Uncle Wu is 62 years old this year, and after retirement, he has nothing to do and focuses on health. At the beginning of the year, I heard from a friend that drinking He Shou Wu wine was good for his health, so he bought a bunch of He Shou Wu and went home to make wine. For the next few months, he drank a glass of He Shou Wu medicinal wine every day, hoping to achieve health preservation purposes.
After half a year, Uncle Wu's body not only did not get better, but always felt that his body was getting weaker and weaker, and his eyeballs were getting more and more yellow. His son, whom he had not seen for several months, was shocked when he saw him, and quickly took Uncle Wu to the hospital.
After examination, it was found that Uncle Wu's transaminase index reached more than 1,000, and it was diagnosed as drug-induced liver injury. After understanding the past history, the doctor believed that the culprit that caused Uncle Wu's liver damage was He Shou Wu medicinal wine.
This result surprised Uncle Wu, didn't they all say that medicinal wine is healthy? How did he still drink into the hospital.
First, is medicinal wine medicine or wine, can it be drunk?
As the name suggests, medicinal wine is a liquor made of medicinal brews, which is a liquid preparation made by using cleaned Chinese medicinal materials and drinking pieces added to liquor in a certain proportion, and some medicinal liquor is brewed using rice wine, rice wine, etc.
According to the different effects of soaking drugs, medicinal wine can be divided into two categories: mainly to treat diseases and nourishment, the former mainly has the effect of relieving muscles and activating blood circulation, dispelling wind and cold, relieving pain, etc., and the latter is mainly based on replenishing qi and nourishing blood, nourishing liver and kidney.
So is medicinal wine medicine or wine?
After the 70s of the 20th century, the mainland made a scientific definition of medicinal wine and health wine, medicinal wine refers to the prevention, treatment and diagnosis of diseases, with indications, functional indications, usage and dosage of traditional Chinese medicine liquor. The listing of medicinal wine needs to be reviewed by the State Food and Drug Administration, through a series of clinical observations such as pharmacology, pathology, toxicology, etc., and obtained the Sinopharm quasi-brand mark.
Health wine is a kind of health care products, mainly to regulate body functions, and has no effect on treating diseases. The essence of this kind of medicinal wine is still wine, and you should pay attention to the batch number of health food before purchasing.
Dong Rui, pharmacist of the Department of Pharmacy of Hangzhou First People's Hospital, pointed out: medicinal wine is not only "wine", but also "medicine", but also the power of medicine to bear alcohol, once drunk the body absorption is particularly fast, some toxic Chinese medicine bubble wine, more toxic, so do not self-medicate wine.
Second, drink medicinal wine indiscriminately, beware of medicinal wine becoming "poisonous wine"
There are many people like Uncle Wu in life, in order to maintain health, they will make their own medicinal wine, and in order to make the "curative effect" of medicinal wine better, they will add a variety of auxiliary materials, ginseng, deer antler velvet, scorpion, fish gall, etc.
This practice is actually very dangerous, the ingredients of proprietary Chinese medicines are very complex, the effectiveness and safety of different drugs need to be strictly configured, blindly added to medicinal wine is easy to play a counterproductive role; And Chinese herbal medicine itself is not non-toxic and has no side effects, such as long-term drinking of medicinal wine of Tu Sanqi and He Shou Wu Blist, which is likely to induce serious liver disease; In addition, when individuals brew medicinal wine, it is difficult to ensure hygienic conditions.
Even if it is a medicinal wine that meets the standards, not everyone is suitable for drinking medicinal wine, especially the following types of people, drinking medicinal wine should be more cautious.
- Patients suffering from chronic nephritis, renal insufficiency, hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and cardiac insufficiency are not recommended to drink alcohol, and medicinal wine is not recommended to drink, otherwise it is easy to aggravate the condition;
- Women who are pregnant, lactating, and menstruating should avoid alcohol;
- People with alcohol allergies, sudden diseases, and infectious diseases should avoid drinking;
- Older people and young children are not recommended to drink alcohol due to weakened internal organ function and incomplete development.
Third, no matter how good Chinese medicine is, these 5 categories should not be used casually
Many people's first impression of Chinese medicine is "pure natural and no side effects", but this statement is not correct, Chinese medicine is not absolutely safe. Blind use of traditional Chinese medicine, especially those containing some special ingredients, is likely to induce acute kidney injury and chronic renal failure.
The following types of Chinese medicine, no matter how good it is, do not use it casually.
1. Aconitine drugs
Aconitine will bring strong toxic effects to the human body, oral only 0.2mg can lead to poisoning, 3~5mg can be fatal. Traditional Chinese medicines containing aconitine include grass wu, chuanwu and aconite.
2. Aristolochic acid
Aristolochic acid has obvious nephrotoxicity, acute poisoning can induce acute tubular necrosis, chronic poisoning can induce renal interstitial fibrosis, and also increase the risk of urinary cancer. Traditional Chinese medicines containing aristolochic acid are related to mutong, aristolochia, tianxian vine and fine spices.
3. Alkaloids
Alkaloids have obvious physiological effects, toxic effects, people will induce body poisoning after contact, containing alkaloids in traditional Chinese medicine such as mandala, aconitum, heavenly fairy, belladonna, etc.
4. Mineral Chinese medicine
Mineral traditional Chinese medicines include arsenic-containing such as arsenic and androgen, mercury-containing such as cinnabar and light powder, alum, lead pill, etc., which may induce kidney damage.
5. Animal medicine and traditional Chinese medicine
Animal traditional Chinese medicine includes centipedes, seahorses, toads, turtles, etc., centipedes have a strict dose limit on kidney toxicity, and turtles have strong toxicity to kidneys.
The phrase "is the three points of poison" also applies to Chinese medicine, do not blindly consume Chinese medicine daily, to avoid unnecessary impact on your own health due to improper use, the gain is not worth the loss.
Resources:
[1] "Medicinal wine, you can't drink indiscriminately, let alone greedy for cups!" 》. Health Journal 2018-04-30
[2] "These widely circulated methods, thought to be health preservation, are actually "recuperation"! 》. Elderly Daily 2023-05-25
[3] "Please pay attention to soaking wine and medicated diet: beware of aconitine drug poisoning". People's Daily 2021-12-11
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