Beware of damaging your stomach by drinking hawthorn-infused water.

Drinking hawthorn slices soaked in water as a tea can lower blood lipids. However, some people, after drinking hawthorn tea for a period of time, find that their blood lipids have not decreased, but instead, they have developed a stomach condition. Professor Long Zhixian of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine says that while drinking hawthorn tea can lower blood lipids, hawthorn also has a strong function of aiding digestion. Therefore, people with stomach problems generally should not drink hawthorn tea on an empty stomach. In particular, patients with excessive stomach acid, gastritis, gastric ulcers, reflux gastritis, and reflux esophagitis are not suitable for drinking it.