Low back pain doesn’t happen overnight and once understood, can resolve quicker than you realize. We have to look at our lifestyle, nutrition, how we think & feel, etc. to unravel the condition. You could take a pain reliever but still the underlying imbalance will be there after the relief is gone. The key word for low back pain is DEFICIENCY.
Contributing Environment: Our work and personal life may be stressing us out to the degree that our circulation is constricted not allowing nutrients to feed our organs and toxins to be eliminated. Our dietary preferences in the U.S. are excessive while empty of nutrients, full of preservatives, pesticides, hormones and processed with additives. Our generation has to manage more stress, life events, media exposure and emotional changes thus disturbing our sleep quality. The result is we lack the necessary energy or life force to be our best. This further makes us irritable in our relationships which worsens all the scenarios described before.
As we break down our energy, immunity and support, our self image and esteem parallels our internal organs ability to weather the challenge. In particular our kidneys and adrenals become weakened or deficient requiring us to take back what has been given up to regain our essence, vitality, our quality of life.
Initially, winning strategies in lifestyle, diet and rest need to be re-constructed. This resource is designed to provide some winning solutions so you can quickly re-engage living rather than aging or dying too soon.
The source of deficiency stems from 4 main areas:
- LEFT KIDNEY DEFICIENCY
- RIGHT KIDNEY DEFICIENCY
- KIDNEY ENERGY DEFICIENCY
- EXTREME CHRONIC FATIGUE
FOOD THERAPY: LOW BACK PAIN
This issue may involve not only low back pain but also sciatic pain complicated by other syndromes such as chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, Epstein Barr, etc. Below are the 4 main causes of pain in the low back and leg weakness.
There are several categories based on Chinese medicine nutrition and Traditional Chinese herbs that support and correct low back pain:
LEFT KIDNEY (yin) DEFICIENCY:
Characteristics: Heat symptoms such as 1) dry throat and mouth, ringing in the ears, slight fever or heat wave, low back pain, dizziness, weakened leg strength, excessive spontaneous pirspiration, involuntary seminal emission, excessive weight loss, tongue (red) and/or shiny
Foods: millet, barley, tofu, string bean, black bean, black soy bean, mung bean, mung bean sprouts, kidney bean, azuki bean, and most other beans, kuzu root, watermelon and most others, blackberry, mulberry, blueberry, huckleberry, water chestnut, wheat germ, potato, seaweeds, spirulina, chlorella, black sesame seed, sardine, crab, clam, eggs, pork, cheese
Herbs: marshmallow root, rehmannia root, Asparagus root, aloe vera gel, colloidal silver (If the constitution is cold and/or most or low back & sciatic is cold and/or moist then choose from the groups below)
RIGHT KIDNEY (yang) DEFICIENCY:
Characteristics: cold signs or aversion to cold, cold extremities, pale complexion, weak knees and low er back, mental lethargy, lack of libido or sexual desire, depression, irregular menses, clear vaginal discharge, sterility, frequent urination, clear urine, inability to urinate, edema, asthma, lack of will power, lack of direction, enlarged pale tongue, appears inactive, indecisive, unproductive
Foods: walnuts, black beans, onion family (onion, garlic, chives, scallions, leeks), quinoa, chicken, lamb, trout, salmon
Spices: cloves, fenugreek, fennel seeds, dried ginger
Avoid cooling foods, fruit, raw foods, excessive salt, use seaweed cautiously.
KIDNEY ENERGY (qi) DEFICIENCY:
Characteristics: deficient energy constitution with lower back pain, lack of knee strength, tongue (pale), cold areas of the body. Urinary problems: incontinence, dribbling, frequent urination, unable to urinate, involuntary seminal emission as well as other urinary/seminal problems.
Foods: wheat berry, sweet rice, parsley
Herbs: rose hips, oyster shell, clam shell, schizandra berry, raspberry and blackberry leaves, gravel root
EXTREME CHRONIC FATIGUE (Jing Deficiency):
Characteristics: deficiency of the essence such as ear ringing, hair loss, lower back weakness, knee pain, lightheadedness and loose teeth
Food: micro-algae (chlorella, spirulina, wild blue-green), fish, liver, kidney, brain, bone and its marrow, human placenta, cereal grasses, wheat grass,solomon seal, almonds, ghee (clarified butter), goat’s milk, nettle leaves, royal jelly, bee pollen, Doddler seeds, millet, wheat, black sesame seeds, soybeans, chestnuts, mulberries, raspberries, strawberries, seitan, walnuts
Herbs: deer antler, deer horn velvet, Deer Placenta, Lycium fruit, Polygonum multiflorum root, Eucommia bark, Dendrobium stem, Cinnamon bark, white ginseng, semen cuscutae, astragali seed (complanati), cordyceps, astragalus, codonopsis, reishi, morinda, eleuthero root, paeonia , gambir, gecko, cibot rhizome, tianshan snow lotus, tibet carthami
For final decision on which foods to choose for your condition, please consult a trained master herbalist with in-depth knowledge of Traditional Chinese herbs and food therapy, American herbology and other nutritional systems.