Kidney
Definition:

Anything related to the kidneys.

Symptoms:

An unhealthy, morbid condition of the kidneys. [SNH p.35]

Cause:

Kidney trouble is caused by a local infection. [SNH p.35]

Herbal Aids:

General Instructions: The greatest aids for this problem are juniper berries, marshmallow root, parsley, and watermelon seeds. [SNH p.35]

Plantain: Drink one teacupful of the tea four to five times daily until relief is obtained. [SNH p.53]

Parsley: Make at least 2 quarts of the parsley root strong decoction and drink copiously. [SNH p.246]

Diaphoretic: See formula using juniper berries, parsley seed and rest harrow. [SNH p.251]

Spearmint: It has a gentle diaphoretic action of mild perspiration, and as a diuretic it is very beneficial to the kidney, bladder (especially for suppression of urine). [SNH p.238]

Strong Decoction of Gravel Root (cystitis and kidney troubles,). See formula using gravel root, water and glycerine. [SNH p.256]

Gravel, Stone or Calculi: See formula using gravel root, wild carrot, meadowsweet, marshmallow, uva ursi and honey. [SNH p.256]

Kidney and Bladder: See formula using uva ursi, mountain mahogany, couchgrass, buchu leaves, juniper berries, prince's pine, shavegrass and celery seeds. [SNH p.260]

Gravel, Kidney and Bladder Problems: See formula using buchu powder, uva ursi, parsley root, gravel root and ginger. [SNH p.272]

Herbal Kidney Aid: See formula using cayenne, ginger, golden seal, gravel root, juniper berries, marshmallow, parsley root and uva ursi. This will dissolve the stones that are in the kidneys, as well as clean out other sedimentation and infection in the prostate. [SNH p.524]

Kidney Formula: Dr. Christopher's Kidney Formula:  for kidney malfunction. Approximately 80% of the body is liquid, and much of this field must be pumped, filtered, etc., etc., through the urinary system of the individual. We do not take the best of care of this delicate tract, but through it go lots of irritating and clogging-type materials, i.e., tea, coffee, soft drinks, hard water, alcohol, etc.

Over the years we have used a formula of herbs with people who have been afraid to be out in public, because of a lack of control over the urinary tract and unknowingly void urine. After using this formula, many people have found relief from this condition and are living normal lives again.

This formula consists of juniper berries, parsley, uva ursi, marshmallow root, lobelia, ginger, and golden seal. Suggested use is a cup morning and evening, or two tablets or capsules morning and evening taken with a cup of parsley tea. [HHH p.183]
Male Urinary Tract: Dr. Christopher's Prostate Formula:  In case of malfunction we suggest this combination to assist the male: cayenne, ginger, golden seal root, gravel root or queen of the meadow root, juniper berries, marshmallow root, parsley root or herb, uva ursi leaves. This will dissolve the stones that are in the kidneys, as well as clean out other sedimentation and infection in the prostate. Mix the powders and place in No. 0 capsules and take two or more morning and night, with parsley tea when possible. [HHH p.191]

Aloe Vera: Aloe Vera taken internally is said to help maintain good blood vessel tone and healthy circulation. The potassium in the plant is said to aid the heart's rhythm and stimulate the kidney to dispose of body wastes. The herb is said to help the action of digestive enzymes and deter kidney stones. [UW-Aloe Vera]

Hydrangea: There is much disagreement about Hydrangea's stone-dissolving properties. Most authorities agree that it does remove the stones, but not everyone considers the herb a solvent. Dr. Butler affirmed that the herb relieves the pain of the passing of the calculi. Dr. Shook explained that the sharp pain that is associated with gravel deposits comes from the sharp points of the crystal piercing the kidney or ureter. When the sharp points are even partially dissolved, he said, the pain, hemorrhage and inflammation all subside, and the stone or stones frequently pass with just a stretching of the tubes. How, he asked, is it possible to account for the fact that when these stones pass through easily after the administration of Hydrangea, they are found to be smooth and round, while x-rays revealed their sharp point piercing the tissues? He said that their clinical evidence proved that Hydrangea is truly a stone solvent (ShoA:85). He said it was destined to become a universal remedy for phosphaturia, cystitis, alkaline urine, stony deposits, deposits of calcium oxalate (which forms many calculi), chronic gleet, mucus irritation of the bladder in old people, backaches caused by kidney trouble, rheumatism of long standing, arthritis and gouty affections, arteriosclerosis and many other common conditions--quite a claim for a disputed herb! As Dr. Shook said, "Dear student, you will never find a more remarkable herb " (ShoA:83). [UW-Hydrangea]

