Biological Deciphering of the “Kidney Governing Bones” Theory in Traditional Chinese Medicine

The description of the “kidney” was entirely different from modern medicine. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the kidney was a functional concept regulating water metabolism, which was closely related to the urinary system, reproductive system, nervous system, endocrine, skeleton, hearing, met...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine 2022, Vol.2022, p.1685052-8
Main Authors: Zhu, Hanmin, Liu, Qi, Li, Wei, Huang, Shuming, Zhang, Bo, Wang, Yumei
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Aging
Androgens
Animals
Bone density
Bone diseases
Chinese medicine
Estrogens
Growth factors
Growth hormones
Hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis
Hypothalamus
Kidneys
Men
Menstruation
Metabolism
Nervous system
Osteoporosis
Physiology
Pituitary
Pituitary gland
Reproductive system
Review
Sex hormones
Skeleton
Testosterone
Traditional Chinese medicine
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Summary:The description of the “kidney” was entirely different from modern medicine. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the kidney was a functional concept regulating water metabolism, which was closely related to the urinary system, reproductive system, nervous system, endocrine, skeleton, hearing, metabolism, immunity, etc. In particular, the kidney in TCM plays an important regulatory role in the processes of growth, development, prime, aging, and reproduction. Hence, “Kidney Governing Bone” (KGB) was a classical theory in TCM, which hypothesized that the function of the kidney was responsible for bone health. However, the related modern physiological mechanisms of this TCM theory are unclear. This present paper proposed a new understanding and explored the biological basis of the KGB theory. After searching through plenty of reported literature, we discovered that the functions of the kidney in TCM were closely associated with the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis in modern science. The physiological mechanism of the KGB was regulated by sex hormones and their receptors. This review deciphered the connotation of the KGB theory in modern medicine and further verified the scientificity of the basic TCM theory.
ISSN:1741-427X
1741-4288
DOI:10.1155/2022/1685052