LICORICE
A
young lady was taken to the emergency room of a hospital because she
had been complaining of loss of sensation in her legs. Well by the
time that they arrived at the emergency room in fact she was virtually
paralyzed from the waist down. What was going on? Blood tests quickly
revealed a very low level of potassium. And then the doctor started
to question her. What had she been doing? Turns out she had been virtually
addicted to licorice. She had been eating huge amounts of it and I
don't mean the stuff that we think of as licorice this licorice candy
that we're accustomed to eating in the movie theatre. She was eating
the real stuff, extracted from the licorice root.
Well
it turns out there's a chemical in the licorice root called glycyrrhizic
acid. And that has an effect on the body. It causes sodium to be retained
and potassium to be excreted. High levels of sodium are associated
with high blood pressure, low levels of potassium are associated with
neurological problems. In any case when the doctors discovered what
she had been doing she was told to stay away from the licorice she
was given some potassium supplements and everything came out OK.
Licorice
is fascinating, it has a long history, the ancient Greeks and the
ancient Egyptians used it has a medicine. They used it to counter
act digestive problems, they used it to treat coughs and colds. Well
it does have some effective digestive problems although not a whole
lot. Today we have better medications in order to address those kinds
of difficulties. But people are still looking towards licorice root
for some medicinal health because they perceive it to be more natural
than the prescription drugs. And there's one area where there is some
intriguing anecdotal evidence this is in the area of chronic fatigue
syndrome, now that is not just ordinary fatigue.
People who suffer from CFS don't want to get out of bed, they feel
depressed it can basically ruin one's life. And some anecdotal evidence
suggests taking licorice root powder in a drink, milk or water can
alleviate those symptoms. Now we certainly need a lot more scientific
evidence before we can recommend it for this but it is indeed intriguing
and it is worth pursuing. So those ancient Greeks and ancient Egyptians
may have had something in that licorice root. But more is not necessarily
better. In fact in a recent study young men who were given licorice
powder just to see what the effects of high doses are, discovered
they had a lower testosterone level by about 44% and that is not something
to look forward to.
