Hope and Preparedness

Our informant for the first part of this article is Geri Guidetti, who has been involved for years as an activist and researcher in the field of sustainable living and agriculture.

Geri has a master's degree in microbiology, and has for years taught microbiology to doctors, nurses, dentists, and physical therapists. When the events of September 11 happened, she was working on a book that would reveal the dangers of agri-terrorism — the intentional sabotage of our food supply by terrorists. Temporarily putting that aside, she immediately composed a handbook titled Surviving a Bioterrorist Attach: Prevention, Treatment, Management.

Geri Guidetti's book may be obtained at her Ark Institute website, where she offers other information and supplies for survival and sustainable living.

Our staff writer Wynn Free interviewed Geri about her book and her ideas concerning survival.

Wynn: Would you talk a little bit please about the need you perceive for alternative resources, as opposed to going to hospitals and health centers?

Geri: If we learned nothing else from the September 11 attacks, we learned that the first responders may well become the first victims. People walking into an emergency room with inexplicable symptoms will go where there are many other people with all kinds of ailments. And they're also going to meet doctors, nurses, and admissions people. Within five minutes, they will have infected the entire room — all of the patients as well as all of the personnel!

Those medical personnel, if indeed they carry something communicable like smallpox or chemicals on the outside of their bodies, are then going to infect everyone else in the hospital.

Take that scenario, and multiply it over all the hospitals in the United States, and that's the nightmare. My goal is to get this information out at a grassroots level, because the more people that have this, the more chance that they will make better preparations.

If we end up in a situation where the entire city is quarantined and the hospitals are already filled, and you basically have to be in your home, you will have the information you need to take care of one another.

Wynn: What do you recommend as the basic ingredients of a "survival kit"?

Geri: First, you need supplies to last your family for at least two weeks, with food, water, medicines, and vitamins. You also need to assume that there may not be electricity, and include in your kit a flashlight, radio, batteries — anything that might be crucial to your family's survival.

Second, you need an emergency evacuation kit that you should keep in your home, ready to use in the event that you must make an immediate evacuation. This could be crucial in the event of a potential nuclear event or a serine gas attack that would require you to evacuate in an instant.

This is information that the government would have hoped to have in every hand in the United States, but never quite got it together because they never believed it could happen.

One important substance, to be used in case of a nuclear attack, is potassium iodate. The FDA posted information about this on the Internet, but it was in a restricted area for evaluation by physicians and consultants only. What people need to know is that a single bottle can supply two adults for a short-term nuclear emergency of about 50 days.

Wynn: Why potassium iodate?

Geri: In a nuclear fallout situation, the thyroid gland needs extra iodine, because one of the components of fallout is radioactive iodine, which the thyroid will absorb. This radioactive iodine will cause thyroid cancer. By taking the potassium iodate, the thyroid will be saturated with iodine and won't absorb the radioactive iodine in the fallout.

Wynn: What would be the ingredients of an effective prevention and treatment kit?

Geri: I would have goldenseal, Echinacea, green tea, an excellent vitamin supplement including B vitamins and folic acid, Garlic, Oil of Oregano, vitamin E, and aspirin.

Wynn: Should we take all those things every day?

Geri: Echinacea or goldenseal should be taken only when you are getting ill (but Echinacea increases the white blood cell count, so there are some indications that people who have or have had leukemia might be advised not to take Echinacea.)

The rest of the supplements are an excellent idea, especially if you're not going to be eating the freshest of food every day.

If you're older, you should have a formula that has lutein in it, because that helps maintain healthy eyes and will probably prevent some aging eye diseases.

And make sure your vitamins have a long shelf life. The labels on the vitamins I store will expire in 2003 and 2004. Consult your physician or nutritionist to find out how much you should take.

Wynn: I notice that you also have non-hybrid seeds available at your website. Would you tell us why?

Geri: Today's seeds are being genetically altered so that the plants they produce have sterile seeds. That way, growers have to come back to the supplier for more seeds each year — they cannot replant from their own seeds. In a survival situation, it's important that our food supply be self-sustaining. So I make available to people seeds that have not been genetically altered.

Wynn: Thank you Geri, for the interview and the work you are doing.

Natural Antidotes
Following is a list of natural alternative substances that our writer put together from research. You may continue your own investigations through the links provided.

Oil of Oregano

Although there is a vaccine against anthrax, according to this source many cases of Gulf War syndrome have been attributed to the vaccine itself, so one has to conclude that even if we could all receive it, there are doubts about its safety (see Life Extension Org re Gulf War syndrome).

Dr. Andrew Weil indicates that penicillin is effective against anthrax (see Dr. Weil on anthrax cures). He also says that he knows of no natural cure.

However, in light of the evidence that Oil of Oregano has been proven in laboratory tests to be equally as effective as penicillin against all forms of bacteria against which it's been tested (see article at Life Extension Org re Oregano website), it certainly looks as though Oil of Oregano is a good bet for an emergency kit.

Garlic

According to the Garlic Information Center, Bacillus anthracis, which produces the poison anthrax, is the most sensitive bacterium to Garlic. Louis Pasteur, the forefather of antibiotic medicine, acknowledged Garlic to be as effective as penicillin against anthrax (see Garlic Information Center).

Garlic is not for everyone. Unless large quantities of the commercial Garlic capsules are used — capsules that contain extra amounts of alliin or allicin — Garlic needs to be taken in its raw form. Also, the use of Garlic with anticoagulants, like coumadin, and antiplatelet substances, like aspirin, could increase the risk of bleeding — so use of Garlic prior to surgery should always be reported to one's physician. Also, according to studies by Chadha (1988), and McGuffin et al. (1997), nursing mothers should not use Garlic.

References for the above information, plus a wealth of other up-to-date (as of 1996) clinical information on the effectiveness of Garlic and how to use it may be found in the book Garlic: The Science and Therapeutic Application of Allium Sativum L. and Related Species by Koch and Lawson. Despite its recent publication in 1996, this book is now out of print. But we found used copies on the web, including at Amazon and eBay.

For a list of other reference works on Garlic, see the article on Garlic at the Institute for the Study of Healthcare Organizations & Transactions.

Antioxidants

According to one source (that we will not quote because we could not find support), Sulfur-bearing Antioxidants have been shown to have an effect against anthrax-type bacteria. These antioxidants include Alpha-lipoic acid, N-acetyl cysteine, and Taurine. The mentioned compounds can be obtained from health food stores. Since they are supplements that do not have deleterious side effects, it will do no harm, and possibly some good, to take them as food supplements (antioxidants could be taken on a daily basis in hopes of boosting the immune system).

Vitamin C

Vitamin C has long been considered one of the most powerful antioxidants available in natural form. But Vitamin C in its usual form is so acidic that it causes unpleasant gastric symptoms if taken in therapeutic doses. However, there is a buffered, alkaline form of Vitamin C (mineral ascorbates) that is available now, and that does not have this effect. The large dosages (10,000 mgs) are most easily taken in powdered form. Also, you would want to find a type of Vitamin C that contains bioflavonoids.

References for this information, and a good resource for other references, links, and substantial information on Vitamin C may be found at the VitaminCFoundation website.

Melatonin

According to one source whose references could not be located on the Internet, Melatonin, which many people use as a sleep-inducing supplement, may help to prevent lethal toxins from anthrax exposure.