🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Do Not Drink Tea After Alcohol
In "Compendium of Materia Medica," Li Shizhen clearly described the dangers of drinking tea after alcohol: "Drinking tea after alcohol harms the kidneys, causing heaviness in waist and legs, cold pain in the bladder, and combined symptoms of phlegm, water retention, and edema!"
Many people, lacking medical knowledge, habitually drink tea after alcohol, hoping to relieve dryness, aid digestion, and promote urination. This is extremely harmful. Alcohol tastes pungent and sweet, entering the liver and lungs, raising yang energy and strengthening lung qi; tea tastes bitter, being yin in nature, primarily descending. Drinking tea after alcohol, especially strong tea, is particularly harmful to the kidneys. After alcohol enters the liver, enzymes break it down into water and carbon dioxide, which are excreted via the kidneys. However, caffeine in tea has a diuretic effect. Strong tea contains more caffeine, causing unmetabolized acetaldehyde (the intermediate product formed when alcohol is converted to acetaldehyde in the liver before becoming acetic acid) to enter the kidneys too quickly and prematurely. Since acetaldehyde strongly irritates the kidneys, it damages renal function, causes cold stagnation, leads to frequent, cloudy urination, impotence, testicular pain, or constipation. Therefore, avoid strong tea after drinking alcohol; instead, consume melons, fruits, or fruit juices, which moisturize dryness, aid digestion, and help sober up.