has diagrams showing "Defensive-Qi-gathering vessels" emerging from the Kidneys.11(118)
Thus, resistance to pathogenic factors (which include allergens) is dependent not only on the
Lungs but to a great extent also on the Kidneys.
However, the type of deficiency involved in allergic asthma is a deficiency of only one aspect of
the Kidney functions, i.e. in connection with Defensive-Qi. It could be called deficiency of the
Kidney's Defensive-Qi system, similar to the Lung's Defensive-Qi system. This Kidney
deficiency involves only this aspect of its functions and therefore not many other symptoms and
signs are present. For example, a child or teenager with allergic asthma would not have
dizziness, deafness, tinnitus, backache, week knees or night-sweating.
The traditional theories of Wheezing (Xiao) and Breathlessness (Chuan) both contemplate a
Kidney deficiency as a factor in asthma, but only for its late stages in chronic cases. In allergic
asthma, on the contrary, there is a deficiency of the Kidney Defensive-Qi system from the
beginning. In children also, prolonged wheezing and cough may induce a Kidney deficiency
which is therefore the consequence of a Lung pathology; in atopic asthma, however, a Kidney
deficiency is the cause of the condition, and the cause for chronic Wind to be lodged in the chest.
It is interesting to note that atopic asthma often improves during pregnancy.12(119) This
confirms the involvement of the Kidneys in atopic asthma as a Kidney deficiency sometimes
improves during pregnancy.
Thus the immune hyper-reactivity which is at the basis of asthma is due to a deficiency of both
Lung and Kidney's Defensive-Qi systems. The Kidneys influence the immune system not only
through the connection between Kidney-Yang and Defensive-Qi, but also because the
Kidney-Essence, through the Governing, Penetrating and Directing vessels, is partly responsible
for protection from external pathogenic factors. Western physiology confirms this role of the
Kidneys in the immune defences since all cells involved in the immune response are derived
from a common stem cell in the marrow (which is a product of the Kidney-Essence). This is
illustrated in Figure 5.2(120).
How does a deficiency of the Kidney's Defensive-Qi system arise? It may derive from:
(a) hereditary constitutional weakness(b) problems to the mother during pregnancy such as a shock, smoking, drinking
alcohol, or using drugs(c) problems at childbirth such as foetal distress and induction(d) immunizations.It has been shown recently that maternal smoking during pregnancy may result in increased
levels of IgE antibodies in the cord blood of the newborn baby.13(121) Some drugs taken during