23 and 1/2 hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health?

一面鏡子給大家的智慧

　　徒弟抬一面镜子，边抬边说：“这镜子可真是便宜，几十元买了这么一大面!”

　　师父笑着说：“你可别小看了这镜子啊!它可以当你的老师呢。”

　　“哦？”徒弟也逗趣说，“不知这镜子老师将何以教我啊？”

　　师父问“不管什么东西，只要放到镜子前面，是不是都映得出？”

　　“当然”徒弟说。

　　“那么东西移开后，镜子里还留有余影吗？”师父问。

　　“那怎么会呢？”徒弟说。

　　“这就是智慧啊！”师父说：“这叫‘物来则应，过去不留’徒弟，你在生活中能做到‘事来则应，事过即忘’吗？”

　　“不能”徒弟说，“想不到这镜子还有点门道，还有吗？”

　　“多得是”，师父说：“比如孔孟先师或帝王将相来照镜，你说镜子会因为高兴而加倍细心吗？”

　　“不会”徒弟答。

　　师父问;“如果乞丐、弃儿来照镜，镜子会因厌恶而应付了事吗？”

　　徒弟说：“不会。”

　　“这就叫‘在圣不增，在凡不减’又叫‘与圣人居而不喜，与凡夫居而不忧’，你做得到吗？”师父问。

　　“做不到！还有吗？"徒弟兴冲冲地问。

　　师父问“当甲物体正在照镜子时，镜子会一边照甲又一边惦念乙吗？”

　　“不会”。

　　师父问“这叫‘把握当下，置心一处’。你做得到吗？”

　　“做不到！还有呢？”徒弟穷追。

　　师父问“镜子映现红色物体时，其本身会不会也变成红色？映现绿色时会不会本身也变成绿色？”

　　徒弟说“不会。”

　　师父问“镜子本身虽不变色，却仍能红来现红，绿来现绿，是不是？”

　　“是，这叫什么？”徒弟问。

　　“这叫‘随缘不变，不变随缘’。你做得到吗？”师父问。

　　“做不到，还有吗？”徒弟还不解渴。

　　师父问“镜子映人映物、映水、映火、而本身玻璃的本质却始终不变，这叫做‘体不动，而用常显。用常显而体不变’你明白吗？”

　　“明白了”，徒弟感叹地说，“想不到一面小小的镜子，竟蕴含了这么多道理！真是物物皆可为师啊！！

Source

What's wrong with eating too full?

Don't overeat and don't encourage your family members and friends to overeat - unless you wish to shorten their healthy living and perhaps die younger!

An interesting article about eating too full....

In Today's Dr Lee Newsletter Issue:

"What's wrong with eating too full?"

"The more you eat, the sooner you die. The lesser you eat, the longer you live." This is what Dr Lee always says in his health talk. He also mentions, "Eating too full causes all sort of health problems such as hypertension, diabetes, stroke, etc."

Why eating too full is so harmful to your health? What can you do about it?

=============
Mice experiment
=============

To see how eating habit affects life span, a professor from University of Texas did an experiment on mice.

For the first group of 100 mice, he let them eat without any restriction, just like a buffet meal.

The second group was fed only 60% full. And the third group was given food without restriction too. But this time, he reduced protein content to half. After 2.5 years, guess how many mice were still alive out of 100?

* First group (eat without restriction) - only 13 mice was alive. Opsss...

* Second group (eat 60% full) - 97 mice was still alive. Only 3 mice died.

* Third group (eat without restriction with protein cut half) - 50 mice still alive.

What can we learn from these results?

Firstly, eating too full is really harmful to your body. Secondly, eat 60% full if you want to live longer and healthier. Thirdly, taking too much protein is harmful to your body too. We don't need so much protein after all.

==========================
Overworking body
==========================

Imagine having a small family car. Instead of using it for short travel between home and office, you use it for long distance travel between different cities every day. Instead of using it 1 hour a day, you use it for 10 hours a day. Instead of driving at 70 km/h, you always speed up to 170 km/h, hitting engine's red line.

Can you estimate your car life span? Do you expect having various problems with your car after a short time? Driving your car at high speed for a long time is like always eating too full. You force your body to always work at its red line.

Do you know digestion is the most demanding work for your body? Think about the organs involved such as your mouth, stomach, liver, pancreas, duodenum and intestine. Think about the length of digestive tract from your mouth to intestine.
By eating too full, your body zaps up much of your energy for digestion. Otherwise, this energy may be used for other purpose such as enhancing your immune system.

Do you realize you become very tired easily after a big meal? That is the sign of your body working hard to digest all the food you take in.

