How Not to Die

As I shared last Monday, my son and I attended the book launch for Samantha Albert's memoir, I Met Death on the Avenue Road Bus. While waiting for the presentation to commence, we began talking to the lady sitting beside us, who turned out to be a PSW during the scamdemic.

When she found out my wife had recently died, she asked why Nicole chose to die at home rather than in hospice. The reasons are many, I said, but motivation numero uno was that the hospice centre would require visitors to rapid test and wear face diapers (you know, to keep terminally ill patients safe from COVID).

The PSW commiserated, saying how saddened she was watching so many of her patients dying with limited visitors, all of whom had to be masked. She said she had lost respect for the medical system, citing the restrictions as pseudo-science catering to some other strange agenda.

But then she sighed, and said something to the effect of, "Alas, we are so dependent on the medical system. It's scary. But what are we supposed to do as we age and get ill?"

Then she took a sip from the alcoholic beverage she had in her in hand.

I didn't say it, but I can't help writing it now: One thing we can do is stop poisoning ourselves. Yes, vaccines (especially the mRNA variety) are potential death shots. But poisons come in many other and less obvious forms.  "Intoxicants" are probably the worst (despite the efforts of big booze to hide the truth), with processed food, cheap factory-farmed animal products, coffee and sugar not far behind. (I'm undecided on the whole salt debate.)

Add lack of deep sleep and lack of rigorous exercise, and we can almost guarantee we'll be turning to the medical system for drugs, surgery and, eventually, palliative care.

The title of Samantha Alberta's book, I Met Death on the Avenue Road Bus, refers to how the author took Toronto public transit to her first round of chemotherapy and met a man dressed as the grim reaper. It is so symbolic, because as soon as you ascend the bus of invasive medical intervention, you are almost guaranteed to meet death at the end of that route. Modern medicine is not a road to health and healing, it's a road to death and dying.

Yet it's a bus we don't have to board. A road we don't need to traverse. There are much less painful and more dignified ways to die.

One of the most evidenced-based books on this subject is How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger. The whimsical title is not promising you'll escape death, but rather how to avoid dying prematurely from the most common and horrific diseases, such as heart failure and cancer. Check out this trailer for the book to hear how Greger's grandmother recovered from end-stage heart disease with nothing more than diet and lifestyle.

—John C. A. Manley

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