While taking herbal medicine....

What to do and what don't do. Some dietary advice

1. Take the medicine TWICE a day

Depending on the doctor instructions, if there were no specific instructions given, usually the herbs are taken：

• Before breakfast: take the medicine 30~60 mins before breakfast. By doing this, it allows the herbs to travel down to the stomach and intestine faster, so there is a faster absorption. The medicine will have more interactions with the mucus on the intestine and the stomach, as it will be more effective.

• After dinner: take the medicine 60~90 mins after dinner.

• If you have forgotten or unable to take the medicine for one time, please have two package the next time to make it up.

2. ​​Medicine temperature

• The medicine are drunk only at warm temperature 30℃～50℃. Please do not drink the medicine at room temperature or straight out of the fridge.

You can warm up the medicine by:

• Socking the medicine in hot water until its warm throughout. The packaging is made out of special material designed to with stand high heat, so it’s fine to sock in hot water.

• Microwave for 20-30s, the plastic package are designed to tolerate high heat so it will be safe to microwave.

3. What not to eat/do during medication:

1. When taking medicine, please avoid food that is raw, cold, stick or spicy.

2. Please do not drink any dairy product, and do not drink coffee, tea or soy milk within 1hr before and after taking the medicine.

3. Try to avoid soft drinks and limit the amount of drinking water to 1.5L/day, including the herbal medication (around 350ml in total).

4. If you have Oedema, please avoid salty food.

5. Try to eat warm food, do not eat food/drink straight out of the fridge; all food should be ingested at above room temperature.

6. Please do not eat too much carrot and radish, as it might cancel the effect of the medicine.

7. During female menstruation period, avoid anything cold that goes in the mouth and avoid alcohol.

8. Avoid the Melon family (e.g watermelon, rockmelon, cucumber, etc), try to avoid cold salad (raw), or introduce spice to the salad (gallic, ginger, spring onion or tumric etc) to balance the nature of the meal

Depending on individual situation, there might be different suggesting given by the practitioner, please follow the instructions given over the suggestion above. NO sugar in the medication!

Its understandable that people put sugar in to make it taste it a bit better, but please do not do this here! White sugar is cold in nature and will cancel some of the effect in the medication.

No raw or brown sugar. Raw sugar/brown sugar contains higher level of iron and calcium, this will join with the protein in the medicine and produce

The medication sometime uses the bitter taste to promote taste buds and produce enzymes that help with digestion, so if added sugar, it will loss this effect.

You can have some sugar after the medication if it’s too bitterCan add in some honey for children if it’s too bitter for them to accept

Changes in body you might have during taking medication： There might be different signs that will occur during the treatment duration, we refer it as the improvement response, these responses include:

1. Loose/or frequent bowel motion: this is a sign that your inner heat is pass out of your body, all the toxic accumulated in the body can be passed down through the intestine. After passing bowel you should feel lighter in stomach and intestinal area, less blotted feeling (if you use to have them).

2. Decreased swelling of the face/or limbs: if you wake up and see you face is getting smaller, or decreased oedema. This means that the water that is accumulated in your cells and lymphatic system is being removed gradually.

3. Gas travelling up wards/frequent farting: this suggest that the block Qi in your body previously is now trying to move out of you (anything blocked e.g. Qi/blood will result in pain), sometime maybe in the wrong direction (going up), if you feel this please consult your practitioner so the next medication can help you to bring the gas downwards.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact your practitioner or call the clinic on 03 9807 8904 or email us on info@lotushealthau.com

*NOTE: Please stop taking the herbs if you experience any adverse reaction and consult with the practitioner, if the symptom is sever contact emergency or consult with you GP as soon as possible, but also let us know. ​ If you are unsure whether you can take you herbs during menstruation, common flu and cold please contact us, our practitioner are alway happy to help.