363,000 Women and Babies Die and Epsom Salt Could Prevent It
A simple dose of epsom salts could save 363,000 humans from death every year. Eclampsia (a condition in which a pregnant woman convulses, slips into a coma, and dies) strikes millions every year and kills hundreds of thousands of women and their infants. A life-saving sprinkling of salt costs less than a dollar, which means eclampsia could be eradicated as a cause of death worldwide for less than the cost of a split-level in Tacoma. Though I’m not the most materialistic woman on the block, I do enjoy the finer things. Still, do I need that pair of Chanel sunglasses? Because that’s 300 human lives I could have saved instead. How is it that we live in a world so juiced with intelligence, wealth and knowledge - yet millions still die from utterly stupid and needless causes? I’ll tell you why. We’re consumed with the pursuit of cool. I call it the f*ck you factor. And we all want it, just a little bit.
So let’s debate and discuss and consider, because that’s what feels familiar. There is no salve quite like complicity. After all, you can’t help where you’re born and you can only do your best and life just is what it is. When you justify reality, you get exactly what you fake. Just how deeply do we loathe ourselves that we’re willing to watch others suffer in order to stave off our gnawing misery for another day?
A little salt, a little authenticity: we’re all made of the same stuff.
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Death, Philosophy, Prevention
2 opinions for 363,000 Women and Babies Die and Epsom Salt Could Prevent It
Annie
Oct 31, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Just when we thought we should be lowering our salt intake…
Mike Sowden
Nov 4, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Two things in my mind (yes, I have a small mind):
1) Human beings aren’t good at being aware of the big picture. It doesn’t naturally become us. That’s why we get all F*ck-You about everything.
But the big picture is just the small picture, 7 billion times. I’d like it if everyone was aware of the consequences of their little vanities and wastages - but it would probably make us mad.
None of that means that we don’t try, though.
2) I’ve got to start buying Love Hearts again, if there’s one of those in there every now and again.
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: