Is it okay to take Chinese medicine half an hour after a meal?

Traditional Chinese Medicine is my country's traditional medicine and an important part of the development of Chinese medicine. In recent years, with the popularization of people's health awareness and health consciousness, more and more people have begun to join the ranks of Chinese medicine health care. Whether for daily health care or as physical therapy, many people have begun to choose traditional Chinese medicine, which has a slow effect but few side effects and is safe and can cure the root cause. So is it good for your health to drink Chinese medicine half an hour after a meal? Let me give you a detailed introduction below.

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.

Precautions for taking Chinese medicine:

1. Different medicines have different hot and cold requirements. Decoctions should generally be taken warm, which means the decocted medicine should be cooled to 30℃~40℃ at room temperature before taking. However, medicines for dispelling exterior pathogens, dispelling cold, and promoting blood circulation and unblocking meridians should be taken while hot; medicines for clearing away heat and detoxifying and antiemetics should be taken after the medicine liquid has cooled slightly.

2. Medicinal properties: Heat-clearing and detoxifying drugs and laxatives for laxatives should be taken on an empty stomach; stomachic drugs or decoctions that irritate the gastrointestinal tract should be taken after meals; anthelmintics should be taken overnight, usually once before going to bed and again on an empty stomach the next morning; tranquilizers should be taken within 30 minutes to 1 hour before going to bed.

3. Generally, decoctions are taken once a day, but the first and second decoctions should be mixed evenly and taken in the morning and evening. The dosage each time should be 150-200 ml. However, there are special requirements for heat-clearing and detoxifying drugs. They can be taken 3 to 4 times a day. If you have a cold and high fever that won't go away, you can take diaphoretic and antipyretic drugs once every 4 hours (regardless of day or night), and the amount of medicine can be slightly more.

In addition, many people have doubts about whether to drink or discard the sediment in the decoction. In fact, the decocted medicine only needs to be filtered through a layer of coarse gauze or a mesh. After the decoction has been left for a while, there is often sediment at the bottom of the bowl, but in order to ensure the efficacy of the medicine, it is best for the user to take as much of the sediment as possible.

The above is the little knowledge I introduced to you about taking Chinese medicine half an hour after a meal. You can make good use of this time period to promote drug absorption and enhance health benefits. In addition, when taking Chinese medicine, you must choose the medicinal materials that are suitable for you. Traditional Chinese medicine divides human physique into several categories, and everyone can make specific choices based on their personal constitution. Pay more attention to rest and exercise moderately in daily life to maintain good health.