When taking Chinese medicine, is it better to have the soup at a cold or hot temperature?

In daily medical treatment, patients often ask about the temperature of Chinese medicine decoctions, whether they should be taken cold or hot? In addition to the patient's own preference for hot or cold food, is there really a basis for choosing whether to take Chinese medicine decoctions cold or hot? Let's discuss this issue here.

(Pictures from the Internet, please delete if infringed)

Generally speaking, Chinese herbal medicine decoctions should be taken warm, and in fact, warm is the most common method. However, there are many special cases based on the individual conditions of the patient, the condition of the disease and other factors. They mainly include the following points.

1. Hot medicines for cold syndrome should be taken hot, while cold medicines for heat syndrome should be taken cold.

This is to use the cold and hot properties of the medicine to correct the bias of the disease. In terms of treatment principles, hot medicines are used for cold syndromes, and cold medicines are used for hot syndromes. At the same time, hot medicines are taken hot and cold medicines are taken cold, which is similar to the nature of the medicines. It assists the power of the medicines and is more conducive to disease recovery. For example, warming agents, such as Sini Decoction and Wuzhuyu Decoction, are mostly warm in nature and are mostly used for internal cold syndromes. They should be taken hot; heat-clearing and heat-relief drugs should be taken cold. These drugs are mostly cold and cool. The ancients also called them drinks, such as Qingluo Drink, Xiangru Drink, Puji Xiaodu Drink, etc., which should be taken cold.

2. All medicines for dispersing external pathogens should be taken with hot water.

Most of the antipyretic drugs have a pungent and dispersing nature, and the heat property is upward and dispersing, while the cold property is astringent and stagnant. Therefore, drugs that disperse the external evil can be more effective in dispersing muscles and releasing the exterior if they are assisted by the heat property. Especially the pungent and warm diaphoretic and antipyretic drugs used for external cold syndrome should not only be taken hot, but also warmed up after taking the medicine to induce slight sweating. For example, the Guizhi Decoction in "Treatise on Febrile Diseases" should be taken with hot porridge to help the effect of the medicine.

3. Antidotes should be taken cold

Because the coolness of the decoction helps to expel the stagnant poison, while the heat can promote the diffusion of the poison in the body. Therefore, it is better to take it cold.

4. Judge based on the characteristics of drug action

For Chinese medicines that regulate qi, they are easy to relax when the temperature is hot, but stagnate when the temperature is cool; for those that replenish blood and activate blood circulation, they will be blocked when the temperature is cold, but will boil when the temperature is hot. For those who need to circulate blood and dredge meridians, and reach the tendons and bones, they should be taken hot. For those who need to astringe and consolidate semen, cool blood and stop bleeding, they should be taken cold.

5. Anti-assistance

Contrary to the general principle, cold medicines are taken warm for heat syndromes, and hot medicines are taken cold for cold syndromes. For example, the Chengqi Decoction for treating Yangming Fu Shi syndrome is cold in nature but taken warm to prevent the cold medicine from being rejected; Banxia San Decoction is hot in nature but taken cold to prevent the heat from being rejected. These counter-medication methods can avoid the "yin and yang rejection" caused by the opposite nature of the disease and the medicine. The saying "Jiangfu cold drink, Chengqi hot drink" in later generations originated from this.