1.Why should I take tonic? After entering the autumn and winter, the metabolism of the body decreases and physical exertion decreases, so when taking tonic at this time, the drug is easily absorbed and stored, thus playing a greater role. Tonic in autumn and winter can not only reinforce and restore the body’s vitality, but also help to expel diseases and eliminate evil, so that the body’s yin, yang, gas, blood and fluid can be enriched and the body can maintain the best condition. As the saying goes, “Autumn and winter tonic, spring tiger”, which shows the importance of autumn and winter tonic. 2.What time to take tonic? Around the winter solstice is the period of the peak of Yin and cold, so it is the right time to take tonic to protect the body’s Yang energy. 3.Who needs tonic? Middle-aged and elderly people, urban white-collar workers, office workers, brain workers, people who are physically weak, or people who feel fatigued and unable to do their best on a regular basis. 4.How to take tonic? Before taking tonic, you should give your spleen and stomach an adjustment period. You can eat nutritious and easily digestible food, such as fish, various kinds of lean meat, poultry eggs, yam, lotus seeds and barley, etc. You can also eat milk and soy products in moderation. 5.What to use for tonic? The common foods used for blood tonic are bamboo chicken, chicken blood, mutton and rabbit, etc. The Chinese herbs often used with blood tonic foods are angelica, aconite, rehmannia, shouwu, red dates, yuan meat and wolfberry, etc. Foods commonly used to nourish the brain include chicken brain, pig brain, fish head, etc., with which the Chinese herbal medicines are often paired, such as far-reaching zhi, lingzhi, yam, cypress seed, yellow essence, lily of the valley, shouwu, asparagus, maitong, lotus seed, etc. The common foods used to strengthen the stomach are pork belly, chicken kidney, lamb, etc., with which the Chinese herbal medicines include silver fungus, spring sand, Chen Pi, pepper, Tu Fu Ling, lentils, etc. Five “taboo” 1, avoid tonic without disease: tonic without disease, both to increase expenditure, but also harm the body, such as taking too much cod liver oil can cause poisoning, long-term use of glucose will be fat. 2, avoid the famous tonic: think the higher the price of drugs can benefit the body. Ginseng is expensive, but indiscriminate use of ginseng can lead to excessive excitement, irritability and agitation, increased blood pressure and nostril bleeding. 3, avoid deficiency: the principle of treatment in Chinese medicine is “deficiency is tonic”. If you are deficient, tonic, not deficient, then normal diet is fine. At the same time should be divided into the performance of the tonic and the scope of application, whether it is suitable for you. 4, avoid more is better: any tonic overdose is harmful. 5, avoid using medicine instead of food: it is unscientific to emphasize medicine over food, in fact, the process of tonic should be the process of conditioning of the human body, and the conditioning of medicine is not as good as the conditioning of diet. Reprinted from Guangdong Science and Technology Newspaper, January 18, 2008, interviewed by expert Dr. Huang Qihui, associate professor of Chinese medicine, Zhongshan Second Hospital, reporter Guo Jing.