Kidney Health – What you Need to Know

The year 2023 is the year of the rabbit. In Chinese culture, the rabbit is known to be the luckiest out of all the twelve animals. They symbolize mercy, elegance, and beauty. People born in the year of the rabbit tend to be calm and peaceful.  They avoid fighting and arguing.

The Lunar New Year begins on January 23, 2023 and the change in energy from the dynamic Tiger year of 2022 to the gentle Rabbit year will be big. In Chinese astrology, the zodiac moves into one of 5 elements and next year will be the Year of the Water Rabbit. The Yin Water element stands for sensitivity, intuition, and, in its best manifestation, the path to inner tranquility. After the energetic Year of the Tiger, the Water Rabbit Year should be a time of rest and reflection. In Chinese philosophy, the rabbit is also a symbol of patience. Therefore, having the patience to act until the right time in 2023 should bring you lots of luck!

Best wishes for a Happy New Year 2023!

With love, peace, and unconditional happiness,

Dr. DoAnn T. Kaneko
Teacher. Healer.
Founder, Kaneko Healing Arts
www.kanekohealingarts.com

It is winter time, which in Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) means a time to focus on the kidneys my friends. You want to keep your kidneys healthy now, not later. When the energy of Yang in the summer reaches the maximum, it turns to the opposite as we go into Winter, the Yin energy. This is the constant change between the summer and the winter.  TCM information on the kidney was the most significant topic in my Immune Boosting seminar.

I explained how the Kidney’s energetic system is extremely important to boost our immune system. I introduced my healing paradigm, and modalities including, qigong, Daoyin (self-care based on vital points, dry brushing, exercises, and breathing), Liandan, (pelvic floor exercises including body shaking exercises), hot and cold water immersion, swimming, interval running, medicinal foods, and eating habits including fasting. The kidney holds prenatal energy which is a genetic factor and defines our life span. According to TCM, a man’s Qi has major changes every 8 years while the woman’s Qi goes through changes every 7 years, which refers to our growth hormone activities.

 A healthy kidney promises a long healthy life which means that we need to take care of our kidneys as master organs of Yin, (Water of Yin) to keep up our well-being. Yes, these Yin major organs, the heart, lungs, kidney, liver, and pancreas, hold key factors for good health. But when kidneys are weak, your quality of life diminishes, and health problems can spread to the rest of the systems including the brain. The acupuncture point called Tanden in the lower abdomen is said to be the source of longevity, and it is functionally connected to the kidney. I call it the root of the kidney.

In this newsletter, let’s discuss the normal function and dysfunction of the kidneys in western medicine. We need to prevent kidney diseases like chronic kidney degenerating issues. I have talked about our ultimate health in my healing paradigm.  I clearly stated that we are what we eat, we are what we digest, we are what we act upon, and now I am ready to add we are what we eliminate. We eat, digest, and eliminate the food and drinks we have. But when you have constipation or sluggishness in the intestine,  you can have terrible consequences. This happens even amongst the younger generation. I will cover how to keep your intestine healthy at another time.

Kidney issues can often happen among the older population and when you are diagnosed with Kidney disease, you are often in the late stages and the worst scenario is Kidney dialysis. As we age, we accumulate all sorts of toxicities due to poor, unhealthy eating and drinking habits, a toxic environment, and stress. The longer we live, the more we have these toxicities. It damages not only the kidney but the intestine, liver, pancreas, and heart. Thus you can suffer from diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, brain degeneration, and weakness.

We need to raise the question of how to strengthen the kidneys by eliminating toxic waste within our system. The kidney filters the blood but toxic blood created from unhealthy food and drinks weaken the kidney function and a weak kidney causes poor cleansing function. This is identical to the liver function. When the liver is too weak to clean up toxicities, the kidneys have to work harder, which puts more burden on the kidneys. At the same time, weak kidneys burden the liver. This is another vicious cycle. Therefore we need to build up healthy kidneys by all means.

In this issue, in addition to my original writing based on TCM theory and application,  I would like to refer to excellent information by doctors such as Dr. Zenji Makita, a Japanese diabetes specialist, and developer of the world’s first blood AGE measurement method. I will go into AGEs later. But now, let’s update our information on how kidney function is now understood in modern physiology, pathology, assessment, and screening of kidney conditions. Most importantly let’s look at how to protect the kidney through a healthy diet and lifestyle in addition to my previous firm information about how to slow down aging and extend your lifespan based on TCM and modern nutrition.

Start the new year learning whole-body energetic balancing!

Now our January classes are approved by NCBTMB and the California Acupuncture Board for 48 CEU’s. Learn one of the most effective healing modalities, Kaneko Shiatsu Anma Therapy. An integration of both a Japanese & ancient Chinese modality, each class will cover different parts of the body with a review from the previous classes. For more click here.