"We've reached the end of antibiotics"

[GoldenBrain]

I've grown wheat and barley grass, I just saw you mentioned that earlier. It's easy to grow but it doesn't taste all that well you could probably add the juice to your smoothies or try to add the grass in, heard the grass fiber is indigestible so experiment a little. Got my seeds from http://www.wheatgrasskits.com/ and I need to get back into growing it I just can't stand the taste on its own really.

Cool, thanks! I may try wheat grass juice one day in our smoothies. I need to get a juicer made just for the grass though because as you said the grass fiber is indigestible. For now we'll just stick to the green powder.

Do you grow sprouts? We grow alfalfa and mung bean sprouts mostly but sometimes radish, clover and broccoli. I like the alfalfa best and add them to all sorts of things including the smoothies. I also make a killer turkey sandwich with them. Turkey, cream cheese, avocado, and sprouts on a really fresh croissant or potato bread. Of course I make all kinds of sandwiches but this one is a standout and probably my favorite.

[Raipizo]

Cool, thanks! I may try wheat grass juice one day in our smoothies. I need to get a juicer made just for the grass though because as you said the grass fiber is indigestible. For now we'll just stick to the green powder.

Do you grow sprouts? We grow alfalfa and mung bean sprouts mostly but sometimes radish, clover and broccoli. I like the alfalfa best and add them to all sorts of things including the smoothies. I also make a killer turkey sandwich with them. Turkey, cream cheese, avocado, and sprouts on a really fresh croissant or potato bread. Of course I make all kinds of sandwiches but this one is a standout and probably my favorite.

Yeah I do, I use a sprout sack (hemp like bag) but I always grow too much and never end up eating it all before it goes bad. I use a sprout mix and it has radish alfalfa and I believe buckwheat. It's pretty good.

[GoldenBrain]

Yeah I do, I use a sprout sack (hemp like bag) but I always grow too much and never end up eating it all before it goes bad. I use a sprout mix and it has radish alfalfa and I believe buckwheat. It's pretty good.

Excellent! I use a 4 round tray system. We are usually finishing up the last of the sprouts buy the time the next batch is ready.

For the survivalists out there… I can't say enough about sprouting. Alfalfa is the best bang for the buck since it contains all the veggie nutrition you need, and the seeds are tiny meaning you can store a whole bunch of them in a very small space. It requires only a small amount of water, no sunlight and you can harvest every 4 or 5 days.

[Raipizo]

Excellent! I use a 4 round tray system. We are usually finishing up the last of the sprouts buy the time the next batch is ready.

For the survivalists out there… I can't say enough about sprouting. Alfalfa is the best bang for the buck since it contains all the veggie nutrition you need, and the seeds are tiny meaning you can store a whole bunch of them in a very small space. It requires only a small amount of water, no sunlight and you can harvest every 4 or 5 days.

On the topic of survival http://www.youtube.com/watch?app=des...&v=g8ctrcpQhTY and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oa7ifmHm4U

Sprouts are also really good for you and very easy to grow.

[GoldenBrain]

On the topic of survival http://www.youtube.com/watch?app=des...&v=g8ctrcpQhTY and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oa7ifmHm4U

Sprouts are also really good for you and very easy to grow.

Heck yeah! That's a pretty easy design right there. When I backpack I go ultralight so I usually take a couple of pepsi can stoves with me. They weigh next to nothing. Take a small bottle of alcohol and your set for several days. I have friends who use MSR type stoves and their setup is not only a pain in the arse but also takes up room in the pack and sounds like a jet engine. I've converted several buddies to alcohol stoves.

Here's a tip to save fuel if you're in an area where campfires are no problem. Dig a little post hole about 5" wide by 5" deep. Set a few small rocks on either side to put your pot on and to allow the hole to breath. Fill the hole up with red hot coals from the fire and get to cooking. Of course you can always cook right on the fire but that can get hot so I like to set back a little bit and not fight the smoke.

I'm sure there's a survival thread somewhere on these forums but this one will do for these off topic diversions, at least until somebody can answer my original question.

Speaking of the original question. I have searched online for hours/days and am now of the opinion that Traditional Chinese Medicine is better for easing symptoms and improving general health than it is for curing major issues. I can't find anything that will treat serious internal infections such as MRSA. There are cancer treatments such as eating sea cucumber and shark fin soup and stuff like that but I can't find one completed peer reviewed study to back up the claims. I'm tempted to file TCM under nutrition rather than medicine but I'll remain open minded for now.

