Many people trust in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which achieves therapeutic effects by regulating the body. However, many people are very unclear about when to take Chinese medicine and whether it can be taken on an empty stomach. So, can you take Chinese medicine on an empty stomach? What are the precautions for taking Chinese medicine? Let's find out below.
Chinese medicine is best taken on an empty stomach
For medicinal soups with a nourishing effect, it is suitable to take them on an empty stomach in the morning for better absorption. In addition, medicines used to expel parasites or treat diseases of the limbs and blood vessels are also taken on an empty stomach. This allows the medicine to quickly enter the intestine and exert its maximum effect. Medicinal soups with a purgative effect are the same.
When taking Chinese medicine, the following six categories of food should not be eaten
1. Fishy Category
These foods are mostly salty, cold, and have a strong fishy odor, and contain foreign proteins that can easily cause allergic reactions. Eating too much can damage the spleen and stomach and induce diseases. Therefore, people with spleen and stomach problems should not eat them, especially those with allergic constitutions. Such foods include yellow croaker, carp, hairtail, clam meat, shrimp, crab, etc. Among them, carp, sardines, catfish, yellow croaker, crab, and yellow mud snails are most likely to cause allergies. Fishy foods are also considered "trigger foods".
2. Greasy Category
This category includes animal fats and hard, solid foods that are oil-fried or deep-fried. Greasy foods impair the spleen and stomach's function of transportation and transformation. Therefore, they should be avoided by those with external diseases, jaundice, or diarrhea. Oil-fried and deep-fried foods are hard, dry, and hot, difficult to digest, and should be avoided by those with gastrointestinal problems or "internal heat".
3. Acidic and Astringent Category
Too much acid can irritate the stomach and intestines, so it is forbidden for those with excessive stomach acid or gastrointestinal ulcers. Astringent foods mostly contain tannins. For example, tea contains tannins, and strong tea contains even more. When taken with Chinese herbal medicines, it can bind with certain proteins, alkaloids, and heavy metal salts in the herbs to form precipitates, which affects the absorption of the active ingredients of the medicine and also affects the absorption of nutrients like protein. Therefore, when taking Chinese herbal medicines, it is generally not advisable to take them with strong tea.
4. Trigger Foods Category
These foods are all known to stir up wind, produce phlegm, and assist fire. Depending on the nature of the disease, the "triggering" effect varies. Such foods include mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, mustard greens, pumpkin, rooster meat, pig's head meat, sow meat, etc. For example, patients with hyperactive liver yang and internal stirring of liver wind should avoid rooster meat and pig's head meat. Patients with skin diseases like boils, carbuncles, sores, and abscesses should avoid shiitake mushrooms, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, rooster meat, pig's head meat, and sow meat, otherwise it will accelerate redness, swelling, and pus formation. Patients with stomach and intestinal problems should avoid pumpkin, as it contains sugar, and eating too much will produce more acid, irritating the stomach and intestines. In this sense, "triggering" can largely be said to promote the worsening of a disease.
5. Raw and Cold Category
These foods are mostly cold in nature and their main effect is to clear heat and quench thirst, so they are suitable for heat syndromes. However, they can easily affect gastrointestinal function. Therefore, people with deficient and cold constitutions and those with gastrointestinal diseases should avoid them. For example, radish is cold in nature and has the effects of promoting digestion, resolving phlegm, and regulating qi. If a person with a deficient and cold constitution or gastrointestinal disease eats it, it would be adding cold to cold, making the gastrointestinal function even worse. In addition, when taking ginseng and other tonifying medicines at the same time, due to the incompatibility of their properties, it can reduce or eliminate the effectiveness of the tonic. Therefore, radish and ginseng should not be taken together.
6. Pungent and Spicy Category
These foods are mostly pungent and hot, and have the effect of promoting yang and strengthening the stomach. However, eating too much can easily produce phlegm and stir up fire, disperse qi and consume blood. Therefore, this type of diet is only suitable for those with cold syndromes, and not for those with yin deficiency and yang hyperactivity, or those with blood diseases, warm diseases, hemorrhoids, fistulas, boils, and carbuncles. Such foods include onions, garlic, chives, ginger, alcohol, chili peppers, etc. For example, chili is hot in nature. If someone with symptoms of heat such as fever, constipation, scanty and dark urine, dry mouth, chapped lips, sore throat, nosebleeds, and a red tongue eats it, it will inevitably worsen the "internal heat" symptoms, thus counteracting the effects of heat-clearing, blood-cooling, and yin-nourishing medicines. Therefore, patients with heat syndromes should not eat chili when seeing a TCM doctor.
What are the taboos for taking Chinese medicine
1. Chinese medicinal decoctions should not be taken overnight
The general way we take Chinese medicine is to decoct it in water to form a medicinal soup for oral administration. The components of Chinese medicinal decoctions are complex, including proteins, sugars, vitamins, and other components such as volatile oils and amino acids. After being left overnight, not only does the medicinal effect decrease, but it may also lead to bacterial growth, causing the liquid to become sour and spoiled. Therefore, when taking Chinese medicine, one should decoct and take it on the same day, and never take overnight Chinese medicinal decoctions.
2. Be cautious with folk Chinese medicine remedies
In China, many people are happy to believe in so-called magical folk remedies to treat some difficult diseases. These remedies are passed down in the folk, many of which are not recorded in any medical pharmacopoeia. Some may be effective, but not all folk remedies are correct. When faced with folk remedies, one should consult a regular physician to understand the effects of the relevant drugs and their compatibility before deciding whether to use them.
3. Avoid foods that affect the efficacy of the medicine
For example, raw and cold foods, strong tea, pungent and greasy foods, radishes, and fishy and smelly foods. These types of foods can either neutralize the medicinal power and reduce the therapeutic effect, decrease absorption, or even produce harmful effects. Therefore, when taking Chinese medicine, it is essential to follow the doctor's advice and observe the relevant dietary restrictions.
4. Do not overdose or take Chinese medicine for a long period in pursuit of rapid effects
For example, cassia seed has the effect of lowering blood lipids, but long-term use may cause diarrhea. Licorice, which benefits the spleen, tonifies qi, and clears heat and toxins, can cause an increase in blood pressure when taken for a long time. The folk saying "all medicine has some toxicity" explains this principle.
5. People with special constitutions should be cautious when taking Chinese medicine
For example, after taking Chinese medicine containing wild chrysanthemum, people with a deficient and cold spleen and stomach may experience symptoms such as stomach discomfort and bowel sounds. It is best to first understand your own constitution from a TCM practitioner or through self-testing. If you belong to a more typical constitution, you should understand the corresponding taboos before taking Chinese medicine.
6. Pregnant women should be cautious when taking Chinese medicine
Because Western medicine may cause fetal malformations and other reasons, many pregnant women prefer Chinese patent medicines. However, some Chinese patent medicines are certainly toxic. It must be remembered that pregnant women should be cautious towards many types of Chinese medicine, such as those that clear heat, expel wind and dampness, promote digestion, have a purgative effect, regulate qi, open the orifices, expel parasites, and eliminate dampness.
7. Precautions during the decoction process of Chinese medicine
In modern households, most people use iron pots, stainless steel pots, or non-stick pans. It is best not to use them to decoct Chinese medicine; instead, one should choose a clay medicine pot or a sand pot. Because decoction is a lengthy process, using metal utensils can easily cause certain medicinal ingredients to react with the vessel, producing or releasing harmful heavy metals and other substances to the human body.