One man ’s hot tea use turn out to be much less restful than he hop , harmonise to his doctors . An 84 - year - old Canadian ended up in the emergency section with a serious case of mellow parentage pressing , headache , and thorax nuisance , with the only potential cause of his symptom being his two weeks straight of toast homemade licorice root tea . But it ’s hardly the first time licorice has been blame for roue pressure problem .
The man ’s write up wasdetailedin a case study issue Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal .
According to the study , the man had a foresighted chronicle of hypertension and cardiovascular disease , but he had been able to keep his line pressure in check as lately as his last aesculapian hindrance - up . A week before he visit the infirmary , though , he noticed his stemma pressure had start climbing , and nothing he did seemed to help . By the meter medico saw him , he was already suffering from physical symptoms such as chest pain in the neck , fatigue , and headache . And it ’s likely things could have snuff it much spoiled if he had n’t gotten help flop then and there .
Photo: Franklin Hunting (Flickr)
“ In his slip , the profligate pressure was so mellow that it led to him having kernel failure , well of the legs , and some abnormalities with his electrolytes , like low potassium , ” study source Laurence Green , an internal medicine physician at McGill University Health Center , recount Gizmodo by sound .
There was no evident reason why his blood pressure had spiraled out of control . But eventually , the homo volunteered that he had been drinking one to two deoxyephedrine of homemade tea brewed from licorice root for two weeks before his entrance fee to the infirmary . Licorice ( derived from the plant Glycyrrhiza glabra ) is part of a drink called erk sous , popular in some country including Egypt and around the Muslim holiday of Ramadan .
Thankfully , once he stopped drink in the licorice teatime and started taking intensive blood pressure drug , the man steady recovered . He left the hospital in salutary health after two weeks , and a check - up three weeks later found that his rake insistence was back to doable .
The piece ’s pre - existent health certainly contributed to the peril he was in . But doctor havelong knownthat licorice can induce or worsen high blood pressure in people . As latterly as 2017 , the Food and Drug Administrationwarnedthat people over the years of 40 should avoid corrode too much licorice confect . fit in to the agency , eating more than two ounces of smuggled licorice candy a day for two weeks straight can bring up the risk of developing an atypical warmheartedness beat or arrhythmia in Old people .
“ This is not a raw discovery , ” Green noted . “ It ’s more of an occasional admonisher to medico that licorice can cause these symptom and that they should be cognisant of that . ”
The culprit behind licorice ’s effect on stemma atmospheric pressure is the chemical compound that gives it its slightly sweet-flavored taste , call glycyrrhizin ( or glycyrrhizinic acid ) . In high enough doses , it causes our cells to hold more water system than they should and our body ’s potassium level to plump , the net result of which force up stock air pressure . According to his doctors , the man did recognize about the endangerment of Glycyrrhiza glabra and high - bloodline pressure , but he plainly did n’t distrust the Camellia sinensis when his symptom first arose .
While the case field of study is intended for doctors , Green articulate there are things the world should keep in idea as well , particularly those of us who have a go at it their red-faced Twizzlers .
“ Many the great unwashed recall they ’re eating liquorice , but they ’re believably not . That red candy that ’s sort of shape like licorice ? There ’s no licorice in there whatsoever . It has to be the black licorice . And even then , if it ’s taken in moderation , and you do n’t have mellow blood pressure or gist problems , you should be ok , ” Green aver .
It is theoretically potential for dead healthy people to develop Glycyrrhiza glabra - related high blood line pressure or other related to problem , he tot , but it would take some moderately huge quantities of licorice to pull off . So as long as you do n’t do that , you ’re in the cleared . After all , of the way to go , death by licorice bust might be one of the most embarrassing .
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