If you eat an extra bowl of noodle, your pancreas has to produce extra insulin hormone to process the extra carbohydrates you take.

Your liver, stomach and intestine also have to produce extra enzymes to digest and process specific nutrients from that bowl of noodle.

Therefore the more you eat, the harder your body has to work to process it. Of course, we must eat to survive. But we don't have to eat that much!

If you drive your car slowly and handle it gently, you can use it for a long time. But if you always floor the accelerator and drive like a rally driver, you know the consequence on your car life span.

============================
Side effect of eating
============================

Your car engine burns fuel to move your car and bring you to anywhere you like to go. As a result, the engine produces exhaust smoke which is toxic. It must be dispersed out from your car.

Similarly, your body cell burns nutrient for energy to survive. In the process, it produces free radicals. Since free radical is toxic to your body, it has to be neutralized and expelled.

"Just metabolizing food especially fatty and carbohydrate-rich fare causes the body to produce free radicals, which attack cells and can promote the development of chronic conditions including heart disease, diabetes and cancer," says Ronald L. Prior, Ph.D.

Of course, your body can control free radicals in small quantity. But the more you eat the more free radicals your body produces. Without adequate control, these free radicals easily attack your body cells and eventually cause all sort of diseases.

=========================
Good eating habit
=========================

After knowing the harmful effect of eating too full, what's your choice? Do you want to live longer, just like the second group mice in the experiment? Or do you want to risk ending your life earlier, just like the first group mice? If you wish to live longer, here are some tips you can follow:

1. Always eat until 70% full. Do not exceed 80% full. You may want to stop eating when you feel slightly full.

2. Avoid having buffet style meal which makes it harder to control how much you eat. Instead, prepare the food you want to eat in a plate. After finishing it, don't add anymore food.

3. Leaving the dining table earlier may prevent you from picking some extra food to eat.

4. It is always a good idea to prepare lesser food in the first place. Some people are afraid of having not enough food for everyone. Actually, lesser food is beneficial for everyone..
In a restaurant, order in small amount first. You can always add in some extra order if necessary. But if you can get by with the original smaller order, that's great.

Remember this: You have higher chance of overeating if you serve more food on the table.

You have better chance of not overeating if you serve less food.

5. Avoid stuffing your fridge with ice cream, chocolate or other dessert. You cannot eat what you do not have.

6. When someone prepares a big plate of food for you, look at it first. Ask yourself, "Do I want to stuff it all into my stomach?"

If your answer is no, just put aside some food to another empty plate first. After finishing your food, look back at the extra food on that new plate. Say to yourself, "Phew! Luckily I didn't stuff that portion into my stomach."

7. When you get too hungry before your meal time, just take some fruit instead of heavy meal.

The tendency to overeat is very high for people these days who want value for their money at buffet tables.

Eat less and stay healthy. So remember to eat only 70% full if you want to stay healthy.


Lead a Healthy life... it's your first asset to enjoy all other assets!

SOURCE

有的人练功后身上发痒，为什么不让搔？（赵金香宗师)

练功较好的同志，很快产生全身发痒，这是气机循行的好现象，气行阳分的就发痒，行阴分的就发麻，这都是练功的正常现象，不必理它。如果抓，气机受到外来突然刺激会自动退回去，形成迂回缠行的现象，但是不会有害，不过热感会减低，真气运行前进会减慢。不抓搔了，一会儿就会恢复，但是最好不去抓搔它。在真气启动循行往返的过程中，应当让它按自己的自然规律运行，不要受到任何干扰。

養生變往生？竹炭食品長期食用容易造成「塵肺」！

養生變成往生!! 竹炭食品請不要吃？

竹炭食品（竹碳麵包、竹碳蛋糕）會得「塵肺」！竹子非常難消化，古時候要毒害人，就將竹子磨成粉，摻入食物內給仇家吃，不出幾年，此位仇家就吐血而亡（腸胃潰瘍），所以竹雕藝品通常都可以傳世好幾百年而不壞。

近年來，有不少台灣商人，將日本當紅的竹炭烘焙技術引進台灣，有民眾煮飯、燒水時放入竹炭，也有人把竹炭添加在蛋糕、餅乾、霜淇淋等各式食物標榜「體內環保」，能排毒。

專家表示：吃竹炭是很離譜的行為，把竹炭吃進肚裡，很難排出體外，長期食用容易造成「塵肺」！消費者不要輕易嚐試。

竹炭是採用竹子為原料，經過1000℃ 高溫的特殊爐窖工藝，精心煉製而成，含有豐富的鹼性礦物質，如鈣、鐵、鉀等，竹炭的多孔特性，可吸附來自水中的氯等有害物質及其它異味，吸附能力極強。

