#1 Vitamin to eliminate swelling in feet and legs

I'll never forget the first time I felt pitting edema I had basically been putting my thumb into a patient's calf and leg and my thumb sunk in almost to that first joint right here and I was just an intern at the time in my medical program and I was shocked by how severe the pitting was because when I removed my thumb there the dent stayed as if I just punched it with a hammer into this person's leg now for thousands of years there's been a diagnosis in traditional Chinese medicine called Kidney Chi or functional defici and doctors have said this is often the reason for swelling in the lower half of the body specifically the legs and the feet and the calves but what actually is that What vitamin deficiencies may be related and how do we treat it clinically hey guys I'm Dr Alex hin board licensed acupuncturist and doctor of traditional Chinese medicine and author of the health book master of the day so let's jump in so for many people who have diabetes or some who have advanced heart failure and other medical conditions as well edema can be something that is very very common I would say in the context of the modern person the number one cause and kind of Edema that you see typically is related to either chronic blood sugar issues people who are diabetic they begin getting a little bit of swelling around the ankles typically on the medial side the inside of your ankle or below the calf and down into the feet sometimes there a little bit of fullness if you look at your feet side by side one will look a little more puffy one you can see more of the connective tissue and you can see the bones Etc but also heart disease is a major killer of people in the United States and developed countries and so in heart failure it's almost like you could view it as the pump the sub pump in the basement is not pumping all the water from the flood out and so there's this pooling it's pooling in the lower half because of gravity now edema itself is the swelling of certain areas of the body due to these trapped fluids which can be a result of medical conditions can be a result of vitamin deficiencies all kinds of things but we'll discuss a couple of the root causes here today now if you're curious not just for the root cause of Edema but other symptoms you may be having I've put together a brand new root cause quck is it's the first link right below this video and it's a pretty in-depth 10-page handout on what your symptoms are and what physiological Pathways or organ deficiencies it may be related to from a traditional Chinese medicine point of view it's very unique we've also taken the time to link to a whole bunch of other videos we've already shot on those topics or on those symptoms that can help you again the whole thing's free it's the first link right below this video now what are some of the vitamin deficiencies that can be related to edema a lot of what you might see are B vitamins so for example vitamin B1 thomine thyine deficiency from a medical point of view is known to cause berry berry a condition that basically includes symptoms like peripheral edema berry berry not something commonly diagnosed in the modern world definitely not in developed countries these days but in terms of berry berry or thyine deficiency in general it can contribute to cardiovascular issues which can in turn cause edema due to just the general Poe heart function so that's like that pump deficiency the sub pump we talked about effect now another B vitamin is actually vitamin B6 so vitamin B6 deficiency has been linked to water retention and edema an interesting study done in the journal of clinical nutrition found that B6 supplementation can actually help reduce premenstrual edema in women found that pretty interesting in the research there now how does traditional Chinese medicine view edema most of the time you will see edema in the patterns I talked about heart disease cardiovascular disease diabetes you'll see a diagnosis that your acupunctur may give you called Kidney Chi deficiency the kidney we say governs not just longevity and your overall battery char charge Your vitality but the kidney governs urinary functions right like men with prostate issues nighttime urination you'll see it also governs genital urinary functions so libido erections blood flow both for women and for men and on top of that the kidney governs issues that involve the adrenals to a certain extent but also the filtration right related to bladder and prostate issues so the kidney is one of those pumps in the body a lot like the heart is that deals with purification and circulation when we say the kidneys are week it's almost like what I talked about the sub pump your basement is flooding and a strong pump is pumping that water out so that the carpets can dry and all your furniture can dry when the pump is weak it's just pumping out 75% of the water so it's just still pooling a little bit and it's getting all moldy and nasty and smelly you could think of it like that so basically what you're seeing is that the diuretic effect of the kidneys is to we to continue this flushing of the fluid right so you're seeing this gravity of the fluid and that's why when people lay down legs up at the end of the night the elevation of the legs will help with the fluid itself but in a healthy person the body has been evolved for hundreds of thousands of years to fight gravity to pump circulation back up towards the heart away from the heart up down left right but when it's compromised that's when you start to see it pull typically in the lower extremities there's an interesting study done on one famous formula called shinchi one Kidney Chi pill now this formula has been well studied and researched all over Japan and Korea and China and in the US even they found that a study done in the Journal of ethn pharmacology found that shenian has significant diuretic effects it actually increases urine output and reduces water retention in animal models so that supports its use in treating edema that's a bit about edema and some of the vitamins and nutrients that are related to it now again if you guys want to work with me privately oneon-one on my private practice in Los Angeles or virtually via tele medicine just go to Dr Alex hind.com clinic or go to the link right below my phone number for the clinic is right below as well I've also don't forget have that root cause quiz we've put together for you this little card here will direct you right towards that and I have another great video on this topic right up here