2 Questions to Kidney-Essence Herbs

Phonix,
You do not mention the specifics of the Kidney Deficiency, I am very familiar with PKD, (polycystic Kidney disease) which is an inherited K jing Deficiency and does speed the aging of the patient. I have found that lifestyle is far more important specific herbs when it comes to tonifying jing. By nature, Kidney energetics are glacial in rate of change, so in many ways I feel the slight differences between herbs is not nearly as important as really watching the lifestyle issues and making sure you are not doing anything that decreases Kidney strength. I have watched several PKD families and it is obvious how long term lifestyle choices affect their quality of life.

My advice would be:
-use the TCM formula that best matches your diagnosis, vary it once in a while to challenge your system.
- Avoid fear, build a lifestyle that makes you comfortable, happy and feeling safe. good food+ aerobic fun exercise
-build a kidney specific diet low on protein and homogenized milk, and low on minerals/constituents that are hard on the kidneys, ( see http://www.kidneywise.org/)
-add fresh foods, steam rather than fry, focus on foods that are "close to the source" (seeds, eggs, organ meats, fresh local colorful organic)
-decrease/avoid as appropriate, any medications, and megadoses of vitamins that are processed through the kidneys.

Some of the best information on Western herbs and things that could boost the TCM formula, can be found in "The Energetics of Western Herbs" by Peter Holmes

Well in this case ill stick to my formula since I have one which is made for my constitution. Of course my diet plan and lifestyle have been changed, and its real hard because I cant do much fun stuff anymore. I have hard reduced masturbation so far, nearly completely quit alcohol and replaced stuff like junk food, meat, bread, dairy products, preservatives, cooking salt as well as general pungent/acrid food with vegetables, preferably for my constitution more cooling vegetables but quite mixed vegetables, meat replaced with fish, tofu and beans( I always use black beans as they are nourishing for the kidneys), bread replaced with rice as rice is a spleen and blood tonic and I have problems with that to, still trying to find black rice somewhere. My food now is flavoured with sea salt, seaweed, lemon juice and nettle herb as they all tonify the Kidney and Liver system. I also eat black sesame seeds nearly every day although I don' t really like them. I also now often make miso soup with black miso as black miso responds more to the kidneys. Luckily I am not and never were a sweets person, so eating no white sugar at all isnt hard for me, when I really sometimes feel like eating something sweet I eat some fruit. The acrid/pungent food was hardly reduced and is now more sour-salty and cooling. Doing this since nearly 2 months now, although It was a bit hard at the beginning its starting to get routine. I dont often eat raw food but i found out that rice salad is quite tasty and eat it rarely but not often since except for the beans and rice in the salad the rest is uncooked and TCM knows that uncooked food isnt digested properly and not good for the spleen. Unfortunately i hate nuts, sesame seeds are the only ones I manage to eat.

Still leaves 2 problems left, number one is smoking which in my case is quite extreme... and my emotions. Fear may be no problem, but therefore Anger, Rage and stress is as I have a real problem with this. The only supplements, if u want to call it that, im taking is mineral powder from natural mineral citrates against acidity and to improve my bones, also some believe they are nourishing for the kidneys. At least they work against acidity and reduce heat and heart burn and does harden the bones if taken long enough daily.

Thanks for the book, looking forward purchasing it. But that with the eggs is new to me. I always thought eggs were bad for the Kidney-liver system, although eggs may be used as blood tonic they damage the kidneys like all diary products, thats what i've learned at least.

Also I've learned that a diet for the Kidneys consists of mainly protein and nutrition rich food and low in fat and carbohydrates, which should be replaced with good fats and carbohydrates. For example beans and fish are high in protein but act for the kidneys. So this means I should lower the beans,tofu and fish in my diet to?

Then does anyone know good Qi-gong practices for this matter? I know there are none for the kidney yin, unfortunately, but what is with Qi-gong for the Essence? I'd love to do acupuncture but I cant afford that with my money at the moment, so i'll have to stick to qi-gong practices until I will be earning enough money one day.

Last I plan drinking a tea of Ling Zhi daily to enhance my life length early and I like to know how Ling Zhi does in this matter.

