Westerners tend to look outside for the source of back pain, attributing it to sports-related or other injuries, or accepting it as an inevitable by-product of aging. Aging may be inevitable, but back pain is not. Oriental medical diagnosis suggests that the kidneys rule the lower back, buttocks, and hips. We find that many patients complaining of back pain also suffer from moderate to severe kidney deficiency.
A comprehensive treatment course, consisting of acupuncture and herbal medicines and designed to strengthen kidney function, will significantly relieve or eliminate the back pain that is symptomatic of this underlying problem. The severity of the problem, the patient’s age, and length of time the problem has persisted will determine the number of treatments required. But patients should anticipate that a minimum of 24 treatments over a three-month period will be required.
