red cells, platelets, and/or plasma. But most of what I've seen has been individual components, since that's what blood banks typically receive and it's easier to adjust to the specific needs of the patient. Ime, it's way more common to give someone a combination of red blood cells and plasma than to give them whole blood.

If someone has severe bleeding, plasma certainly isn't going to do the job because it's mostly just filler. Whole blood can provide the red cells, clotting factors, and liquid volume they need.

Now in terms of testing, whole blood gets pretty much the same treatment as packed red blood cells, because it contains red blood cells. That means we are introducing red blood cell antigens to the patient that could cause a reaction if there's a mismatch. It will be typed for ABO and RhD (the +/-) at minimum, like any RBC unit, and must be compatible with the patient's blood type.

Plasma is also typed, but for like the opposite reason as red cells. Because it's mostly liquid, it doesn't contain many antigens that can cause reactions like RBCs. However, plasma contains the donor's antibodies. That means that if there is a mismatch between donor and recipient's blood, the donor's antibodies can react to the recipient's red blood cells. This is the opposite reaction from an RBC mismatch, where the recipient's antibodies react to the donor's cells.

In terms of plasma donation, AB individuals are concidered universal donors- their immune systems are familiar with A and B antigens and don't make any antibodies against them. That means their plasma will not react to any red blood cells with A or B (or neither, O). But! they are not universal recipients for plasma because they have red cells with A and B! That means incompatible donor plasma, like from a type O donor, could cause a transfusion reaction when the donor antibodies attack the patients RBCs.

Summer sees both a drop off in donations and, at least for our trauma center, a spike in traumas. Trauma centers across the US are in danger of running out of blood for our trauma patients TODAY, which is very scary but, unlike much of the other scary national news coming across our screens these days, is something you can help fix immediately and directly.

Many things that previously made people ineligible have been rolled back. If you previously thought you were ineligible, please consider checking current guidelines!

While O- is the most dire need as it can be safely given to anyone in an emergency, all types are needed! Our emergent release blood is being pulled for patients who have a high chance of death if they don't get blood within the hour. Once they're stabilized, they can have their type confirmed and get blood of a specific, matching type released to them so that O- can go to the patients who need it most.

Just for the record this is a real problem I'm having. What does one do with a possibly cursed mystery door in the blackberry patch. Besides ignore it and keep eating blackberries...