Drinking water steeped with dried hawthorn as tea can lower blood lipids. However, some people, after drinking hawthorn tea for a period of time, haven't had a chance to see their blood lipids decrease before they develop stomach problems from drinking it.
Brewing Hawthorn Tea
Drinking hawthorn tea can indeed lower blood lipids, and there are relevant records in the ancient Chinese medical classic "Huangdi Neijing". However, the primary function of hawthorn is to aid digestion. In folk traditions, both children and adults have long used hawthorn to relieve indigestion and promote digestion.
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine theory, hawthorn has a strong function of aiding digestion. Therefore, people with stomach problems generally should not drink hawthorn tea on an empty stomach. In particular, those with excessive stomach acid, gastritis, gastric ulcers, reflux gastritis, or reflux esophagitis are not suitable for drinking it. To lower blood lipids by drinking hawthorn tea is not an effect that can be achieved in a short period of time. One must drink it daily to achieve the effects of lowering blood lipids and softening blood vessels. The effect will be better if cassia seeds (which can lower blood pressure) and Fo-ti (which is an antioxidant) are added to the hawthorn tea. The daily dose of hawthorn used should be about 25 grams.
Shangshan tea