As we enter summer, the number of patients in TCM clinics has decreased, and the number of patients prescribed tonics has even decreased significantly. Some patients even come to see the doctor and say, “Let’s check your pulse first and prescribe some Chinese medicine, they say you can’t drink Chinese medicine in summer and wait until autumn to drink Chinese medicine!” Correction, you can’t drink Chinese medicine in summer should mean you can’t drink soup in summer, right? I had not heard of this saying before I came to work in Dalian. When I heard a patient say that, I thought it was a bit baffling! When I pressed on, I was told that it is easy to get hot in summer when drinking tonics. What if the medicine you drink is a fire-relief medicine? Not only will it not get on fire, but it will clear the fire! Southern summer like to drink herbal tea, which is composed of fire-clearing drugs (honeysuckle, Xia Gu Cao, etc.). If you have to take soup when you get sick, do you have to wait until autumn too? Wouldn’t that delay the disease? It seems that the rumors are not broken. Dalian Central Hospital, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine Zhang Kuijun summer do not eat soup medicine is not all unreasonable, analysis down mainly two reasons, one, the shallow understanding of traditional Chinese medicine, will drink soup medicine limited to tonic or even tonic Yang medicine, the summer weather is hot, at this time, if the medicine in the tonic Yang medicine more, it is easy to get on fire, if taken. Second, the summer weather is hot and humid, the spleen and stomach are easily trapped by dampness and heat, the spleen and stomach weakness, appetite decline, the so-called bitter summer, at this time do not want to eat greasy, more like the cool food, and the taste of soup medicine bitter, it is difficult to swallow. Therefore, we should change the phrase “you can’t drink Chinese medicine in summer” to “you don’t want to drink Chinese medicine in summer”, which is more accurate. In the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, there is a theory of nurturing yang in spring and summer, and nurturing yin in autumn and winter. The hot weather in summer is when the body’s yang energy is at its peak. If the body has a yang deficiency and internal cold, this is the right time to treat it, as the cold in the body is easily removed and the yang energy is easily restored, and the yang dispersing cold medicine used can be greatly reduced compared to autumn and winter, with half the effort and twice the effect. It seems that there is no season not to drink Chinese medicine, so what should be noted when prescribing Chinese medicine in summer? In summer, there is a lot of dampness and heat, and the spleen and stomach are weak, so the formula should be supplemented with spleen-healthy and appetizing drugs, such as yam, chicken naijin, jiao hawthorn, sand nuts, pelargonium, etc. Second, blood tonic is easy to congestion of the spleen and stomach, the dosage should not be too large. Third, the summer heat, Yang tonic should start with a small amount and gradually increase, so as not to overdo it and overkill. In summer heat, it is easy to consume qi and hurt yin, so it is common to suffer from weakness and sweating, so attention should be paid to benefiting qi and nourishing yin, clearing summer heat, and adding American ginseng, princely ginseng, schisandra, maitake, watermelon crabapple, summer cress, etc.