How to Eat He Shou Wu (Fallopia multiflora): Can You Eat It Every Day, Daily Dosage and Contraindications

A thousand-year He Shou Wu, a ten-thousand-year ginseng. He Shou Wu is a perennial plant whose tuberous root can be used as medicine. He Shou Wu is also known as Polygonum multiflorum, Zi Wu Teng, Ye Jiao Teng, and so on. Eaten in moderation it can make a person spirited, glowing with health, with dark and thick hair, and is an essential item for health preservation. So how do you eat He Shou Wu? Can you eat it every day? How much is appropriate to eat per day?

He Shou Wu, also known as Di Jing, was first recorded in the "He Shou Wu Lu" and is the tuberous root of a perennial twining vine of the genus Fallopia in the tribe Polygonum of the family Polygonaceae. Depending on the processing method, it is divided into raw He Shou Wu and prepared He Shou Wu.

Raw He Shou Wu: remove impurities, wash clean, moisten thoroughly, slice, and dry.

Prepared He Shou Wu: on the basis of raw He Shou Wu, it is placed with black bean juice in a sealed non-iron container and heated over water or with steam, then simmered until brownish and dried.

There are three common ways to eat He Shou Wu:

1. Eating raw He Shou Wu powder

Fresh He Shou Wu can be eaten directly. Take good-quality He Shou Wu, wash it clean, soak it in warm water until it is seventy percent softened, then cut it into slices and dry them in the sun; it can also be ground into a fine powder and taken mixed with water. It can detoxify, moisten the intestines, strengthen the liver and gallbladder, tonify the kidneys and blood, and can also effectively stop hair loss and promote hair growth.

2. Medicinal use

He Shou Wu is one of the ingredients in many medicines. Medicinal use of He Shou Wu mainly treats high blood lipids and constipation, and there are also some health care products; there are even more places where He Shou Wu is used. However, He Shou Wu is actually not a medicine specifically for treating hair loss; for hair loss it mostly has a health care and hair-nourishing effect, and it is not suitable to eat it long term. In fact, He Shou Wu can be made into porridge with many ingredients. Today we will introduce the simplest one. First boil He Shou Wu alone in water for about one hour (the time can also be extended according to the amount of He Shou Wu), and take the decocted liquid. Then, following the usual method for making porridge, first cook the rice, add red dates and rock sugar, and finally pour in the He Shou Wu liquid and cook for a while longer.

Effects: Because He Shou Wu enters the liver and kidney meridians, eating it this way is very beneficial to the liver and kidneys, and is especially suitable for the elderly with liver and kidney deficiency.

3. Food

The best method is to make He Shou Wu into a dish or porridge. Common and recommended ingredients to pair with He Shou Wu include: tofu, pig blood, eggs, chicken, pork liver, and so on. For He Shou Wu braised beef, in this dish there is no need to use He Shou Wu juice. But one ingredient must first be prepared, and that is black beans. We need to soak the black beans in water for about 10 hours, then simmer them briefly over heat, and they are ready to use. Generally, the soaked black beans are put into the pot together with beef, ginger slices, and so on to cook. During cooking, the foam produced should be skimmed off. Once the water boils, He Shou Wu can be added, and at the same time some red dates and longan can also be added. Generally, after adding He Shou Wu and cooking for another 1 hour, it is ready to serve. Effects: strengthens tendons and bones, tonifies deficiency, and is very effective for people with weak spleen and stomach.

4. He Shou Wu tea

Although He Shou Wu can be brewed directly as tea, the taste will be very bitter and hard to swallow, so hawthorn, goji berries, and so on are generally added. Taking hawthorn as an example, first chop the hawthorn and He Shou Wu and mix them together, add water and soak for about 2 hours, then heat and boil for one hour before drinking. In hawthorn He Shou Wu tea, He Shou Wu should not be added in too large an amount; one or two slices are enough.

Effects: Generally He Shou Wu and hawthorn have a lipid-lowering effect, while with goji berries it has a kidney-tonifying effect.

5. Medicinal cuisine

① Stewed chicken with He Shou Wu: 30 grams of He Shou Wu, ground into powder, about 500 grams of female chicken. Wrap the He Shou Wu in cloth, place it into the cleaned chicken belly, then put the chicken into a pot and stew until cooked. Finally, add oil, salt, ginger, and other seasonings, and drink the soup and eat the chicken.

Effects: This medicinal cuisine has remarkable effects for treating liver and kidney yin deficiency in the elderly, dizziness and blurred vision, insomnia, rectal prolapse, and uterine prolapse. At the same time, it can also serve as an auxiliary medicinal cuisine for senile constipation, coronary heart disease, and hypertension.

② 30 grams each of He Shou Wu, black sesame, raw rehmannia, raw arborvitae, Eclipta prostrata, and Ligustrum lucidum, 9 grams of Sichuan pepper, 12 grams of large green salt, and 15 grams of dried tangerine peel. Decoct all the above medicines together in water twice, remove the residue and keep the medicinal liquid. Then add 500 grams of washed black beans into the medicinal liquid and boil until the medicinal juice is fully absorbed by the black beans, finally take out the black beans and dry them in a cool place.

