Your kidneys are correlated with the emotion of fear.
Your adrenal glands, which sit directly on top of the kidneys, release hormones like cortisol which help you mobilize to either fight or flee. This anatomical proximity helps explain how chronic and ongoing stress can deplete kidney energy and leave you stuck in a cycle of fear.
As you may know, your kidneys are two bean-shaped organs located near the middle part of your back that play a vital role in keeping you healthy. Your kidneys are a key organ of detoxification, helping you filter your blood and remove water-soluble waste products and excess fluid from your body through urination.
On an energetic level, your kidneys are considered a storehouse for energy and vitality, supporting your drive and willpower to press forward and accomplish your goals. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, your kidneys are related to fear, which can manifest as chronic fear, overwhelm, or anxiety when kidney energy is out of balance
On a physical level, your kidneys help regulate the flow and balance of fluids in your body. For example, they balance blood pressure by maintaining the salt and water balance, along with your body’s acid-alkaline balance (pH) by selectively filtering out or retaining various minerals and electrolytes. In this capacity, your kidneys play a part in causing your adrenal glands to produce more or less aldosterone, a hormone that helps control the balance of water and salts in the kidney by keeping sodium in and releasing potassium from the body. Too much aldosterone can cause high blood pressure and a build-up of fluid in body tissues.
This water element is associated with fear along with the flow of emotions and thoughts. Water is symbolic of the unconscious, our emotions, and of that which we do not understand and that which we fear.
Water can appear in the form of waves or a deep sea, which can be either calming or terrifying. When the water element is balanced, fear can be a survival tool that helps you navigate situations with caution and care. However, when the water element is out of balance, fear can manifest as excessive fear, phobias, or a lack of courage.
Your kidneys also control the volume, composition, and pressure of fluids in all of your cells. Blood flows through your kidneys at its highest pressure – over 200 quarts per day – filtering out toxins and directing nourishing materials to where they are needed.
Your kidneys are also innervated by small branches of your vagus nerve called renal branches and specifically correlated with the sympathetic “fight or flight” nervous system through the renal plexus and least splanchnic nerves. The sympathetic nervous system regulates the release of fear hormones adrenaline and noradrenaline from your adrenal glands.
These fear hormones then circulate through the bloodstream to all cells of your body.
Adrenaline and Fear
The effect of adrenaline (also called epinephrine) is similar to the effect of the sympathetic nervous system. Adrenaline increases heart rate, increases breathing rate, and dilates blood vessels to the lungs and muscles. Adrenaline also decreases blood flow to the frontal lobe of the brain and increases blood flow to areas that contribute to fear and anxiety.
Your sympathetic nervous system also drives your fear response. The sympathetic innervates all segments of the kidneys including the blood vessels and tubules. This means that stimulating your sympathetic nervous system activates your fight or flight response which impacts blood flow to your organs, including reducing blood flow to your kidneys, which may increase sodium retention and contribute to fear response symptoms, including high blood pressure, according to research on “Interactions between the sympathetic nervous system and the kidneys in arterial hypertension.”
What’s more, epinephrine can play a role in the psychological stress response of the kidneys. These neurotransmitters are usually broken down in our bodies by two major enzymes: monoamine oxidase (MAO) and COMT. Recently, a new enzyme, renalase, was found to be produced by the kidneys and involved in the breakdown of these neurotransmitters.
Symptoms of Kidney Imbalance
Kidney issues often arise when dealing with fear, such as changing life direction or unstable living conditions. Long-term or excessive psychological fear of change can easily damage your Kidney energy.
Similarly, when other detoxification organs get overburdened, as often happens with the liver, excess toxins are rerouted to the kidneys, placing an extra strain on their capacity. The kidneys are late to complain, meaning that early symptoms of distress can be subtle but important to recognize. Early symptoms of poor kidney function include:
- Feeling fearful or anxious
- Pain in the low or mid-back
- Feeling insecure
- Swelling from water retention, or “edema”, especially around the legs, ankles, or feet.
- Puffy or swollen eyes or face from fluid retention
- Frequent urination or infrequent or inefficient urination
- Night sweats
- Dry mouth
- Poor short-term memory
- Soreness around the knees
- Aversion to cold
- Dizziness
- Ringing in ears
- Sweaty palms or feet
- Dry, brittle, and dull hair
- Urine with a strong odor
- Frequent UTIs
- High blood pressure
- Labored breathing due to fluid accumulation in the chest cavity.
Essential Oils for the Kidneys and Adrenal Glands
Essential oils may help restore the flow of energy and vitality to your kidneys and adrenal glands, allowing these organs to perform their normal functions at an optimal level and in the process eliminating fear.
