Why does drinking Chinese medicine cause diarrhea

Traditional Chinese medicine culture has a history of 5,000 years. Traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese herbs and acupuncture are our country's historical treasures. Traditional Chinese medicine is loved by people all over the world because of its rapid efficacy, few side effects, and high warming and tonic effects. There is a Chinese proverb that "good medicine tastes bitter but is good for the disease". Although Chinese medicine is bitter, its effectiveness in treating diseases cannot be ignored. In recent years, we have discovered clinically that some patients develop diarrhea after taking Chinese medicine. Why is this?

Case 1: Diarrhea caused by cold medicine.

When taking prescriptions with cold properties, some people with weak spleen and stomach often experience diarrhea. For those with mild symptoms, they may have 1 to 2 loose stools a day, which can be considered normal and does not require treatment. For those with more severe symptoms, reducing the dosage of cold medicines or adding spleen-warming and antidiarrheal medicines can alleviate diarrhea to a certain extent (such as reducing 4 or 5 loose stools a day to 1 or 2 times), but completely stopping diarrhea is not recommended, because excessive reduction in the dosage of cold medicines or addition of warm medicines may significantly reduce the efficacy. In addition, when heat-clearing Chinese medicine is used together with certain antibiotics, diarrhea is also likely to occur, and its mechanism is similar to "two colds added together."

The second situation: "Moisturizing" medicine lubricates the intestines.

Some medicines that also have a laxative effect often cause diarrhea, such as Rehmannia root, white peony root, peach kernel, Polygonum multiflorum, Cistanche deserticola, etc. Switching to medicines with similar effects but without a laxative effect can basically eliminate diarrhea. The same approach of reducing the dosage of medication applies here. However, whether changing medication or reducing dosage may reduce the expected therapeutic effect. Some patients may experience diarrhea in the early stages of taking this type of Chinese medicine, but they will automatically adapt after a few days (no more diarrhea) and no treatment is needed.

The third situation: careless diet .

Sometimes, Chinese medicine itself is not enough to cause side effects, but careless diet may "superimpose" the bias of the medicine and cause diarrhea. For example, drinking mung bean and lily soup while taking cold Chinese medicine can easily cause people to have diarrhea. Similarly, eating too much greasy food when taking decoctions can also cause laxative effects. Therefore, it is best to eat a light diet when taking Chinese medicine, and stop all kinds of "dietary therapy recipes".

The fourth situation: diarrhea caused by laxatives.

There are special laxatives in traditional Chinese medicine. Taking them should cause diarrhea, and only after diarrhea can the disease be cured. This is called "xiafa" in traditional Chinese medicine. It should be noted that when taking medicine in the "downward method", stop taking it when the disease is cured: if you are supposed to take three bowls of medicine a day, but you get diarrhea after taking one bowl, you should not take the other two bowls. Although it is "normal" to have diarrhea due to laxatives, we should prevent excessive diarrhea.

Case 5: Other cases.

Diarrhea is a common gastrointestinal symptom and may be caused by many diseases. For example, if you happen to get "acute gastroenteritis" while taking medicine, you may get diarrhea no matter what Chinese medicine you take. In this case, although the diarrhea is not related to the prescription, since a new disease has appeared, the original prescription cannot be continued - the condition has changed, and a follow-up visit must be made in time to change the prescription.