I often have outpatients tell me: “I feel kidney deficiency, I want to check kidney function”. But what exactly is kidney deficiency? Is the kidney in Chinese medicine the same thing as the kidney in Western medicine? Today I will try to explain it to you. The kidney in Western medicine refers to a parenchymal organ in anatomy, located on both sides of the retroperitoneal crest, about 10-12cm long, 5-6cm wide and 3-4cm thick, its main function is to produce urine to remove metabolic waste and toxins from the body. Therefore, what Western medicine calls the kidney has basically nothing to do with reproductive or sexual function. Chinese medicine has a different understanding of the kidney, which does not specifically refer to a specific organ, but is more of a functional concept. According to TCM, the kidney has two main functions: one is to store essence, which is related to human growth, development and reproductive functions; the other function is that the kidney is the master of water, which is involved in the metabolism of water and fluid in the human body. Therefore, from a functional point of view, the kidney in Chinese medicine includes not only the urinary system in Western medicine, but also the reproductive system. Pathologically, there are many types of Western medicine kidney diseases, like acute and chronic glomerulonephritis, nephrotic syndrome, IgA nephropathy, chronic renal failure, etc. But the basic manifestation is that proteinuria or hematuria, or both, may be seen in urine tests, and if the kidney function is impaired, blood tests will reveal increased blood creatinine (Scr) and urea nitrogen (BUN), and, of course, patients with kidney disease can also be accompanied by edema, Of course, kidney disease can also be accompanied by edema, hypertension, anemia and other clinical manifestations. Chinese medicine believes that the pathology of the kidney is mostly seen in deficiency, which we call kidney deficiency, here it should be noted that the term “evidence” in Chinese medicine is different from “symptoms”, which refers to a group of symptoms with a specific meaning, which Chinese medicine calls symptoms. Deficiency means deficiency, which is the opposite of actual. Kidney deficiency is a big concept, specifically, it can be divided into kidney yin deficiency, kidney yang deficiency and yin and yang deficiency. Kidney yin deficiency is often manifested as: irritable heat in the five hearts, dry throat, insomnia, excessive dreaming, night sweating, short yellow urine, or dry stools, back pain and leg weakness, and tinnitus. In men, Yang is easily raised (penis easily erected) and premature ejaculation is seen; in women, low menstrual flow or amenorrhea is seen. These patients are characterized by “Yin deficiency leads to heat” and manifest as deficiency-heat evidence. Kidney Yang deficiency is often characterized by fatigue, fear of cold, cold pain in the waist and knees, long and clear urine, or frequent nocturnal urination, reduced sexual function, impotence, etc. This type of patient is characterized by “Yang deficiency is cold”, showing evidence of deficiency cold. If there are manifestations of kidney yin deficiency and kidney yang deficiency, then it is called kidney yin and yang deficiency. The actual fact is that you may have a few questions to ask. 1. Is soreness in the lower back a kidney deficiency? Kidney deficiency can occur with lumbar soreness and back pain. Chinese medicine believes that “the waist is the capital of the kidneys”, so kidney deficiency is the waist of the capital loss of nourishment, so the symptoms of lumbar acidity, lumbar pain, but lumbar pain is not the same as kidney deficiency, because lumbar muscle strain, lumbar spondylosis and other diseases can also appear lumbar pain. 2. Is sexual dysfunction a kidney deficiency? It is true that kidney deficiency in Chinese medicine can cause sexual dysfunction in some patients, but not all sexual dysfunction is caused by kidney deficiency, there are other causes that can also lead to sexual function problems, such as damp heat in the liver meridian, liver qi stagnation. 3. What is the relationship between kidney deficiency in TCM and kidney disease in Western medicine? If a person is considered by a TCM practitioner to have kidney yin deficiency, does it necessarily mean that there is proteinuria or hematuria when checking the urine? Of course not, a person with kidney yin deficiency may have perfectly normal urine (urine routine) and blood (kidney function). Conversely, do patients with kidney disease in Western medicine always show kidney deficiency? Not necessarily. Therefore, there is no necessary connection between kidney deficiency in Chinese medicine and kidney disease in Western medicine.