Healing gallblader and kidneys

[markern]

A friend of mine has migraines that are so frequent and powerfull she is unable to work or study. She has undergone almost all types of treatment there is but with little success. Alternative therapiests tell her that her gallblader is in an absolutely horrible shape and she was born with quite serious kidney problems that has followed her throughout here life. My question is how to best go about cleansing and strengthening these organs? For various reasons she does not have the possibility to practice much qigong for quite some time but will get into it eventualy because she belives it will help her and she liked it a lot when she tried it some years ago. But for the time being she is mostly unable to do much else then totaly passive restorative asanas, self massage and cleansing stuff through diet etc. Any ideas of how to go about it?

[karen]

I can tell you not only from professional training but personal experience that migraines can sometimes be a manifestation of very deep emotional and spiritual issues. In the meantime while the real causes are being addressed with natural methods, it can be a lifesaver to use drugs in the triptan class like Imitrex, in the smallest dose that will abort the migraine.

 

Basically, a migraine is a metabolic process that belongs in the lower body, which is invading the upper body. In TCM terms, it could be yin deficiency causing false yang rising. Or it could be thought of as the emotions being pushed up into the head for processing (intellectualizing the emotions instead of confronting them viscerally). The head needs to be "cool and collected", and can't tolerate the fiery energy up there. So the aim is to process the emotions where they belong, and that can involve a lot of deep emotional work.

 

Narayan Singh in his book Messages from the Body has a lot to say about the emotional meaning of migraines. For one, the person may have fears of abandonment and developed an overcompensation of perfectionism - trying to earn their right to be loved. Then they feel driven to achieve in order to keep earning love, but of course that can't be sustained, and there's a lot of resentment and anger. It's amazing how these kind of issues can be understood intellectually but the full brunt of the feelings still remain unconscious. (where they produce symptoms).

 

In addition to working on the emotional level, there are usually many nutritional and lifestyle issues that would need to be sorted out, on an individual basis. But a few things that she could try are:

 

TCM treatment - herbs and/or acupuncture, to diagnose and treat the particular imbalances involving the gallbladder, liver, kidney, etc.

Homeopathy

OMT (cranial osteopathic manipulation)

Eliminate all foods that contain tyramine

Eat yin building foods - fats

Drink enough water

Magnesium (topical magnesium oil is great)

Open a mustard jar and sniff, at the first sign of a migraine (there's an actual physiological reason for this!)

Immerse the hands and arms up to the elbows in very hot water at the first sign of a migraine (to bring energy to the periphery and away from the head)

Buteyko breathing can help regulate the sympathetic nervous system

"Gut-brain therapy" http://www.foreverwell.com/treatment.html

 

Hope that helps.

-Karen

Edited January 31, 2009 by karen

[Lozen]

Migraines are largely a hypoglycemia issue--pubmed search it, it's fascinating. I do know a lot of people who, even with proper nutrition, when sleep deprived induce enough insulin resistance to bring about a migraine.

[Ya Mu]

I suggest an elimination type of diet to see what foods may trigger the migraine.

 

The "diagnosis" that was received may or may not have any significance. Many natural healers also always want to throw in the emotional tie-in. That may be true but as likely a chance that it may not. It could be entirely physical. I am also speaking from over 25 years of working with these type of pain syndromes as well as having personally experienced them for a very long time. Migraines can be caused by a large number of things.

 

If anyone has time to do "totaly passive restorative asanas, self massage" then he/she has time to do qigong. It should help some but it may not clear up the problem.

 

Imitrex helps some people but did absolutely nothing for me. Neither did the TCM thing do anything for me with the exception that circulatory enhancing herbs help some, but no more than a drink of brandy. And yes, I certainly tried acupuncture and Chinese herbs from some of the big-name folks in the USA as well as China. Teacher Wang was the only person that could ever totally stop my migraine; a single medical qigong treatment from him would last 6 months to a year with absolutely no migraine.

The western medical system also consistently failed me on this until finally, an MD who also was a qigong practitioner put me on a low-dose amitriptylin which helped immensely.

 

I have a good result rate with helping these folk in my clinic and ALWAYS find something different in each person that is "causing" the problem. It can be emotional or nutritional but it can be physical or energetic. The easiest thing to check is food allergies/triggers as this is something the person can do for themselves. Then the self-practice of qigong can certainly help. The magnesium supplementation and external creme already suggested is found by some to help. After this, the person needs to find professional help.

[agharta]

Anything that moves the cranial bones can help control migraines, including osteopathic manipulation, a.k.a. Craniosacral work. Neurocranial Restructuring, which I have done on myself, the "balloons up the nose", is also reported to be very, very good for stopping migraines.

[Mal]

MTS in his 2 week advertorial posted a TCM kidney medicine, but I'm having trouble remembering which of the 10,000 threads it was in

 

edit: http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?s=&amp...ost&p=95564

 

found it, no idea if it will help though.......

[gendao]

I would try Hulda Clark/Andrea Moritz/etc-style liver/gallbladder flushes. They're pretty simple - essentially you refrain from eating any fat all day until you suddenly guzzle 1/2 cup of olive oil at night to stimulate a huge bile dump - which then supposedly helps to flush out your bile ducts and gallbladder. There's some debate as to whether or not this actually helps you pass soft liver stones and hard gallstones, but I think it's still worth trying regardless.

 

Hulda Clark also has a kidney cleanse, which I haven't tried it yet. But I have eaten a lot of lemons for that, which will dissolve kidney stones if you have any (this has actually worked for my parents' friends).

 

And energetically, you can certainly also do energetic healing on those organs and meridians as well. In fact, I'd highly recommend that.

Basically, a migraine is a metabolic process that belongs in the lower body, which is invading the upper body. In TCM terms, it could be yin deficiency causing false yang rising. Or it could be thought of as the emotions being pushed up into the head for processing (intellectualizing the emotions instead of confronting them viscerally). The head needs to be "cool and collected", and can't tolerate the fiery energy up there. So the aim is to process the emotions where they belong, and that can involve a lot of deep emotional work.

That would make sense. Weak kidneys = yin deficiency. This is so common today and like a car low on water coolant... In fact, I have that problem myself right now. No migraines, but overthinking (--> overheating) depletes my kidney water, resulting in some "dried out" grass on my head as some premature gray hairs. I need to work on fixing that now.

 

I just got some he shou wu from Chinatown, one of the herbs that 256-yo Li Ching-Yun supposedly used and which supposedly:

Tonify the kidneys

Balance a fragile yin.

Treat weak bones and premature graying of hair

So, I'll see if that has any effect...

Mal - nice-looking scripts, thanks!

 

Ya Mu - what Teacher Wang is that?

Edited February 2, 2009 by vortex

[Loke]

I have tried the cure from this homepage "http://www.sensiblehealth.com/Journey-02.xhtml"

and it works very well for me. Unfortunately is it very difficult to get these tinctures through

the Swedish customs othervise I should use it regulare.

[gendao]

I have tried the cure from this homepage "http://www.sensiblehealth.com/Journey-02.xhtml"

and it works very well for me. Unfortunately is it very difficult to get these tinctures through

the Swedish customs othervise I should use it regulare.

Interesting, so this guy combines the liver flush with these herbs:

 

Gold Coin Grass (GCG), corn silk and Eucommia

 

Not the cheapest source of products, though. For example, you can buy a bottle of 100 he shou wu pills (week's supply) in Chinatown for $2. Whereas their liquid mix is $24.