Are there any side effects of taking Chinese medicine?

Many female friends think that taking Chinese medicine has no side effects. The side effects of taking Chinese medicine are indeed much smaller than those of taking Western medicine. However, it cannot be said that taking Chinese medicine has no side effects at all. Although most Chinese medicines are natural medicines, the active ingredients in them are relatively complex, so you cannot take Chinese medicine frequently. So what are the side effects of taking Chinese medicine?

Traditional Chinese medicine is divided into plant, animal and mineral medicines. It is sourced from nature and has basically no side effects. However, Chinese medicine has incompatibility taboos. If not used properly, it can be toxic. Of course, some Chinese medicines are poisonous, but they are only a very small minority. Moreover, most of them are only for external use and not for internal use. If you feel unwell after taking Chinese medicine, there are two possibilities. One is that the medicine is not suitable for your condition. For example, if you have yin deficiency, you should use yin-nourishing methods, but you use yang-enhancing methods, then there will be side effects. That is, it is caused by improper prescription or wrong diagnosis. Second, it is a normal reaction. Some Chinese medicines will cause reactions after taking them. It feels a bit like the condition is getting worse, but it will be fine after a while, and you will feel that the condition has improved. This is the effect of the medicine, because Chinese medicine believes that disease is a kind of qi, black qi, which is alive. It lives comfortably in your body. When you take medicine, you are expelling it, so that it has no conditions to survive, and the effect of the medicine has to go out, so at the last moment it will make you uncomfortable again, or several times. That is the last struggle. Traditional Chinese medicine also calls it the struggle between good and evil. Finally, your positive energy prevails and the negative energy retreats.

Most Chinese medicines are natural medicines with relatively complex active ingredients, such as alkaloids, saponins, tannins, volatile oils, etc. Since they are medicines, most of them will have side effects to varying degrees. Generally speaking, the side effects of traditional Chinese medicine are smaller than those of artificially synthesized Western medicine, but some drugs are more toxic, such as red arsenic, white arsenic, mercury, blister beetles, green lady bugs, red lady bugs, and raw garcinia. Those with slightly less toxicity include: white aconite, raw aconite, raw Chuanwu, raw Caowu, raw Pinellia, Strychnos nux vomica, Croton, raw Arisaema, raw Gelsemium elegans, Wolfberry, Hyoscyamus chinensis, Toad venom, Tripterygium wilfordii, Strychnos nux vomica, Maple venom, Psoralea corylifolia, Psoralea corylifolia flower, raw sulfur, croton frost, White radish, and poppy shell, etc. When using these medicines, you must be cautious. For example, maple leaf wine can be taken orally to treat rheumatoid arthritis, but excessive doses can often cause poisoning and death. Therefore, toxic Chinese herbal medicines must be taken under the guidance of a physician.

So, why don't poisoning occur when Pinellia, Arisaema, Aconitum, Chuanwu, and Aconitum are commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions? On the one hand, it is because these medicines are processed. For example, taking raw Pinellia orally can cause vomiting. Numbness of lips and tongue. Hoarseness and other side effects, but after raw pinellia is processed with ginger juice, alum, salt, etc., its toxicity is greatly reduced. On the other hand, we must also master the correct method of use. For example, when mercury is used as the main drug to treat skin cancer and cervical cancer, it can only be used externally and is strictly prohibited for oral administration, otherwise mercury poisoning will occur.

The above article introduces in detail the side effects of drinking Chinese medicine. So if you want to maintain your health, you don’t have to drink Chinese medicine. There are many ways to maintain your health in daily life. Improving your living habits is the most important. Even if you want to drink Chinese medicine, you must take it under the guidance of a doctor.