台灣近年來非常流行吃竹炭，進行「體內環保」，在香港也已形成一種新潮流，在中國，主要的竹炭產品都是外用的，都是用來裝飾 家 居、淨化空氣，沒有人知道它可以食用！？中國一位經銷商表示：供應商提供這種可以食用的竹炭產品，主要是椰殼炭製成的，但因為對內地市場沒有把握，不知道大家會對這種能吃的竹炭產品是什麼反應？所以他一直沒敢進貨。

不僅竹炭經銷商對此沒有把握，在消化專家看來，吃竹炭也是一個很離譜的行為。專家認為：食用竹炭排毒有點誇大其詞，所謂的可食用竹炭食品中，含有非常細微的竹炭顆粒，即使是真的能吸收毒素，也極易導致體內水電平衡紊亂。更重要的是，食用竹炭產品後，細微顆粒很可能吸入肺中並吸附在肺葉上，而且它吸附性極強，吃下去後很難排出體外，易形成「塵肺」！

專家 說：即使是醫療級活性炭，現在也很少使用，雖然其物理吸附能力較強，但是相對於其他排毒、解毒方法而言，效果還是較差，最主要的是，因為竹炭顆粒很難排出體外。在目前還沒有完整的科學研究理論的前提下，對於如此前衛的保健新潮，專家建議大家不要輕易嘗試。

另外；竹炭在燒製過程，如果溫度沒控制好，會產生焦油，這種焦油是致癌物！！
希望大家能將這信廣為流傳!免得為了養生變成往生。


KingNet藥物諮詢特別門診藥師回答
義守大學義大醫院中藥科 吳宗修藥師

成大環境醫學研究所副教授郭浩然指出，引致塵肺症的粉塵是經由呼吸道進入肺部，竹炭產品由消化道進入人體，途徑不同。

郭浩然表示，絕大多數的塵肺症是職業病，有多種粉塵可能引致；但一般人生活環境中的粉塵量幾乎不會長期達到引發塵肺症的濃度。

澎湖醫院院長吳清平指出，所謂的塵肺症中，較常見的是矽肺症、煤礦工人塵肺症，以及石棉肺症等。

他指出，因為矽十分不安定，會引發肺部免疫反應、發炎反應，長期會導致肺部纖維化。碳則非常安定，但由於開採礦石時，除了煤礦多半還有其他的矽塵等粉塵，與碳共同沉積在肺部，便形成煤礦工人塵肺症。

吳清平認為，與其擔心竹炭商品，沙塵暴危害可能還大一些。郭浩然也說：「有些中毒患者，醫師們還會給患者食用活性碳來解毒。」

對於竹炭食品的排毒說法，林口長庚醫院臨床毒物科主任林杰樑強調：「此碳非彼碳，差得遠了！」林杰樑說，在中毒患者身上使用的是醫療級活性碳，這種產品得經過高溫、高壓製造，一公克產品面積幾乎有一個足球場那麼大，所以可以用來急救，減少患者吸收毒物。不過，林杰樑也強調，這僅止在毒物量很多的時候。

吃竹炭會不會得「塵肺」需要相關單位再深入研究，但若業者宣稱竹炭可以排毒，絕對會被處以最高100萬元罰鍰。 衛生署指出，依照食品衛生法規定，竹炭是種天然色素，雖然可添加於食品內，但不應強調任何醫療或保健效果，...竹炭只能定位在著色劑，是一種天然的黑色素，並不能誇大它的功能與療效宣傳。對竹炭的誇大功效，許多營養師也持懷疑態度。營養師李青蓉認為，竹炭有吸附的功能，吃多可能會影響消化不良或吸收的功能。

竹炭除了用吃的，就連用穿的，也是頗多爭議，其中某業者的全竹炭塑身衣就因廣告不實被罰400萬元，公平交易委員會表示其廣告...，明知無相關醫學學理或臨床實驗依據以資佐證，仍於廣告逕予宣稱「消臭率90~95%」、「遠紅外線 加速脂肪代謝 平坦小腹」、「改善脊椎側彎」、「增加我們的腸推率……可以將我們體內的一些毒素啦、宿便、還有脂肪排出體外」、「遠紅外線 增加體內微循環、保護子宮」、「促使我們胸部的乳腺管暢通」、「負離子……可以有效的分解我們幾乎壞死的角質……讓肌膚改善變好」及消費者薦證片段等語，均屬虛偽不實及引人錯誤之表示，核已違反公平交易法第21條第1項之規定，洵堪認定。

Source

夜间醒来自我按摩好不好?（赵金香宗师)

夜间醒来自我按摩是阳举得一种现象，也是自控能力差的一种表现，应该加以控制。它是练功不能引气归元的结果。练功后收功做“双回气”时，一定要严格按规定的标准姿势，意念做一至三次，松肩，提肛，等气归元后再走，如醒来有阳举现象，可用意念引丹田气经会阴沿督脉上升到脑，就不会出现睡中自我按摩了。

Vigorous Exercise Increases Risk of Heart Disease

—Dr. Mark Wiley

In my search for the best in holistic medicine I have traveled the globe and spent time with healers of all types: shamans, psychic surgeons, qigong masters, faith healers, herbalists, bone setters… you name it.

