Women Also Need to Tonify Kidney

Professor Bin Bin, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine

2013-11-21

Translated by Wira Yudha on 2018-07-22

This original article also been published by Guǎngxī Xīnwén Wǎng (Guangxi News Portal) with the following title:

Kidney Tonification Are Not Only Unique to Men, Women Also Need To

[Date: December 19, 2006] [Source: Guǎngxī Xīnwén Wǎng] [Author: Bin Bin] [Editor: Jin Xiumei]

These days, the media are flooded with advertisements that are aimed for men’s health. Advertisements such as health care products that invigorate the kidneys and strengthen men’s vitality are everywhere on television and newspapers. Those advertisements seems to depict that kidney supplementation products are exclusively only for men. These raises a very fundamental question, does women do not need to supplement their kidney?

In Chinese medicine, kidney are believed to be responsible for the body’s growth and development, reproductive function, sexual function, water and liquid metabolism as well as memory and thinking capabilities. It doesn’t matter what gender, man or woman, in the course of life, kidney always plays a very important role. Thus, not only men can experience kidney deficiency, in fact kidney deficiency in women are quite a common thing. This prove that women also need to strengthen their kidney.

If a female has kidney deficiency in her childhood, she will be experiencing growth retardation; as a young girl had kidney deficiency, her menstrual menarche will often late or did not come; young women in the prime of their life with kidney deficiency will have menstrual disorders, shriveled breasts, dull complexion, dry hair and hair loss, backache and weak legs, low sex drives, vaginal dry and rough; infertility or prone to abortion; middle-aged women with kidney deficiency, will have the same symptoms and also lead to premature menopause; elderly women with kidney deficiency are prone to develop osteoporosis, backache and weak legs and even developing hunchback.

Kidney responsible for women’s growth and development, menstruation, fertilization, fetus and child birth. This made it equally important to women as it is to men to strengthen kidney. Therefore, medical experts always advice numerous household not only to supplement husband’s kidney, the ladies in the house also need a good kidney tonification. Medical professionals also emphasis the need to distinguish different type of kidney deficiencies. Kidney deficiencies can be divided into kidney essence deficit (shèn jīng kuī sǔn), kidney yin deficiency (shèn yīn xū), kidney yang deficiency (shèn yáng xū) and kidney qi deficiency (shèn qì xū). It is important to choose different kidney-reinforcing methods depending on the person’s individual needs. One cannot possibly just blindly consuming just any product off the shelves that’s available in market, doing so would most likely to produce the opposite effect of the desired results. (The term kidney that are used here is different from the kidney found in anatomy studies of Western medicine. ‘Kidney’ of traditional Chinese medicine, not only includes the function of the kidney in western medicine anatomy studies, but also has a broader meaning.)