KidneyRecovery.net -- Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

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Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

When I tell someone about my thoughts on the subject of Chinese Medicine, usually, but not always, people think I am talking about acupuncture. I have to admit that prior to my research on the subject of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), I too thought of a bunch of pins being stuck into my body to cure ailments I might be having was Chinese medicine. The truth is: not all Chinese Medicine is Acupuncture. TCM is slowly becoming a field of medicine recognized by western medicine practitioners.

There are fundamental differences in TCM and the western medical system. With some understanding of Chinese culture and philosophies, it may help one to see through and start to appreciate the value of TCM.

I have read countless articles on websites about treating various kidney ailments with Traditional Chinese Medicine. Give a query to a Google search engine on kidney disease and vinegar, and you will get 120,000 websites containing information on that subject. Most of those websites tell about the yin and yang of Chinese medicine and how things such as vinegar, when prepared properly and taken internally, will help or treat kidney disease. In my use of vinegar for treating my kidney disease, I did not take vinegar internally, I soaked in a bath tub of water with a tablespoonful of white distilled vinegar added to the water. I hope I don't sound sarcastic when I tell you of these things, because I have respect for "alternative medicine" in relation to "western medicine." To be more precise, I have a strong feeling that the two methods of treating diseases - one specifically, kidney disease, would bring forth a better recovery rate for people with kidney failure.

After my miraculous recovery from IgA Nephropathy, I developed a funny feeling that the Chinese had it right about vinegar helping kidney failure patients, but I also have a feeling that in addition to taking vinegar internally, that the secret lies in soaking in the vinegar placed in a tub of water to dilute the acidity and have a chemical reaction take place in the body over a period of time. In my case, it took 9 months.

The Chinese were not able to do anything except extend the time before a person's failed kidneys were too bad to sustain life. Along came dialysis, invented about 50 years ago and used in western medicine to prevent death from failed kidneys. I was placed on dialysis, and I also soaked with the tablespoon of vinegar in my bathtub every night for the nine months I was on dialysis. By the time nine months had gone by my kidneys had recovered enough for me to be removed from dialysis treatments. My kidneys were functioning well enough to do the filtering they were meant to do.

Now just because I believe that using vinegar for kidney failure, discovered in searching kidney failure treatments from the internet websites on Traditional Chinese Medicine, and unexpectedly realizing that I had used vinegar soaks from reading my daily diary in research for my book -- that in itself does not make vinegar a miracle treatment for kidney failure. To me, it makes for a reason to study the effects of vinegar soaks with other kidney failure patients. There are simply too many different reasons kidneys fail.

The following are a few of the more interesting Traditional Chinese Medicine websites I have read. The list will contain mostly pro, but I will add one or two cons.

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