Strong and Stable Kidneys

01 Stable Yuanqi

The Quanzhen Sect, a branch of Taoism, has a poem by Qiu Chuji praising his junior practitioner, Wang Chuyi: “Standing in the sun in the nine summers, sleeping in the snow in the three winters.”

This means Wang Chuyi could stand in the hot sun without sweating and sleep in the snow without feeling cold. His kidneys were strong, with stable and full yang-qi, making him resistant to heat and cold. His yuanqi and vitality were self-sufficient, with strong “fire power.”

02 Diabetes

Western medicine does not concern itself with the stability of kidney-qi. However, traditional herbal medicine views spitting and sweating as mild signs of weak kidney-qi, indicating kidney health. In diabetes, the situation is more serious. Diabetics have sugar and protein in their urine, which are absent in healthy urine. This indicates incomplete kidney function.

In Western medicine, the kidney acts as a sieve, filtering waste from the blood and retaining useful substances. The glomerulus plays a key role in this process. For diabetics, nutrients leak into the urine, leading to nutritional deficiencies. In traditional herbal medicine, this is a severe form of kidney deficiency.

05 Symptoms of Kidney Deficiency

01 Frequent Urination

Frequent urination is another symptom. Normally, people urinate three hours after drinking water but do not wake up at night because their yuanqi is gathered and locked in the kidneys. At night, kidney-qi is abundant, and urine is better retained. However, severe kidney deficiency makes it difficult to hold urine, causing frequent nighttime urination, especially in the elderly.

02 Body Odors

In severe cases, nutrients leak not only in urine but also through the skin, especially the lower body, causing stronger body odors in the elderly. These odors result from nutrient deterioration. Young people with stable kidney-qi rarely have such odors, but the elderly may have them even with daily changes of underwear. The higher the nutritional content of their food, the stronger the odor after it rots.

Young people should not disdain the body odor of the elderly, as they will experience it too with age. They should help the elderly nourish their kidneys.

Understanding the importance of the kidneys, we recognize the degree of kidney deficiency. Kidney health is crucial for both men and women. So, how can we strengthen the kidneys?

06 Kidney Transplant

From the perspective of traditional herbal medicine, the kidney is the innate foundation of the human body, storing vital yuanqi. If the kidney is damaged, symptoms such as sweating, frequent urination, nocturia, and body odor may appear.

In Western medicine, the kidney filters waste from the blood. In traditional herbal medicine, when the kidney’s storage function is impaired, substances that should not be filtered are excreted, a condition known as kidney leakage. Prolonged kidney leakage leads to kidney deficiency, preventing the retention of vital yuanqi and resulting in a comprehensive lack of nutrition.

From a Western medical perspective, kidney deficiency indicates glomerular insufficiency, a decline in kidney function that can lead to serious conditions like kidney disease, nephritis, and renal failure. In such cases, a kidney transplant may be the only way to prolong life.

However, obtaining a kidney transplant is challenging due to the difficulty in finding a matching donor. Even with a successful match, the body’s immune system will continuously attack the foreign organ, requiring the patient to take immunosuppressive drugs for life. These drugs lower immunity, increasing susceptibility to infections and limiting survival time.

Some individuals have poor health to begin with, further limiting their post-transplant survival. Therefore, traditional herbal medicine emphasizes prevention over cure. True prevention involves maintaining balanced nutrition, moderate exercise, and avoiding smoking and drinking before any symptoms appear.

When symptoms of kidney leakage arise, it is already a disease. Early intervention with herbal medicine can prevent it from becoming serious. Ignoring initial symptoms can be dangerous, potentially leading to severe illness.

Kidney deficiency can also contribute to other diseases. Nutrients like protein, fat, and sugar are considered essence in herbal medicine. Their loss leads to insufficient vital yuanqi, causing symptoms in other organs and disrupting the body’s balance of yin and yang, leading to various diseases.

07 Diseases of the Reproductive and Urinary System

01 Gynecological Diseases

Kidney deficiency directly affects the reproductive and urinary systems. Long-term gynecological diseases in women are not solely caused by bacterial infections. Many diseases persist due to insufficient vital yuanqi and low immunity.

Gynecological diseases are related to kidney deficiency, but simply replenishing the kidney is not enough. Anti-inflammatory treatment is necessary, along with revitalizing the kidney to replenish vital yuanqi and improve immunity.

Symptoms like frequent urination and nocturia are not just prostate problems. Many older women experience urinary incontinence, leaking urine when sneezing, coughing, laughing, or exerting force. This condition, called urinary incontinence, is similar to prostatitis in men. While men have a prostate, women have muscle and tissue at the bottom of the urethra that functions similarly.

02 Prostate Malfunction

The bladder is like a leather bag filled with urine, and the prostate acts like a rope. A healthy prostate is elastic and can tighten or relax to control urine flow. When inflamed, the prostate thickens, creating gaps that prevent it from tightening properly. Men with longer urethras may feel they can’t hold their urine, while women with shorter urethras experience leakage.

Inflamed prostates lose elasticity, making urination difficult and weak. Some people suffer from this condition for years without a cure because it is a sterile disease, not caused by bacteria. Antibiotics are ineffective in such cases.

In traditional herbal medicine, this condition is called a cold syndrome, caused by insufficient kidney-qi and weak fire, making it susceptible to cold-evil. In cold climates, inadequate clothing can cause hands and feet to become red and swollen, a form of aseptic inflammation due to low temperatures. Cold hands, feet, lower abdomen, and back are signs of yang deficiency, requiring treatment.

The back should be warm because it is classified as yang. Vital yuanqi should rise to warm the back. A cold back indicates yang deficiency, which is more concerning in traditional herbal medicine than early hypertension and diabetes, as it signifies that vital yuanqi cannot rise, leading to illness.

(To be continued)