STOP THE PAIN! REGAIN LOW BACK & LEG STRENGTH

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 food choices in America are too rich, filled with processed, empty nutrients, preservatives, pesticides, hormones, unless you know the verifiable source. This generation endures more stress, changes and emotions keeping us up later and/or deep sleep is not achieved. 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.

To begin, we need to construct successful strategies in the areas of nutrition, sleep, and lifestyle. 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. Four causes of low back and leg pain.

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, dizziness, ringing in the ears, dry throat, dry mouth, fever, low backache, weak legs, involuntary seminal emission, spontaneous sweating, red tongue, emaciation, deep shiny red tongue

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: low energy, low back pain, weak knees, pale tongue, minor cold signs, frequent urination, incontinence, inability to urinate, dribbling, involuntary seminal emission, other seminal/urinary 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: dizziness, ringing in ears, loose teeth, loss of head hair, painful knees and lower back

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.

 

Mark Hammer C.M.H., Master Herbalist           Longevity Mountain    5/09

 

Sources:

Bensky & Barolet, “Formulas & Strategies”  1990 

Paul Pitchford, “Healing With Whole Foods”, 3rd Edition