Dietary taboos while taking traditional Chinese medicine

Avoid foods that conflict with the properties of the medicine, foods that will aggravate current symptoms, and foods that will cause extra burden on the gastrointestinal tract. The rest can be flexibly adjusted according to your own situation. There is no need to compare one by one with the "10 foods that must be avoided when taking Chinese medicine" posted online, and make you afraid to eat.

Last week, a little girl came to me for a follow-up consultation. She said that after drinking the Menstrual Warming Decoction for more than half a month, her aunt's pain was not getting better. When I asked her, I found out that she couldn't help but eat a glass of iced Americano every morning and gnawed on a frozen watermelon in the afternoon. The medicine was warm when she drank it, but was suppressed by the ice when she turned around. It's strange that it can be useful.

Speaking of this, some people may ask, does everyone who drinks traditional Chinese medicine need to avoid cold and spicy foods? It’s really not the case. There are actually different views on this matter in the traditional Chinese medicine circles: Most of the traditional febrile disease schools advocate that taking medicine should be as light as possible, and avoid spicy, cold, and hairy substances as much as possible to avoid conflict with the properties of the medicine and avoid aggravating the body’s heat syndrome or cold syndrome. ； But now many clinicians who specialize in classic prescriptions do not have so many requirements - if you are a native of Chongqing and have been eating spicy food since childhood, and this time you just go to the doctor to deal with insufficient Qi and blood and poor sleep, there is no need to completely stop spicy food. It is easy to lose your appetite when drinking traditional Chinese medicine, but suddenly you are not allowed to touch spicy food, and you can't eat, and the absorption of the medicine is compromised.

I had a cold due to wind-heat two years ago, so I drank three pairs of Yinqiao Powder. The fever was gone after just one day of drinking it. I ran out to eat a butter hot pot because of my cravings. The next day my throat swelled up, and the fever returned to 38°5. This was not a typical contraindication for a disease - it was originally a cold caused by wind-heat, and eating food that was heavy in oil and spicy was equivalent to giving fuel to the disease.

Many people's rumors that "you can't eat radishes" and "you can't eat mung beans" when taking Chinese medicine are even more nonsense. It depends on what kind of medicine you take. If you are drinking a qi-tonifying prescription containing ginseng and astragalus, it is really not recommended to eat a lot of raw radish. After all, radish has the effect of lowering qi and relieving stagnation, which will offset part of the qi-tonifying effect. ； But if you have eaten too much and have a bloated stomach, and the doctor prescribes a prescription for eliminating stasis such as Bohe Pills, eating some radish will help the medicine take effect, and you may get better faster. The same goes for mung beans, which are Chinese herbal medicines that can clear away heat and detoxify. If you drink a heat-clearing prescription to treat internal heat and acne, drinking some mung bean soup can also help increase the effectiveness. If you drink a prescription that warms the spleen and stomach, it’s okay to take a few sips of warm mung bean soup. Just don’t drink ice.

When I tell patients about their taboos, I never make a long list. I just talk about two principles: First, if you usually eat something that makes you uncomfortable, don’t touch it while you are taking medicine. For example, if you have diarrhea when you drink milk or you are allergic when you eat seafood, you should avoid touching it no matter whether you are taking medicine or not. Your stomach will be weaker while taking medicine, so don’t touch it.； Second, if you are not sure, ask the doctor who prescribes it. Don’t search blindly on the Internet. Last time, a patient had constipation and the doctor prescribed a laxative with rhubarb. He searched on the Internet and said that Chinese medicine should not be eaten cold, so he took the medicine until it was almost cool before drinking it. The effect of the medicine was reduced by half. After drinking it for three days, it still didn’t come out. After asking, I found out that the doctor specifically told him to drink it while the medicine is still warm to cool, so that the medicine is effective.

In fact, to put it bluntly, all dietary taboos are essentially "serving the efficacy of medicine" and are not intended to restrict your eating. If you slow down your recovery just for a bite of ice and a bite of spicy food, it will be more of a loss than a gain. ； But there is no need to act like an ascetic. You have to follow the taboo list for a long time before eating a bite of food. Drinking Chinese medicine is enough to make you upset, and eating is not fun. A bad mood will also affect your recovery. If you are unsure, there is nothing better than asking the prescribing doctor.