Can we take coffee or tea during herbal medication? Does it have any side effect on the remedy of herbal medicine?
Firstly, let us learn from the knowledge. One of the important ingredients of coffee or tea is caffeine. It causes speedy heart beating, blood vessels expansion; excitement causes insomnia, diuretic effect etc. Hence, we do not encourage everyone to consume in a large amounts for a long period, with or without herbal medication.
Coffee：
Looking back, the China ancient books did not document articles of ‘coffee’. From the grammars and sentences in “Kang Xi Dictionary”, we could not find the word of ‘coffee’ as well. It means that during the early of Qing Dynasty, they have not yet been exposed to the culture of coffee drinks. The earliest word of ‘coffee’ has appeared in the “Zhong Hua Dictionary” in 1915.
TCM categorized the herbal traits by “Four Qi, Five Taste, Five Colours, Meridian Lines”. Similarly, we may use this method to categorize the coffee taste, coffee colours and coffee aroma to determine the thorough traits of coffee. In this modern society, we aware that different roasts process of coffee produced different colours and tastes of coffee. From light, middle to dark brown; the taste varies from sour to bitter; aroma wise, mild one to burnt coffee.
From the perspective of TCM, for example, light roasted coffee is considered as mild category, taste sour. According to TCM five elements, sour related to liver. Liver functions as to detoxify, after taking sour coffee, it will rejuvenate our body as if it has do a detoxification. For mild or heavy roasted coffee, it is heaty and if we take it, it will activate the heart beating and cause palpitation or insomnia problem.
Tea：
Chinese tea is the prominent Chinese culture, which is intimated to the life style of Chinese community.
Tea contains tannic acid, which is easily merged with alkaloids and become sediments. In herbal medicines, the essential ingredients are made up of alkaloids, for instance: Ephedra contains Ephedrine, Pseudoephedrine. Coptis, Phellodendron both contains Berberine Hydrochoride. Stemona japonica contains baabine. Many other herbal medicines also contain alkaloids. When the herbal medicines were oral consumed with the mixing of tea, the precipitation will affect the herbal effectiveness. As for tannic acid, it prohibits the absorption of protein molecules. When we consume herbal medicine like Codonopsis, Astragalus or Chinese Yam, together with tea simultaneously, the effectiveness of the herbal medicines will be mitigated too.
Below given some scenarios where we DO NOT encourage people to take coffee or tea during herbal medications.
【1】When we consume herbal medicine and coffee or tea simultaneously for kidney issues which related to blood cells, the sediment will alleviate the effectiveness of the herbal medicine, hence causing bad effect of remedy. For example: Tea contains polyphenol which combine with iron in the haemoglobin, causing the anaemia issue and burden the functionality of the kidney.
【2】If we consume Qi replenishment herbal tonics, it is advisable to avoid consuming them together with coffee or tea.The roasted coffee takes longer time to process, become more heaty. When heaty coffee mix with Qi replenishment herbal tonic, it strengthens our body heatiness, new symptoms might appear like dry mouth, dry tongue, dry eyes, constipation etc.
【3】If the patient is having stomach with heavy dampness and heatiness, he or she might get Gastroesophageal reflux disease. The reason, coffee or tea will speed up the release of stomach acid; hence he or she should take precaution when consuming herbal medicine with coffee or tea.
【4】It is safeguard to stop taking coffee or tea during herbal prescription for the patient having Palpitation or Mitral valve prolapse, as it will speed up the heart beating frequency.
【5】Pregnancy women or youngster are highly recommended to avoid coffee or tea during herbal medication. We afraid the side effects of the mixture happen on the fetus growth in pregnancy women. Besides, it might affect the concentration of youngster during learning curve.
【6】We advise patient to take light roasted coffee because the caffeine is less.For some of us, we might feel that we could not do without coffee, but it is highly reminded not be addicted to the coffee drinks.Alternatively, we may choose the coffee which has lower caffeine and no preservative such as dark coffee.
Conclusion:
If you are having oral prescription of herbal medicine, please ask the Chinese practitioner whether fine to take coffee or tea. Different types of Chinese herbal medicines have their own inhibitions. Hence, it is highly recommended to get consultation from Chinese practitioner in advance before you drink all simultaneously.
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