While studying a method of qigong known as zhan zhuang (pile standing) in Asia, my teacher told me something very strange. He said: “This qigong exercises forces you to stand still and not move for a long time. Because of this, your energy will increase, your body will warm, and your muscles will strengthen. But you will not damage your joints from excessive movement, nor tax your heart through robust movement, nor damage the lungs through too rapid respiration.”

I have to say that I had trouble swallowing this last part and for the past 15 years I have been trying to reason out in my mind: why not increase heart rate and respiration? After all, isn’t the entire fitness industry in the Western world based on elevating heart rate, increasing lung capacity and burning calories from sweating and muscle strength development? Well, like with so many other things, it looks like the ancient Chinese knew what they were talking about.

Recent research coming out of New York University Medical Center suggests that the more often one engages in vigorous exercise the greater their risk of developing atrial fibrillation (AF). AF is a condition characterized by irregular, rapid heart rate, which affects people in many ways from simple fainting to heart failure and stroke.

But isn’t this always the way? First something is bad for you, then good for you, then bad for you again. Don’t raise the heart rate doing vigorous exercise, said the ancient Daoist masters. Train hard and break a sweat and elevate the heart, said the masters of sport science. Sweating and elevated heart rate lead to heart disease, now say the academics—but with more tangible and less metaphoric examples for the whys of it.

Odd thing is; there are always two sides to every coin. It’s not always so easy as good vs. bad, but the degree of good vs. bad on a continuum depending on who you are and where your health condition is. For relatively healthy people with no serious biological health issues, exercise has been proven time and again to balance the body and stave off potentially life-threatening diseases, like obesity and diabetes. However, if on the other hand you do have unrecognized heart disease, then exercise may cause you to die from sudden heart attack. And the leading cause of exercise-related death among high-level athletes is coronary heart disease!

Before you decide that you do or don’t have heart disease, there’s more to the study that is important for you to know. In the study there were exercise and non-exercise groups. Men who exercised long or hard enough to break a sweat five to seven days per week actually increased their chances of developing AF by an enormous 20 percent! And the non-exercise control group? No increase in their propensity for AF.

The big surprise is this: the participants who were in the “break a sweat” group were deemed to be “healthy,” and made up of men under the age of 50 who run on a regular basis. Common sense would say the opposite results should be the case. But no, the study clearly shows that the incidence of atrial fibrillation in men who jog increased by a massive 50 percent! And it was up by 74 percent in young men who break a sweat on a regular basis!

By now you may be worried about your own condition. However, it seems that AF is common and even expected in so-called healthy athletes. This is the case because cardiomegaly (enlargement of the heart) is so common in athletes that doctors don’t even tell athletes they have a condition that can lead to heart disease. Yes, in normal, non-athletic people, if their electrocardiograms showed these same signs the docs would be very concerned and let them know.

The long and short is this: the essence of the study indicates that breaking a sweat on a regular basis is bad for your heart. And history shows that marathoners and other top athletes die at a young age as a result of heart disease. And in China, where tai chi and qigong are practiced by millions, the rate of heart disease and young heart-related deaths is among the world’s lowest.

No wonder slow-burn exercises like walking, yoga, tai chi and qigong are considered as the safest and most effective exercises around the world. And the world is a whole lot bigger than the “experts” in the United States that get all the press.

为什么有的人练功前胃酸不足，练功后增多?（赵金香宗师)

阴阳气机的运行，五行的相生相克，关键就怕出现偏胜偏衰的现象。《内经》中有所谓有余与不足，太过与不及是最难获得阴阳平衡，这好比天平称重量一样，稍多或稍少一点，就产生偏高或偏低的现象，这是讲的阴阳五行生克关系。巷气功要掌握“火候”，不能不练，也不能练个不停，要适当掌握，留有余兴。胃酸不足与太过，是气机运行不合适的表现，也就是气机能升不能降的缘故。这又与练津不能成精，练精不能化气有关系。应当将似笑非笑练出口水来，分三口回下，用意念送到下丹田聚津成精，这样就会减少胃酸过多的现象了。