Does back pain have anything to do with kidneys?

In life, due to the stressful work and insufficient rest, many people inevitably suffer from back pain. In addition to the elderly and menstruating women, office workers are also often troubled by this problem. When back pain directly affects people's life and work, it is worthy of people's attention. Generally speaking, many people think that low back pain means there is a problem with the kidneys. So is low back pain related to the kidneys?

The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine records that "the waist is the home of the kidneys" and that low back pain is mainly caused by kidney disease; while the Jingyue Complete Works emphasizes that low back pain is mostly caused by deficiency syndrome, "eight out of ten cases of low back pain are caused by deficiency syndrome." However, with the continuous development of medical theory, doctors have a clearer understanding of low back pain and found that there are many causes of low back pain, not just kidney deficiency; exogenous evil spirits, internal injuries from the seven emotions, overwork, falls and sprains can all lead to low back pain. Below, I will briefly introduce the five most common causes of low back pain.

1. External evil spirits. That is, the body is invaded by external evils such as wind, cold, dampness and heat, coupled with insufficient immunity, which causes the evil qi to stay in the waist and cause pain. If this type of low back pain is caused mainly by wind evil, the patient often feels that the location of the pain is not fixed, sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right, and the pain can radiate to the knees or even the feet; if it is caused by cold evil, the patient feels cold in the waist, as if he had put a piece of ice in it, and the pain becomes more severe in a cold environment, while the pain is slightly relieved in a warm environment; if it is caused by damp evil, in addition to low back pain, the patient also has a feeling of heaviness, especially on cloudy days, the discomfort is particularly significant; if it is caused by a mixture of wind and heat, in addition to low back pain, the patient also has symptoms of difficulty urinating and defecation; if it is caused by a mixture of wind and cold, the patient often has cold symptoms such as fever; if it is caused by the alternation of wind and rheumatism, it can be accompanied by symptoms of pain all over the body; if it is caused by dampness and heat, there is urination pain, which is aggravated on cloudy days or after sitting for a long time.

2. Blood stasis. Patients with low back pain caused by blood stasis often have a history of trauma such as being accidentally hit by heavy objects on the waist, or spraining the waist while moving things. The pain in the waist is like a needle prick, and the pain often worsens at night.

3. Phlegm and fluid flow into the meridians. The lumbar pain of this type of patients often extends to the back, and the course of the disease is usually long, accompanied by symptoms such as excessive sputum, frequent dreams during sleep, and drowsiness.

4. Internal injuries caused by the seven emotions. The patient suffers from low back pain due to bad mood, long-term depression, or anger that damages the liver. In addition to low back pain, these patients also have bad mood, abdominal distension, indigestion or low back pain extending to the ribs.

5. Kidney deficiency. It often occurs in people with chronic diseases or the elderly. The patient's waist pain is not severe, but mostly dull, often accompanied by symptoms such as weak legs, fatigue, deafness, tinnitus, and memory loss.

6. Blood deficiency. Patients with low back pain due to blood deficiency often have lesions that cause massive blood loss. The pain in the low back is mostly mild aches and pains, while the whole body feels weak and the face looks sick. To sum up, the causes of low back pain are quite complex, and can be both real and false, and cannot be simply summarized as kidney deficiency. Therefore, patients should not blindly replenish their kidneys as soon as they feel low back pain. Instead, they should seek medical attention as soon as possible and receive targeted treatment based on a clear diagnosis.