Why does my face swell up after taking Chinese medicine?

Some people are physically weak, so they choose to treat their condition by taking medicine. In fact, the issue of medication treatment still depends on a person's physical condition, because everyone's physical constitution is different. Even if you spend a lot of money to buy high-end deer antlers and ginseng, you will find that the more you take the medicine, the worse it gets, and the effect is counterproductive. You may even have a swollen face after taking Chinese medicine. Be careful not to fall into the misunderstanding of tonic.

Three major misunderstandings

Myth 1: The more expensive the product, the more supplements it will provide

Some people believe that the more expensive a Chinese herbal medicine[2] is, the more tonic it is, and they often spend a lot of money to buy Chinese herbal medicines such as deer antler and ginseng. In fact, these tonic effects may not necessarily be good. "Replenish what is lacking" is the basic principle of tonic. The efficacy of Chinese medicine should not be divided by the price. The key is to choose the corresponding tonic according to your own physical constitution, especially for the elderly, who should take practicality as the principle of tonic.

Myth 2: The more you take, the better

The saying "take more tonic medicines to cure diseases and strengthen the body when you are healthy" is very unscientific. Eating a lot of tonic food in winter will suddenly increase the burden on the spleen, stomach and liver, making it difficult for the digestive organs, which have been in a weak state for a long time, to bear it, leading to digestive system dysfunction.

Myth 3: Not distinguishing between reality and fiction

The treatment principle of traditional Chinese medicine is "tonic for the weak", and people who are not weak should not take tonic. Even if it is weak, there are qi deficiency, blood deficiency, yang deficiency, and yin deficiency. The human body organs are divided into heart deficiency, lung deficiency, liver deficiency, spleen deficiency, and kidney deficiency. Before taking tonic, it is best to consult a professional doctor and take the tonic according to the performance characteristics of various tonics. For example, people with hot constitution are not suitable for taking warm medicines such as ginseng, deer antler, and seahorse.

Contraindications

The contraindications of taking Chinese medicine can be roughly divided into four categories:

(1) Contraindications for the use of Chinese medicine: Certain drugs may produce opposite or antagonistic effects after formulation, which may reduce the efficacy of each other or cause toxic and side effects. Therefore, they should not be used together.

(2) Contraindications for use of drugs by pregnant women: Mainly to avoid fetal movement and abortion. Most pregnant women have poor tolerance to extremely cold or hot drugs, strong laxatives, blood-breaking and blood-stasis-removing drugs, and highly toxic drugs. Therefore, the relevant drugs must be avoided.

(3) Dietary taboos during medication: commonly known as dietary taboos, they are mainly to avoid interference factors when taking medicine in order to improve the efficacy of the medicine. They can be divided into two categories: dietary taboos corresponding to a certain medicine and dietary taboos when taking medicine under different disease conditions. For example, dietary taboos during medication include ginseng and radish, turtle shell and amaranth, licorice and silver carp, shanshan and onion, and poria and vinegar. The latter means that when taking medicine for chronic diseases, one should avoid eating raw or cold food; during the treatment of febrile diseases, one should avoid eating spicy and greasy food; for carbuncles, ulcers, and skin diseases, one should avoid eating fish, shrimp, goose meat, and spicy food.