uremia – TCM & Moxibustion

1.Low back pain
It is mentioned in TCM: “Waist is government of the kidney”. If kidney is not well, signs would be observed on the waist.

As uremia occurs, people usually feel low back pain; this is because the kidneys could not discharge toxins in a timely manner, which puts heavy burden on the body and kidneys. When the kidneys could no longer handle it, low back pain would happen.

2. Urinary pain
Urinary pain refers to the case where the urethra has a burning sensation when urinating. If a person urinated smoothly in the past and suddenly develop abnormalities such as dysuria, be alert as this may indicate kidney issues.

Human body would discharge toxins and wastes through the urine, and kidney is an important organ that disintegrate the toxins. At early stages of uremia, there may be pain when urinating because the kidneys has been compromised- the toxins are larger, and difficult to be discharged timely from the urine.

3. Headache
Impaired renal function could affect the whole body. Clinically, uremia patients often report headache, drowsiness, fatigue, etc. This is mainly due to influence of the toxins on brain cells to develop pathological changes, which may cause headache and other discomforts.

Modern people have also developed many bad habits that could cause kidney damages, such as staying up late, drinking, etc.

Human beings have two kidneys, and their functions are very powerful. They serve as filters in the body; each day they filter and clean about 200 liters of blood, and the filtered waste is discharged via the urine.

The kidneys are ‘introverts’ and not good at expressing themselves. Urine, however, acts like a “spokesperson” for the kidney. When the urine is abnormal, very likely it’s the kidney calling for help!

When kidney disease deteriorates to the advanced stage, uremia can occur. Uremic disease is a common clinical syndrome of various advanced kidney diseases and is the end stage of the development of chronic kidney failure, which could severely affect a patient’s physical health and quality of life, and has a high mortality rate.

Here we will impart two tricks to discern early signals of kidney disease:
1. Observe the urine;
2. Look out for three types of pain

Three signals revealed by urine

1) Urine color

1. Normal color:
Normal urine generally have clear appearance when water supply is sufficient; otherwise the color will become light yellow. Normal urine has a light ammonia smell, but it is nothing pungent.

2. Abnormal colors:
Color of red, meat washing water, and brown could all be indicators of kidney disease. “Meat washing water color” can be literally understood as color of diluted blood after pork is washed .

3. Pseudo hematuria:
However, sometimes after eating foods of heavy pigment such as pitaya (aka the dragon fruit), beet, mulberry, red urine could also be observed. This is called “pseudo hematuria”, which is normal.

So if color of the urine changes significantly, one should think about what foods has been eaten lately, and see if there would be any improvement in the next few days.

4. How to distinguish between true and false hematuria?
Honestly it is hard to tell the difference. If still no significant change in urine was observed in a few days, it is best to go to the hospital for a urine test.

The test standard is whether there are red blood cells in the urine. For pseudo hematuria, urine test is normal and without red blood cells; if caused by kidney disease, urine test will indicate a lot of red blood cells.

3 types of pain that may be early signals of kidney diseases

Life Saving Signs in Urine: Three Signals (I)