How long after a meal should I take Chinese medicine?

When Chinese medicine practitioners use Chinese medicine in combination, they pay attention to the "four properties and five flavors". They often combine prescriptions based on the cold, hot, warm, and cool properties of the medicine, and refer to the five flavors of pungent, sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. When taking medicine on an empty stomach, cold medicines or medicines with strong flavors may cause certain damage to the gastric mucosa.

Different types of Chinese herbal decoctions have different times of taking. Generally speaking, for liver, kidney, and intestinal diseases, medicines should be taken before meals; for dizziness and throat diseases, medicines should be taken after meals; laxatives, tonics, and anthelmintics should be taken on an empty stomach; sedatives should be taken before bedtime. These are general requirements for medication time based on different conditions and the characteristics of the drug's effects.

However, when actually using medication, doctors will adjust the medication according to the patient's physical changes, and the prescription will not be limited to a certain type of medicine. In addition, patients take medication for a long time, and "all medicines are poisonous", which will inevitably cause damage to the gastric mucosa. Therefore, we recommend that people who need to drink Chinese herbal decoctions for a long time should take the medicine within 30-60 minutes after a meal to reduce the direct stimulation of the drug on the gastric mucosa.

Modern Chinese medicine believes that, in principle, medicine should be taken away from meal times. Chinese medicine should not be taken from half an hour before meals to one hour after meals to prevent food from affecting the gastrointestinal tract's absorption of the medicine.

There are three types of medicines that usually require to be taken on an empty stomach: First, when treating gastric ulcers and gastric mucosal erosions, Chinese medicines such as cuttlebone and Bletilla striata are often used to inhibit the secretion of gastric acid and produce a protective film on the inner wall of the stomach. Such medicines should be taken on an empty stomach before meals as much as possible. Secondly, some laxatives, such as rhubarb for treating constipation, should also be taken on an empty stomach. Finally, it is recommended that tonic medicines be taken on an empty stomach.

The specific time to take medication should also take into account the nature and characteristics of the medication. Tranquilizers should be taken about 1 hour before bedtime; anthelmintics should also be taken before bedtime, using the night time to fully kill the insects, so that the insects can be excreted from the body the next day. Medicines for treating malaria should be taken 2 hours before a regular attack, which helps kill the malarial parasites and control the onset of malaria symptoms.