Juniper Berry Wine: For a kidney and stomach tonic, Juniper berry wine is easy to make. Place a large handful of the berries in any gallon of any kind of good quality wine. The bottle is capped and allowed to stand for three days. During this period the bottle is shaken thoroughly once a day. At the end of three weeks the berries are strained off and thrown away (Luc:Secrets:120). [UW-Juniper]

Kelp: In recent years, we have found that the kidneys are not only eliminative organs, they also aid in assimilation and are partly responsible for adequate nutrition (Ibid). Kelp cleanses and tones these organs, and can be especially valuable in cases of irritable or painful kidneys. Dr. Powell cleared up kidney cases that were very stubborn and had failed to respond to other treatments, whether natural or medical. [UW-Kelp]

Juices for Gravel in Kidney's: Carrot & cucumber, endive & parsley. [NL 3-5]

Juices for Kidney and Bladder Troubles: Cucumber & parsley, dandelion, spinach. [NL 3-5]

Juices for Renal Calculus (Stones in Kidney): Carrot & cucumber, celery & parsley. [NL 3-5]

Bladder Formula: Dr. Christopher's Formula for Bedwetting:  For more severe cases of incontinence, enuresis (bedwetting, etc.), a formula we have used a long time is as follows: parsley root, juniper berries, marshmallow root, white pond lily, gravel root, uva ursi, lobelia, ginger root and black cohosh root.

This formula is a specific for helping control or overcome bedwetting and to strengthen the entire urethral canal, kidneys, bladder, etc.

Recommended dosage two No. 0 capsules three times a day with a cup of parsley tea. Upon retiring at night fasten about a six or eight inch ball of yarn or string or cloth onto night clothes in the middle of the back. This is for the purpose of preventing the individual from lying on the back, as this is generally the time the valves release to void urine. [HHH p.184]

Water: The main trait common to men who complain about kidney problems is that they do not drink enough water. They will admit and even brag about it if you ask them. 'Water? That's the stuff you wash with. I never drink it. Don't like the taste." Coupled with a heavy consumption of meat, salt, coffee, alcohol, and soda pop (or any of the above) the "waterless wonder" is bound to suffer distress and discomfort. This includes the kidney damage which he passes on to his children. We must realize that our bodies are made up of 80% water and that this water needs to be filtered and replaced. The delicate tubules which run from the kidneys to the bladder could be pinched through and broken with a fingernail! The amazing apparatus which are our filters and elimination system have the tremendous task of pumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of liquid through them in a lifetime. Why wear them out in a few years through neglect and abuse? It is as though we were throwing a great gift from the Creator into the garbage can with the trash.

Distilled (steam distilled, if available) water is the only water we recommend for herbal teas or drinking. A person should drink about two ounces of distilled water per kilogram of body weight daily. That's about one gallon for the average weight man. If this is done faithfully along with a good diet, there is relatively no chance of contracting any kidney disease. [NL 3-6]

Kidney Infections: Kidney infections can be extremely painful. There is the burning sensation when urinating, the dull to excruciating back pain, and the possible retention of urine. There is the low grade fever which accompanies the chronic kidney infection or the high fever accompanying the acute attack. Prevention is the superior cure, but if the infection has already set in, we can use the kidney-bladder formula with parsley tea, or juniper berry tea and, if urination is extremely painful we can drink a demulcent or soothing tea such as marshmallow root or slippery elm. Of course all irritants to the kidneys should be discontinued. [NL 3-6]

