Is Acupuncture Helpful to Kidney Disease

Acupuncture is a complex therapeutic system in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). It has been used to treat a variety of diseases conditions. Evidence shows it is beneficial to for people with Kidney disease because it can delay the disease’ progression.

☆ Acupuncture has been proved to help relieve the chronic pain associated with kidney disease. After the needles are inserted into skin, they can stimulate the body to produce endorphins which is the natural painkiller in body.

☆ It can increase the blood circulation at the specific point on the skin. Therefore, it can increase the blood supply to sites of kidney injury.

☆ Many Kidney Diseases are related to the inflammation in kidneys. Some researches show that acupuncture may have beneficial effects in reducing renal inflammation.

Although acupuncture is an effective alternative therapy for Kidney Disease, the potential harms do exist. After having a medical exam to establish the exact stage of your Kidney Disease, you should discuss with your doctor and integrative, alternative treatment strategy tailored for you that can slow the progression of the disease and relieve any symptom you have.

Generally speaking, acupuncture is not used to treat Kidney Disease alone. It is usually combined with traditional Chinese herbal medicines. Traditional Chinese medicines are mainly composed of herbs (roots, leaf, fruits) and also contain some minerals as well as animal (bones, skeleton). Every formula is composed of several types of integrants and they are interacted to guarantee the curative effect and the safety. Chinese herbal medicine mainly plays the following roles in treating Kidney Disease.

☆ The effective integrants can dilate systemic blood vessels. By this, it can promote the excretion of the metabolic products like creatinine, BUN etc and relieve high blood pressure. In addition, it can increase blood and oxgen supply to kidneys thus improving renal ischemia and anoxia.

☆ The Chinese medicines provide some essential nutrients for the repairing of the impaired nephrons. Therefore, they can stimulate the self-repairing of the kidneys.

☆ They can degrade the immune complexes in kidneys thus suppressing the immune inflammatory response. Hence, it can prevent more damage to kidneys effectively.


Traditional Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture have been proven to help slow down Kidney Disease. However, there are still some contraindications for the therapy. If you want to know if they are available to you, you can consult us on line.