Contraindications of taking Chinese medicine

What are the contraindications of taking Chinese medicine if improper diet during drinking Chinese medicine can lead to drug failure and aggravate the side effects of the drug? Generally speaking, it needs to be distinguished according to the type of herbal use. In this article, we will introduce the contraindications of drinking Chinese medicine.

Do not eat cold and acid Chinese medicine

When taking herbal medicine for cold, you should avoid eating cold and sour food because such food has astringent effect and will affect the sweating effect of the medicine.

Avoid alcohol, fish and spicy food when taking herbal medicines to clear heat

Alcohol, fish and spicy food should be prohibited when taking herbal medicines to clear heat. Because fish has a cloying, heat-producing and phlegm-generating effect; alcohol and spicy food are hot in nature and will help aggravate the disease after eating them.

Eat less food that is difficult to digest

When ordinary patients take Chinese medicine, it is advisable to eat less beans, meat, greasy, raw and cold and other indigestible foods to avoid increasing the patient's digestive burden. In particular, patients with weak spleen and stomach and poor digestive function should eat less of the above-mentioned foods during taking Chinese medicine.

Eat less mung beans, radish and tea when taking tonic medicine

When taking ginseng and other warm tonic herbs, avoid eating mung beans, radish and tea. This is because the coolness and down-gassing effect of mung beans, radish and tea can reduce the warming effect of the medicine.

You should not add sugar to Chinese medicine

Explanation from the perspective of Chinese medicine

Although the addition of sugar can reduce the bitterness of Chinese medicine, the addition of sugar can also reduce the healing effect of Chinese medicine. Chinese medicine believes that herbs, pungent, sweet, sour, bitter and salty each have different effects. Generally speaking, the pungent taste is dispersing, such as thorny mustard and peppermint; the sweet taste is tonic, such as licorice and jujube; the sour taste is astringent, such as Wu Wei Zi and Jin Zhen Zi; the bitter taste is clearing heat, such as Huang Lian and Scutellaria; the salty taste is soft and firm, such as seaweed and kombu; cane sugar in non-sweet taste medicine soup, although it neutralizes the taste of medicine, but at the same time, it also weakens the efficacy of medicine.

Nutritional Analysis

From the perspective of modern nutrition, sugar, especially brown sugar, is rich in iron, calcium and impurities, which can easily react chemically with the proteins and tannins in traditional Chinese medicine, leading to coagulation and denaturation of some components of the liquid, resulting in the failure of the medicine; in addition, sugar interferes with the body's absorption of trace elements and vitamins.

Physical constitution and contraindications to eating Chinese medicine

The patient's constitution and diet are closely related. Patients with Yin deficiency constitution should not eat hot and spicy food. For example, patients with dry lungs are prone to hemoptysis if they eat spicy food. Patients with Yang deficiency should not eat cold food. If the spleen and Yang are not invigorated, the digestive system will have diarrhea if they eat raw and cold food.

Patient's symptoms and contraindications to eating Chinese medicine

There are different types of symptoms, such as superficial, internal, cold, hot, deficiency and actual, and the diet should also be determined according to these properties of the disease. For example, for Yang deficiency, it is not advisable to take clear tonic but warm tonic; for Yin deficiency, it is advisable to take clear tonic but not warm tonic; for cold disease, it is advisable to eat warm and hot food, while cold and salty food should be absolutely avoided; for hot disease, it is advisable to eat stuffy and cool food, while spicy and stimulating food should not be eaten indiscriminately, etc.