Effects: This medicinal cuisine can tonify the liver and kidneys, benefit essence and blood, and darken the beard and hair. It is suitable for symptoms such as premature graying of the beard and hair and hair loss caused by liver and kidney and essence-blood deficiency.

③ He Shou Wu egg soup: 50 grams of He Shou Wu, 2 eggs. Put them in clear water and boil for 10 minutes, take out the eggs and remove the shells, put the eggs back in to cook, and after 50 minutes take the soup and drink it warm, and eat the eggs. Take once a day, for 15 consecutive days.

Effects: This medicinal cuisine can treat symptoms such as dizziness, blurred vision, and premature aging caused by insufficient essence and blood.

How to eat He Shou Wu to treat hair loss

Hair-darkening honey paste

Take 200 grams each of prepared He Shou Wu and Poria cocos, and 50 grams each of angelica, goji berries, Achyranthes bidentata, dodder seed, Psoralea corylifolia, and black sesame. First add water and soak until thoroughly swollen, then put into a pot and decoct. Take the juice once every 20 minutes, add water and decoct again. Combine the decoctions from three consecutive times, heat and concentrate, then add honey and mix well. Take 30 milliliters each time, twice a day, taken mixed with plain boiled water.

He Shou Wu, black sesame, and red date hair-growth soup

5 qian of He Shou Wu, 5 qian of dodder seed, 5 split red dates, 2 spoons of black sesame ground into powder, and 1 spoon of black bean powder. Add 500——1000ml of water to the above ingredients and simmer into a soup. After the soup comes to a boil, a little honey can be added. After about 10 minutes, it is ready to drink. Take once each morning and evening, with 12 days as one treatment course, for three consecutive courses. It has a hair-growth effect on hair loss in men caused by excessive stress and hair loss in women during menopause, and can also be used as daily hair care, and can make the hair dark and glossy.

Can He Shou Wu powder be eaten every day

He Shou Wu cannot be eaten long term, and even less can it be eaten every day. Because long-term large-dose use of He Shou Wu causes relatively great damage to the liver, the general recommendation is 10-15 grams orally per day. If taken for a relatively long time, liver function tests should be done at the hospital at the appropriate time.

He Shou Wu is a Chinese herbal medicine commonly used among the people. It is warm in nature and bitter, sweet, and astringent in taste, and is divided into two types: raw He Shou Wu and prepared He Shou Wu. Because He Shou Wu has pharmacological effects related to tonifying the liver and kidneys, benefiting essence and blood, darkening the beard and hair, and strengthening tendons and bones, and can promote hematopoietic function and improve the body's immune function, people commonly use wine-steamed He Shou Wu and black bean juice-steamed He Shou Wu as tonics. However, He Shou Wu contains toxic anthraquinone components. Excessive use will have an irritating effect on the gastrointestinal tract, causing symptoms such as borborygmus, nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting; in severe cases there may be paroxysmal tonic spasms, restlessness, convulsions, and even respiratory paralysis. Raw He Shou Wu is toxic and cannot be eaten. Only He Shou Wu properly processed by an experienced pharmacist can be eaten, and it should be eaten within a Chinese herbal formula, not eaten alone.

Precautions for taking He Shou Wu

Moderation and appropriate amount

1. The dosage must be moderate

Be sure not to diagnose and medicate yourself based on descriptions on the internet. In July 2014 the State Food and Drug Administration issued a notice about He Shou Wu, which pointed out: “In health food, the daily amount of raw He Shou Wu must not exceed 1.5g, and the daily amount of prepared He Shou Wu must not exceed 3.0g.”

2. Judge whether it is suitable to take according to body constitution

Although He Shou Wu is said to have health-preserving effects, it is not suitable for everyone. People with weak bodies and incomplete liver and kidney function should consult a doctor before taking He Shou Wu.

3. Test liver function regularly

If He Shou Wu needs to be taken long term, liver function should be checked at the hospital regularly. Once symptoms such as rash, jaundice, darkened urine color, nausea and fatigue, and reduced appetite appear during medication, stop the medication immediately and go to the hospital for a detailed examination.

4. Avoid soaking in alcohol or water

When eating He Shou Wu, try to avoid the methods of soaking in water or soaking in alcohol. It is best to decoct it in boiling water, as this can eliminate the toxicity of He Shou Wu.

Be wary of these health products and medicines containing He Shou Wu

Medicines containing He Shou Wu are mostly over-the-counter drugs that can be purchased on one's own, and it can also be added to health food and hair care products. Many merchants' advertising has mythologized the medicinal effects of He Shou Wu, while saying nothing about its liver toxicity. This has also caused many people to be completely unaware that He Shou Wu is toxic, and various folk remedies circulate on the internet.

The drug administration has strict regulations on the daily amount of He Shou Wu in health food, and requires that health food containing He Shou Wu be labeled on the tag with "people with incomplete liver function and people with a family history of liver disease" as unsuitable groups, reminding consumers to note that "this product contains He Shou Wu, it is not suitable to take it long term or in excessive amounts, avoid using it at the same time as liver-toxic drugs, and pay attention to monitoring liver function."