Topically applied essential oils for kidneys can be a powerful tool to help strengthen kidney function. For example, several essential oils possess natural diuretic and anti-inflammatory properties and may help enhance your body’s efforts to maintain proper fluid balance, support bladder function, and aid overall urinary health. In fact, research demonstrates that essential oils can significantly relieve symptoms of kidney disease.
Essential oils can increase the flow of bodily fluids, such as urine, to help flush excess water and toxins from the body. This is especially helpful if you suffer from edema or swelling due to excess water accumulation. Essential oils for kidneys also possess antiseptic qualities that are helpful in preventing kidney inflammation and relieving urinary tract infections.
Kidney Support™
Designed to help strengthen your kidneys, Kidney Support™ may help balance kidney emotions of fear and promote feelings of safety, strength, and courage.
Your kidneys help maintain the composition of blood by removing waste and excess water. As you may know, the fluid flow in your body helps nourish your physical organs and tissues and assist in the flow and release of emotions, like fear.
Essential oils help promote optimal flow and support healthy movement and release of emotions like fear. Topically apply 2 -3 drops of Kidney Support™ over the kidneys (lower back, size of a fist starting at the bottom rib), over the forehead, or around the outside of earlobes can help support the kidney’s optimal function.
Adrenal®
Essential Oils with their unique ability to return different organ systems to balance can help return your adrenal glands to balance to help support the healthy production of adrenal hormones.
Your adrenal glands constantly circulate stress hormones that keep you on high alert and amplify your reaction to minor stressors, contributing to feelings of fear.
The adrenal glands produce several hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol which are released to help the body manage stress. This stress response can throw your hormones out of balance, either releasing too much (often called hyper adrenal conditions) or too little (often called adrenal fatigue). The Adrenal® blend is designed to balance the extremes, calming the adrenals when too much cortisol is released and supporting them during periods of adrenal fatigue.
Much like adaptogenic herbs, Vibrant Blue Oils Adrenal® blend helps increase the body’s ability to adapt to stress and maintain healthy adrenal function. Topically apply 1- 2 drops on the adrenal glands (on the lower mid-back, one fist above the 12th rib on each side).
READ THIS NEXT: Essential Oils to Balance Adrenal Hormones
Parasympathetic®
Activating the parasympathetic branch of your nervous system optimizes kidney filtration functions. For example, the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system encourages vasodilation, which increases blood flow and enhances blood filtration through the kidneys It also helps the body to excrete sodium, which can help reduce hypertension
Research titled “Fear and anxiety takes a double hit from vagal nerve stimulation” documents how activating your parasympathetic nervous system via vagus nerve stimulation helps to quell anxiety and fear.
What’s more, when stimulated, your vagus nerve releases the neurotransmitter Acetylcholine which calms feelings of fear and anxiety by relaxing the smooth muscles in your artery walls, dilating the arteries, and slowing your heartbeat. It also may enhance memory consolidation and enhancement which may help with the processing of fear memories, which helps inhibit exaggerated fear expression, like anxiety. (read more about Acetylcholine).
Your vagus nerve helps your autonomic nervous system communicate fear and danger information to your amygdala. In simple terms, the vagus nerve detects the release of the stress hormone epinephrine which acts as a “something important just happened” signal that is communicated to other fear centers in the brain. Activation or inhibition of this signal “can enhance or decrease the rate of fear extinction.”
“By enhancing fear extinction while quelling anxiety, vagal stimulation delivers a double hit against maladaptive fear. This may make vagal stimulation particularly useful in cases where severe anxiety prevents effective exposure therapy.”
You may recall that your vagus nerve controls your relaxation response. In addition to helping you relax by releasing acetylcholine, the vagus nerve’s tendrils extend to many organs, acting like fiber-optic cables that send instructions to release enzymes and proteins like prolactin, vasopressin, and oxytocin, which calm you down.
This is one way the vagus nerve helps counterbalance the effects of the sympathetic nervous system – by signaling for the release of prolactin, vasopressin, and oxytocin, all of which dampen the sympathetic activation and help you calm down, manage, and recover more quickly from stress, which helps offset anxiety.
You can naturally stimulate your vagus nerve by topically applying our stimulatory Parasympathetic® behind the earlobe on the mastoid bone where the vagus nerve is closest to the surface of your body.
READ THIS NEXT: Parasympathetic for Anxiety
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References:
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12623969/
- https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/article/61/2/238/424119
- https://www.cell.com/fulltext/S1550-4131(05)00146-4
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3203284/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4176918/
- https://nba.uth.tmc.edu/neuroscience/m/s1/chapter11.html
- https://vibrantblueoils.com/essential-oils-for-memory/