Retention of Urine: If there is retention of urine, juniper berry tea is the quickest acting diuretic we have known. People who were writhing on the floor in agony from retention of urine have voided in a few minutes after the administration of juniper berry tea. Sometimes, when the urinary tract is loaded with mucus and morbid matter, and has been so for years, there will be a rush for the sludge to get out through the small opening to the outside of the body. If this is the case, elimination should be attempted more slowly and a diluted dose of diuretic tea can be used. Once elimination has started and the tract does become clogged, however, hot fomentations alternating with cold can be used on the kidney and groin area to make elimination possible by breaking up the blockage by increasing circulation to the area. [NL 3-6]

Kidney Cleanser: Women who do not have a lot of money to spend on fancy vitamins and food supplements (and even those who do) would do well to take no less that 15 alfalfa tablets daily. Alfalfa is also a well-known kidney cleanser. [NL 3-6]

Cabbage Leaves for Kidney Disease: Apply cabbage leaves over the kidney areas and leave on overnight and also for a few hours during the day [NL 4-12]

Dropsy: This is a sign that the kidneys are partially paralyzed and are not eliminating the urine sufficiently, so the diuretic agent should be used in combination with a diffusive stimulant (such as Jamaica ginger or Virginia snake root), or even cayenne may be used. [SNH p.242]

See formula using parsley, juniper berries, buchu and flax seed. [SNH p.247]
Inflammation of the Kidneys: See formula using wild carrot, pellitory-of-the-wall, uva ursi, dandelion, marshmallow, white poplar and cayenne. [SNH p.265]
Inflamed Kidneys: Combine comfrey root with gravel root (Eupatorium purpureum) in a decoction. [SNH p.310]

Nephritis (fomentation): See formula using marshmallow, wormwood and southernwood. Place a piece of flannel in the liquor, wring it out and apply as hot as conveniently possible over the kidneys. Cover with a thick piece of blanket and change the application when it begins to cool. Repeat for 1 hour and at the same time give an appropriate tea internally. [SNH p.330]

Testimonials:

1. Knowledge by Divine Assistance: I had a personal acquaintance, a Mrs. Hanger, who came here from England in her twenties. She was very sickly; at the time had no children, so her husband (who was a paperhanger and painter) told her to go to the doctor. She did, and when she returned home she was very discouraged and very unhappy, because he told her, "You have a kidney infection which is a very progressive type and there is nothing we can do to heal it; you will have possibly six months to live."

So she was at home meditating (the house was in Salt Lake City) when she heard a knock at the front door. There stood a bearded man in a gray suit; he said: "Sister Hanger, may I have a glass of water?" To which she replied "Certainly," although she didn't know him. She gave him the glass of water, and he said: "Sit down, I want to talk to you a minute, Sister Hanger," and she wondered then how he knew her name. He continued: "I would like to help you if you would like me to. You have just come from the doctor's and he told you that you have a bad kidney condition. Well, you are from England and you have brought your herbs with you, and you have a little herb garden out in the back in which you have a nice stand of parsley. Now, if you will take a handful of parsley each day and put it into a pint of water, cover and steep it, and drink it in regular doses during the day, it will heal this condition. The doctor told you that you have only six months to live, but I will tell you what you will see; you will see another depression"--and he went on and told her all the things she would see--"and there will be a Third World War, but you won't see this one; it will be after you go." When he had finished the short interview, something momentarily distracted her attention and in that instant he disappeared.

Well, I spoke at her funeral; and it wasn't six months after she was supposed to die, she was eighty-six years old, and she had raised a number of wonderful children. [SNH p.248]

2. Parsley: We have had several students testify in herbology classes as to the value of parsley, among which is the following: "I talked to a man who went into the hospital for infection. He was there six weeks and it was costing $45.00 a day for the drugs they gave him. Then someone told his wife to take him some parsley. The doctor said, "Well, it won't hurt him, but it won't help him." He was released from the hospital after he had taken it for one day; it had started to drain the infection he had." [SNH p.248]

