I’ve been have some lingering stiff back issues. Possible causes including, pinched nerves, squatting too much weight for my age (I’m not exactly young at 37); I can do 95kg/209lbs full ATG ass to ground squats and 110kg/242lbs half/parallel squats. Other causes might be simply too much exercise; I play a lot of basketball, averaging over 3 hours 7 days a week right now.
In TCM traditional Chinese medicine’s philosophy, human energy (aka chi) is sourced from sperm, which is made from blood. This is the reason Chinese consider sperm extremely precious and that if you want to be a super human you are not suppose to waste your sperms on sex (ejaculations). By the same theory, you can have as much sex as you want, as long as you don’t ejaculate. 😉
Anyhow I digress. So another possibility of my linger back pain might be I’m using too much energy and I might not be getting enough sleep. I’ve been doing the multi/poly phase sleep schedule again, since December 2010. I was doing this for a while in 2007 and that was interesting and fun. I now have much better understanding of it… I’ve been working with two specialists to fix my stiffness problem and while they both can significantly reduce the pain for a day, the body tense up easily again. We’ve been trying to get to the root of the problem but can’t seem to cure it just yet…
Yet another possibility might be me lacking some of micro nutrient. Apparently for some people, eating lot of banana helps. I love banana and I do eat quite a bit of it… but it seem to make no difference in my case. There is also apparently some kind of 100% natural herbal muscle relaxants out there that I might need to track some down and try. I don’t want to try the western/chemical based muscle relaxants as they have side effects and can’t possibility be good for my kidney. – Frank M. Lin
I also came across this web site in Taiwan which contains very useful information on Chinese herbs. It has a large online database of lot of herbs! But the web site is available only in traditional Chinese format.
Article origin: unknown, I got this from google results…
一說到維生素C，很多人馬上會聯想到綠葉蔬菜、鮮棗、檸檬等新鮮蔬菜和水果，您有沒有想到豆芽？
一粒豆子，無意間落入水中，不需要從外界補充任何的養料，就能長出一棵生機勃勃的小芽，這就足以說明豆芽的營養非同一般。據說第二次世界大戰期間，美國海軍因無意中吃了受潮發芽的綠豆，竟然治癒了困擾全軍多日的壞血病，這就是因為豆芽中含有豐富的維生素C的緣故。
豆類富含蛋白質，幾乎不含膽固醇。含有豐富的賴氨酸和生物類黃酮而享有“植物肉”、“綠色的乳牛”等美譽。成為中國人物美價廉的優質蛋白質以及鈣和微量元 素鋅的最佳來源。豆類是唯一能與動物性食物相媲美的高蛋白、低脂肪的食品。豆類中的不飽和脂肪酸居多，成為防止冠心病、高血壓、動脈粥樣硬化等疾病的理想 食品，所以，提倡老百姓多吃豆類及其製品。
許多老百姓，尤其是老年人很喜歡吃黃豆，把黃豆、綠豆等豆類作為他們的主要食物，如拌雪裡紅黃豆、蒸煮黃豆。也常見很多人直接拿它來磨豆漿作為早點來喝。 其實，這樣做是很不合算的，原豆中含有很多人們並不熟知的抗營養因素：除了含有抗胰蛋白酶因子，能抑制胰蛋白酶的消化之外，還含有大量的植酸，會影響微量 元素鋅、鐵以及礦物質鈣的吸收，所以，現實生活中就會出現吃進去許多的豆類，還會有貧血、鋅缺乏症和缺鈣的現象，這是因為豆類中的抗營養因素使得其中的 鐵、鋅、鈣的吸收率相當的低，譬如：雖然黃豆含鐵豐富，但鐵的吸收率卻僅為3%左右。
由此可見，豆類雖然好，食用起來卻有講究，食之不當將會適得其反。本人在1988年的“國家自然基金資助項目”所做的研究生課題中發現：將豆子浸泡（一份 豆子八份水）並使之發芽，是降低豆子中植酸的一個非常好的辦法。研究發現：將大豆發芽之後，蛋白質含量增長18%，還原型維生素C增加40%（原豆中是不 含維生素C的），維生素B2以及乳酸脫氫酶、超氧化物歧化酶（SOD）都有較大幅度的增加，促進鈣吸收的游離氨基酸（天門冬氨酸等）、總游離氨基酸明顯增 加，植酸酶活性不斷升高，不斷地水解植酸，致使植酸———這一妨礙鈣吸收的主要抑制因子呈現下降趨勢，比大豆或豆腐中植酸含量下降40％。得出的結論是： 以發芽3~4天（長度約為4~5厘米）的豆芽營養為最好，並不是人們所想像的發芽時間越久越好、芽長得越長越好、越有營養。發芽後的豆芽，不僅植酸含量大 為降低，大大地提高了微量元素鋅、鐵和礦物質鈣的吸收和利用，可防治缺鐵性貧血、鋅缺乏症以及鈣缺乏；而且，豆芽是低熱量、高纖維素、高維生素C的食物， 可美容、排毒，抗氧化，提高機體免疫力；還具有清除血管壁中膽固醇和脂肪的堆積、防治心血管疾病的作用；還能減少體內乳酸堆積，治療神經衰弱，消除疲勞。 豆芽含有核黃素，很適合春季易發口腔潰瘍的人食用。 [美食中國]
在日常生活中，你可以應用中醫養生學“紅豆補心臟，黃豆補脾臟，綠豆補肝臟，白豆補肺臟，黑豆補腎臟，五豆補五臟”的理論。各取紅豆、黃豆、綠豆、白豆和 黑豆分別浸泡使之發芽三天，然後，每天吃紅、綠、黃、白、黑不同顏色的豆芽，既可使您的心、肝、脾、肺、腎五臟都得到大大的補益，又可促進鐵、鋅的吸收利 用，是一道很好的補鈣、補鋅、補鐵、健腦、益智、護眼、排毒、美容、促進生長發育的保健菜餚。
同時，謹記以下幾點：
吃豆芽要比吃原豆好得多。製作豆漿時，也最好將豆子浸泡一夜，第二天再拿去磨豆漿，會減少一部分植酸。
在生髮各種豆子時，注意豆芽不要生得過長，以3~5厘米為宜，時間以3~4天為宜。
綠豆芽性寒，烹調時應配上一點薑絲，以中和它的寒性，十分適合夏季食用。
烹調時油鹽不宜過多，要盡量保持其清淡的性味和爽口的特點。芽菜下鍋後要急速快炒、適當加些醋，才能保存水分及維生素B2和維生素C，口感才好。
有的豆芽看起來肥胖鮮嫩，但有一股難聞的化肥味，甚至可能含有激素，千萬不要輕易購買和食用，最好是自己動手製作豆芽。
GhettoRacer & His Bizarre and Twisted Reality 