Kidney yang deficiency and kidney donation

Comment by Archived User

You can live with just one kidney and western medical journals report that there is no clinical difference in success or morbidity rates between donating the left or right side. The left kidney is apparently preferred by surgeons as it has longer vessel lengths and is thus easier to work with. Within the context of western medicine the side effects of kidney donation are generally considered minimal and the risk for long term negative impacts on longevity and overall health are minor. That being said, I wouldn’t personally recommend it unless the circumstances are dire i.e. doing it to save a family member.

While many classic TCM texts ascribe yin to the left kideny and yang to the right my own limited clinical experience is that as long as you still have one both yin and yang can remain in balance with proper diet and lifestyle. Energetically speaking each organ system is not entirely dependent on the physical organ. Thus you can have the spleen, gallbladder, lung, or kidney removed and those related energetic system can continue to function.

As for the herbs, there is no one ‘best’ formula for any condition. Herbal treatments should be customized to each individual based on the totality of their unique signs and symptoms.

Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.

I would also add that it is a major error in thinking within the domain of Chinese Medicine to too closely associate the physical organ, in this case your “kidneys” - with the “kidney system” that is being referred to when we say “kidneys” in Chinese Medicine. They are only marginally at best related. The “kidney” system in Chinese Medicine terms is more of a composite of what happens between the thyroid, sex hormones, adrenals, etc. that it has anything to do with the waste filtration functions of the physical kidneys in western terms. I suggest you read “My Kidneys are What?” - for more on that.

Understanding that, then, living without a physical kidney is nearly irrelevant in the context of Chinese Medicine. Accordingly, tonifying kidney yang energy to “compensate” for the loss of a physical kidney is also a wrong, possibly even harmful, concept.