[Raipizo]

Heck yeah! That's a pretty easy design right there. When I backpack I go ultralight so I usually take a couple of pepsi can stoves with me. They weigh next to nothing. Take a small bottle of alcohol and your set for several days. I have friends who use MSR type stoves and their setup is not only a pain in the arse but also takes up room in the pack and sounds like a jet engine. I've converted several buddies to alcohol stoves.

Here's a tip to save fuel if you're in an area where campfires are no problem. Dig a little post hole about 5" wide by 5" deep. Set a few small rocks on either side to put your pot on and to allow the hole to breath. Fill the hole up with red hot coals from the fire and get to cooking. Of course you can always cook right on the fire but that can get hot so I like to set back a little bit and not fight the smoke.

I'm sure there's a survival thread somewhere on these forums but this one will do for these off topic diversions, at least until somebody can answer my original question.

Speaking of the original question. I have searched online for hours/days and am now of the opinion that Traditional Chinese Medicine is better for easing symptoms and improving general health than it is for curing major issues. I can't find anything that will treat serious internal infections such as MRSA. There are cancer treatments such as eating sea cucumber and shark fin soup and stuff like that but I can't find one completed peer reviewed study to back up the claims. I'm tempted to file TCM under nutrition rather than medicine but I'll remain open minded for now.

A lot of tcm is eating stuff lol. They may not have anything suited for MRSA I don't think it's been around that long unless I'm wrong.

[GoldenBrain]

A lot of tcm is eating stuff lol.

Indeed. I doubt injecting shark fin soup would do the body any good.

[SoCo KungFu]

I'm tempted to file TCM under nutrition rather than medicine but I'll remain open minded for now.

Here's the thing about TCM. Or rather, all medicine. Or if you really wanted to get to it, all thinking in general. Its just a conceptual model. This is the problem for so many people, including many here. They don't understand how the brain actually works, how information is actually processed. Any time you engage in logical thought, you are invoking a conceptual model. This is what we do. When you decide to unpack your winter clothes in November, you do so because you have reasonable experience (data) to make a prediction that its going to be cold. Not only that, but for an appreciable span of time. That's a model. You have a response variable (clothing choice) as a function of predictors (temperature and season) and you have potential variability (temps won't be constant every day, but there is a general trend of cold).

So what does this mean? TCM, Western medicine, etc. are all nothing more than elaborate models. They are based on some observation, attempt to make some explanation for the observation and attempt to make a prediction based on that information. So this tells you a lot about TCM when you look at it in this way, as a model. It tells you why something can make a correct prediction, but still be wrong. That's the big thing right? People here defend some of the claims of TCM based on it correctness in certain situations. They defend certain claims based on the mechanism of "chi" and the like. And when you attempt to criticize the claim, they defend the model (chi, etc.) based on its correct prediction elsewhere. Which not coincidentally, sounds like any model, western med included.

So what's the issue? Well, not all observations are equal. Some observations are less revealing, some less accurate, some simply wrong. This is the flaw of TCM, the method of observation is entirely insufficient. Its simply external observation, there's no real empiricism. Nor is there any attempt to address physiology as we now know it. This, is also why chi and such concepts are not real. People try to dismiss the criticism saying we've simply misinterpreted chi. "It's not energy." Yeah, its not, energy is measurable. Chi is also not any of the other things that people claim it is. It doesn't exist, period. Why? Its very appropriate when some say that there isn't an appropriate word in English. Because its simply a product of a conceptual model. A model that is entirely without context in western thought. Its an attempt to explain observations, but it itself doesn't exist outside of that model (which is why the model is flawed). Where as, blood chemistry exists regardless. Anatomy and physiology are concrete, tangible, quantifiable. Any explanations based off such concrete observations are already so much further along than one with is based on something which is unverifiable. Now that doesn't mean that western med is always right. Nor does it mean that TCM can't be right where western med is wrong. But it means that one prediction set is based off verifiable data, while the other is not. So TCM can make proper predictions while still being completely incorrect in its construct. The danger is that it will (and does) make many many more incorrect predictions than a model that is firmly based in the concrete empirical evidence.

The problem here, is that people think that these systems are concrete things. They are all nothing more than mental exercises. But the anatomy, the physiology, the chemistry underlying the western model is firmly concrete. That's the difference, that's why one has more power. This is basic stats yes? No model is right. But some models have a better fit than others.

[GoldenBrain]

Well said SoCo. Thank you!