3. Juniper Berries Saves Pioneer Woman: In N. B. Lundwall's book, Assorted Gems of Priceless Value, there is an attested account by Elizabeth J. Barney, concerning her mother, who was about to die during a pioneer journey (at the beginning of this century) of an apparent kidney ailment. The wagon caravan stopped because of her and made camp for the night, intending to bury the rapidly-declining woman in the morning. A stranger suddenly was seen approaching the camp, and he told the husband (the father of the lady attesting to the account) to go and gather juniper berries and leaves growing in the vicinity and to "mix them together, steep them and give them to your wife and you can be on your way within an hour." Then the stranger said he had to go, and at that moment something drew the people's attention away, and during that instant he disappeared. The prescription was obeyed, the woman revived miraculously, helped prepare the breakfast, and continued on the journey completely healed. So you will find that these herbs will not only repair the body as with a "divine touch," but they restore our faith in the Supreme Maker. [SNH p.253]

4. Marshmallow Relieves Pain from Unvoided Urine: Marshmallow is excellent as a diuretic and kidney healer. One of Dr. Christopher's students, living in the southern part of Salt Lake Valley, had a teenage boy who was continually ridiculing his mother for studying about herbs and becoming a "witch doctor". One day he was brought home from football practice with severe pain in the abdomen, unable to void his urine. He refused to be taken to the hospital from school, asking instead to be brought home. He lay there on the floor screaming in pain and doubled up in a fetus position. He begged his mother, whom he'd ridiculed, to help him. She went out and pulled up some Marshmallow plants, root and all, because fortunately it was just after an irrigation turn and the fields were flooded. When she returned to the house, the boy asked how long it would take for her to make up the tea, as the pain seemed almost more than he could stand. She replied, ten or fifteen minutes. Instinct made him ask her to wash and hand him a Marshmallow root immediately. This she did, and he immediately began to chew on the root. Within seconds, he straightened out, stood up, and headed for the bathroom, voided his urine, and was relieved of the excruciating pain. He never again ridiculed his mother's herbal studies. [UW-Marshmallow]

5. Parsley: Parsley root tea will help remove all stones including gallstones and kidney stones if they are not too large. One doctor who made a trip to Holland was surprised to see medical doctors prescribing Parsley tea for kidney stone and other kidney and related complaints, including pressure of the prostate. He returned to his practice at home and began prescribing the same remedy with the same good results (Luc:Herbal:89). [UW-Parsley]

6. Kidney Infection Cured by Sage: However, in one case the combination of peppermint and Sage is particularly good. It is used thus for kidney infections, equal parts being made into a tea. The herbs are covered with boiling water, the pan lidded and the tea allowed to stand until cold. One cupful is taken three times daily. One woman reported that she suffered from a kidney infection for more than a year, antibiotics only helping temporarily. She finally had so many treatments of antibiotics that they stopped working entirely. Her son brought home an Oriental friend whose father was an herbalist. He suggested a tea of Sage and peppermint. The next day she began drinking the tea, two cups a day for three months and her kidney infection never returned (Luc:Secrets:127). [UW-Sage]

7. Dr. Christopher's Kidney and Prostate Formulas: (White Mallow and Male Urinary Tract) First, I want to thank you for making your herbs and combinations and knowledge available! My husband was suffering from kidney/prostate troubles and had gone to the urologist after the local P.A. was unable to help him. The urologist had him on a septra which made his health seem to improve for a couple of weeks--then he had the same symptoms all over again and a lot worse. So much so, he stayed home from work for four days, sleeping and very uncomfortable. When he went back to the urologist and had x-rays they weren't able to find anything, told him to go off the medicine and that the urologist felt he would just have to "live with it." He must of thought my husband was off upstairs or something, maybe.

So we went to the health food store for help. Through reading material and the lady there he started on distilled water and KB and PR. He is much better and has been able to do heavy work again. Thank you greatly. [NL 3-4]

See Also:

Bladder Formula: Dr. Christopher's Formula for Bedwetting
Kidney Formula: Dr. Christopher's Kidney Formula
Male Urinary Tract: Dr. Christopher's Prostate Formula
Bed Wetting
Bladder Ailments

"Natural Healing with Herbs for a Healthier You"