Many patients ask if they can eat radish when taking Chinese medicine, depending on the therapeutic purpose of taking Chinese medicine and what drugs are in the prescription. Generally speaking, most people ask about white radish. The white radish is sweet and cold, and has the effect of moving Qi and laxatives, and the Chinese medicine lycopodium is the seeds of the white radish. Normal people and some patients with bloating and stool problems will benefit from eating some radish (boiled, fried, stewed or even juiced) to help regulate qi, clear internal heat and help the body’s qi flow smoothly. There is a popular proverb that “eat radish in winter and ginger in summer, no need for a doctor to prescribe medicine”. If the herbal medicine taken is more than tonic, especially if the herbal medicine taken is for qi deficiency, the patient needs to be supplemented by the herbal medicine, then eating less radish is not a big problem, but eating more may reduce the efficacy. Generally, ginseng is not taken together with radish, because ginseng is rare and valuable, and radish will reduce the healing effect of ginseng. As for the proverb, why do you eat sweet and cold radish in the winter when it is cold, but eat hot and pungent ginger in the summer? This contains the truth of “unity of heaven and man” and “balance of yin and yang” in Chinese medicine. First of all, Chinese medicine believes that the body’s Yang Qi in winter, eat some radish can clear the internal heat and depression in the body of turbid gas; while the summer Yang Qi in the table is prone to lack of Yang Qi in the body, eat some ginger to warm the middle. In addition, because of the cold winter, people like to warm up, sometimes it is easy to be too greasy, internal damp heat or fire, eat some radish can offset; summer people are prone to cold drink cold, eat some ginger can warm up a little. So “eat radish in winter and ginger in summer, no need for a doctor’s prescription” is a kind of evidence-based formulation! It is best to ask your doctor about the specific application and whether you can eat radish.