By the way first effects show themselves, I have less hair in my hand while showering, my hair isnt pulled out so easily anymore which I learned is a good prognosis in TCM, it will still take time to rebalance my damaged Kidney and Liver system and i'll do my best to keep it up or make it even better.

Sorry forgot to post my kidney-related problems. Well mine are: Kidney and liver yin deficiency, slight to moderate kidney Yang deficiency. Although my kidney yang may be deficient( cold hands and feet, lack of willpower and although I have excess Yang I feel cold sometimes when eating or drinking to much cooling stuff, which are related to kidney Yang deficiency, also my mum has a strong Kidney Yang deficiency and I most likely got it from her. However, to make me feel cold it also takes quite a lot of cooling or cold stuff, I have to drink like nearly 2 litres of water at once and eat cooling food to to feel cold, but then the heat easily is transformed to cold, its like theres no real balance and this I think is most likely the slightly deficient kidney yang ) I still have a lot of heat symptoms, and also Kidney Essence deficiency. My symptoms are: General dryness, dry skin and general a dry body. No osteoporosis but naturally very weak bones, the doctor thought I had osteoporosis when i was born and checked me, but I didnt have it it just happens that my bones are just very weak. Deficiency of the reproductive organs which is why wounds and bruises heal slow and take quite long to heal. Dark scanty urination, dizziness and Tinnitus are also present. Also I had high blood pressure with 16, this I overcame with sports and now my blood pressure is normal. And last but not least which bothers me the MOST is hairloss! Damn it im 20 and im getting a thinning hair line already. I mean this is to much, im 20 and should be having full hair for the next 10 years at least! Maybe another symptom is that I tend to have a sore and swollen throat sometimes, some times I just wake up and my throat is dry(of course theres thirst then to) swollen and whenever I swallow its painfull, however I dont know if this one is related to the kidneys, in some lectures it says that sore, dry and swollen throat can be a Kidney yin deficiency. I also have other problems but they are not because of the kidney-liver system, for example Spleen is a problem I have to, but thats not so important.

Hi.

Foods that have Jing building properties can be found in the book 'Helping ourselves' by Daverick Leggett. They include Egg, Bone Marrow (make a stock using broken bones), Kidney, Walnut, Nettle and Oyster. It's a great book.

For Western herbs you could try 'The Energetics Of Western herbs' by Peter Holmes or 'Combining Western Herbs and Chinese Medicine' by Jeremy Ross. These 2 are both quite heavy text books though.

Good luck!

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www.qi-therapies.com

Phonix,

It sounds like you are doing a lot of the right things. Kidney energetics are slow to change, moderation is the key. Throwing a big log on a small fire will smother it and cause more problems. As to minerals, again moderation, phosphorous and sodium as well as medications excreted through the urine are the biggest concerns. (see the national kidney sites for diet book recommendations)

Based on your symptoms and to cover all bases, you may want to be evaluated by an endocrinologist just to make sure there is not an underlying endocrine disorder.

David Bock

Hello Phonix,

I have suffered hair loss myself and found that taking a high strength standardised seaweed supplement (seagreens is the brand I use) plus the same in  nettle (urtica) extract stopped my hair from falling within two weeks and it had thickened within two months.

It was still weak in that my scalp was sore, this I have cured more recently by taking Coriolus (Yun Zhi) which tonifies essence, kidney yin and yang, strengthens the liver and kidneyes and spleen, strengthens tendon and bone and clears damp, amongs a whole host of other benefits. This has made my hair strong, shiny and has even began to grow back around the hairline area ( widows peak).

The nettle I think can be considered a blood tonic as it is rich in iron, it increases circulation, clears lactic acid from joints whilst stimulating repair of cartilage as it is rich in sillica, and regulates calcium metabolism. And seeweed of course tonifies kidney yin, and possibly blood, I am not sure on this. Form a Western perspective it is rich in a whole host of minerals and vitamins, and iodine which nourishes the thyriod, hair loss being a symptom of thyriod deficiency.

You could incorporate nettle and seaweed into your diet, either for added potency or to cut costs, but the standardised supplements obviously give a greated concentration and are probably quicker in effect.

hope this helps

Lisa.