If I asked a room full of 10 preparation-minded people what the most important item on their bug out bag list was, I would probably get 10 different answers. Fire? Rations? Salad dressing? Knives? All of these are certainly important for survival, but the truth is without one item they are all useless.

The most important item on your bug out bag list is… You! Without your good health, all of your preparations are useless. This seems like a pretty obvious fact, but the amount of evidence to the contrary is overwhelming.

Quick question: what do you think the percentage of a catastophic event happening in the next year are? 2%? 5%? 10%? The percentage of people diagnosed with heart disease in 2010 is 27.1 million or 11.8%, which amounted to 16.7 million hospital visits.

What would happen to those people if the grid collapsed? We might have a pretty quick loss of 10% of the population. But there’s more to it. Within the prepper community, some of us poke fun at less likely events (like the New Madrid fault slipping) compared to more likely events (like hurricanes in the southeast). You have to prepare for the most likely situations if you’re going to prepare at all.

In the event of even a minor collapse, illnesses that would cause a routine trip to the hospital become life threatening. Diseases like diabetes become fatal. Cancer becomes a death sentence. You need to take care of your health first.

People with families may think this is a selfish perspective, but they should be reminded that there are no life insurance policies in a post apocalyptic world. You won’t be able to provide for your family, protect them, or help them navigate through tough times if you are sick or dead. Your health is even more important if you have a family.

What does this mean for your preparation plans? You need to prepare for your health, both today and for the ability to maintain it post collapse. Benjamin Franklin once wrote that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and nowhere is that more true than with your health. Start by eating a healthy diet. Get some exercise and develop a routine you could use in the event of a collapse. Get some vitamins and learn where to get them in your local environment.

The actions you take to improve your physical health are often the same to help your resistance to disease. Low carb diets (such as paleo) have been proven to help blood markers, reduce inflammation , and even delay cancer. At the end of the day you’re more able to get out of dodge, defend yourself once you’re out and live a long life after the collapse.

So remember guys, look out for number one