Posted on 11/02/2017 1:44:41 PM PDT by Trillian
As it turns out, you really can overdose on candyor, more precisely, black licorice.
Days before the biggest candy eating holiday of the year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) encourages moderation if you enjoy snacking on the old fashioned favorite.
So, if youre getting your stash ready for Halloween, heres some advice from FDA:
If youre 40 or older, eating 2 ounces of black licorice a day for at least two weeks could land you in the hospital with an irregular heart rhythm or arrhythmia.
FDA experts say black licorice contains the compound glycyrrhizin, which is the sweetening compound derived from licorice root. Glycyrrhizin can cause potassium levels in the body to fall. When that happens, some people experience abnormal heart rhythms, as well as high blood pressure, edema (swelling), lethargy, and congestive heart failure.
FDAs Linda Katz, M.D., says last year the agency received a report of a black licorice aficionado who had a problem after eating the candy. And several medical journals have linked black licorice to health problems in people over 40, some of whom had a history of heart disease and/or high blood pressure.
Katz says potassium levels are usually restored with no permanent health problems when consumption of black licorice stops.
Licorice, or liquorice, is a low-growing shrub mostly grown for commercial use in Greece, Turkey, and Asia. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) says the plants root has a long history of use as a folk or traditional remedy in both Eastern and Western medicine. It has been used as a treatment for heartburn, stomach ulcers, bronchitis, sore throat, cough and some infections caused by viruses, such as hepatitis; however, NIH says there are insufficient data available to determine if licorice is effective in treating any medical condition.
(Excerpt) Read more at fda.gov ...
Too much Potassium and you get heart beat problems - and now licorice can cause too low a Potassium level and heart beat problems.....
Almost seems like they are wanting to inundate the medical folks by having a million minor things that folks can "self diagnose" with and go looking for their favorite "seen on TV" drug...
I believe the second most common offering was Swiss but I could be making that up. A dark blue sleeve, some sort of distant mansion in artwork, blue and silver foil.
Of course, its difficult to judge the substance by appearance. It was dull and didnt shine but I suppose different processes may make it look different. In form it wasnt a large segmented bar, it was individual foil wrapped bars each of which had the proportions similar to a pack of Wrigleys but slightly smaller.
If medicine tasted like black licorice Id Me an addict. I guess thats why they say to each his own. I love the stuff. Cant get enough.
Lol. Here’s another one. I can’t abide the taste of coffee. I once managed to dilute a cup with enough milk and sugar to down a few swallows. I didn’t enjoy them, though.
Let me guess; you love coffee.
I recently noticed some strange problems with my heartbeat and thought maybe it was time to consult a cardiologist. But then I realized that this issue always seemed to occur when I had been drinking a certain kind of tea. It was Earl Grey tea, a brand with "double bergamot oil". I looked up whether other people had had similar problems and I read that bergamot oil can deplete potassium from the body.
Can’t help you with the tea question, or bergamot oil. I don’t drink tea, and have never heard of bergamot oil. Hope you can get some answers.
Earl Grey tea seems to be one of the most common types of tea you can buy. It has something called bergamot oil added to it, which I don't know very much about either, but I think I have read that it is a flavoring that comes from a kind of oranges.
Anyway, I felt better after I stopped drinking that type of tea. A main reason I drink tea is that I add butter to it, but that's another story.
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