You must have believed the rumors about traditional Chinese medicine.

There are often all kinds of weird opinions about traditional Chinese medicine around me, and I keep trying to endure it... Today, I finally couldn't hold it in anymore~ It's too exaggerated, okay? If you don’t believe it, just keep reading!

Rumor 1: Taking Chinese medicine in summer can cause internal heat

Regarding this, I think more than half of the people think so, right? But there is really no reason for this statement.

No matter what season it is, it is common sense to seek treatment after getting sick. You have a deficiency-cold syndrome, so the doctor prescribes warming and tonic medicine for you. You have symptoms of excess heat, so the doctor will prescribe heat-clearing medicine for you. You will naturally get the corresponding therapeutic effect after taking the medicine. It is impossible that the heat-clearing medicine becomes a warming tonic medicine just because you take the medicine in summer. It is also impossible that your deficiency-cold syndrome will turn into excessive heatiness if treated in summer. Therefore, if you are sick, please seek medical treatment promptly and do not delay treatment due to these unnecessary rumors.

Rumor 2: Huoxiang Zhengqi can relieve summer heat

When talking about heatstroke, many people often say to drink Huoxiang Zhengqi water quickly. In fact, this is wrong.

The indications of Huoxiang Zhengqi Water are: dispelling exterior pathogenic dampness, regulating Qi and harmonizing the middle. It is used to treat exogenous wind-cold, internal injury and dampness, fever and chills, headache, chest fullness and stuffiness, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, intestinal rumbling and diarrhea, and greasy white tongue coating. In other words, Huoxiang Zhengqi San is used to treat diseases caused by external wind-cold and internal dampness, with gastrointestinal discomfort and cold symptoms. Heatstroke refers to a group of clinical syndromes caused by prolonged exposure to high temperature or physical activity in a hot environment, which leads to disorders in the body's temperature regulation function. It is characterized by high fever, thirst, dry skin and central nervous system symptoms. Obviously, what we usually call heatstroke is summer heat, while Huoxiang Zhengqi treats cold and dampness. It is obviously wrong to use the warm Huoxiang Zhengqi to treat summer heat. Even though Huoxiang Zhengqi can be used in summer, it can only be used for summer-heat and dampness syndrome without heat symptoms.

Rumor 3: You cannot eat mung beans while taking Chinese medicine

The "Dictionary of Chinese Medicine" records that mung beans can "clear away heat, detoxify, relieve summer heat, and promote diuresis. It can treat summer heat, thirst, edema, diarrhea, erysipelas, carbuncle, and antipyretic drug toxicity." There is no record that you cannot eat mung beans while taking traditional Chinese medicine. Regarding the reason why you can't eat mung beans, most people think that if you eat mung beans while taking Chinese medicine, the medicine will be ineffective because mung beans can detoxify.

This statement is also unreasonable. Being able to detoxify does not mean that the efficacy of the medicine can be eliminated. Mung beans can also be used to detoxify "heat medicines". For example, the toxicity of poisonous medicines such as aconite and monkshood can be detoxified by mung beans. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to not eat mung beans while taking Chinese medicine. Only when you suffer from a deficiency of cold or yang will your doctor advise you not to eat cold foods such as mung beans, watermelon, bitter melon, etc. to avoid severe damage to your yang energy. In other cases, it will have no impact.

Rumor 4: Take Angong Niuhuang Pills if you are in a coma

Angong Niuhuang Pills are a traditional emergency medicine in Chinese medicine. They are very expensive because of their precious medicinal ingredients. In recent years, prices have been rising year by year, and the reasons for this are not yet explored. Because a certain celebrity woke up after taking Angong Niuhuang Pills after a car accident, it was widely spread that taking Angong Niuhuang Pills could wake people up from a coma. Little do people know that this awakening is based on strict dialectical treatment.

Angong Niuhuang Pills are composed of bezoar and other heat-clearing and orifice-opening drugs, which can clear away heat, detoxify, calm the nerves and open the orifices. It is used for coma and high fever convulsions caused by febrile evil entering the pericardium, or coma due to cerebral stroke and internal retention of phlegm and heat. Taking the common stroke as an example, those who fall into coma due to stroke can be divided into cold-closed and heat-closed. If given to people suffering from heat-related constipation, it will naturally have a good therapeutic effect, but if given to people suffering from cold-related constipation, it will directly threaten the patient's life. Therefore, never give Angong Niuhuang Pills to unconscious or stroke patients on your own initiative. Angong Niuhuang Pills should not be used as a health product for middle-aged and elderly people to prevent stroke.

Rumor 5: Ejiao can nourish the kidneys, strengthen yang, and whiten the skin

Speaking of donkey-hide gelatin (including Guyuan paste containing donkey-hide gelatin), probably no one doesn’t know it. But have you ever seen various magical effects of donkey-hide gelatin, such as nourishing the kidneys and strengthening yang, beautifying and nourishing the skin... But in fact, donkey-hide gelatin is not that magical and its effects are limited.

The Chinese Pharmacopoeia records: "Donkey-hide gelatin is sweet and neutral in nature. It enters the lung, liver and kidney meridians. It nourishes blood and yin, moistens dryness and stops bleeding. It is used for blood deficiency and sallow complexion, dizziness and palpitations, muscle weakness, restlessness and insomnia, internal wind movement, dry lung cough, hemoptysis due to fatigue, hematuria and hematuria, metrorrhagia and bleeding during pregnancy. In other words, donkey-hide gelatin enters the kidney meridian, but does not have a yang-enhancing effect, but only nourishes yin and blood. In addition, donkey-hide gelatin can whiten the skin. From the perspective of blood nourishment alone, if the blood is sufficient, the skin will be moisturized and elastic, and the color will be ruddy. However, donkey-hide gelatin should never be mechanically associated with beauty and skin care. Because donkey-hide gelatin has the effect of nourishing blood and yin, it is a nourishing and greasy medicine and is particularly difficult to digest. For those with weak spleen and stomach or phlegm-damp constitution, or dampness and turbidity blocking the middle, or food accumulation, using donkey-hide gelatin will aggravate the condition. And people with long-term weak spleen and stomach will also have insufficient qi and blood, and their complexion and skin will also be very poor. If you simply think that donkey-hide gelatin can beautify, it is obvious that eating it will aggravate the condition and make the complexion worse.

In a word, donkey-hide gelatin should be used in strict accordance with syndrome differentiation, and different drug combinations should be made according to different personal constitutions to avoid nourishing drugs that increase the burden on the spleen and stomach.