Take Care with Licorice

Today, let’s talk about one of my favourite herbs. I often call licorice the multi-talented herb, since it does everything from fighting viruses to building bones. I love to use it for nursing mothers, as it is good for milk production. But if you’ve been into clinic, you might recall that before using licorice, we make sure you don’t have any blood pressure concerns. And while we like it for local application, we are very careful about how we use it in formulas you take.

Our scrupulous care about licorice has now been justified by a small study that came out last month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. While we’ll need to wait for larger-scale studies to give confirmation, this study does suggest that licorice may raise blood pressure at much smaller doses than the WHO currently considers safe.

A constituent of licorice, glycyrrhizic acid, can have an aldosterone-like effect, leading to water retention and high blood pressure. So, it’s important not to consume excess amounts.

There are many ways licorice might get into your diet. While many so-called licorice candies are actually flavoured with anise and chemicals, others, like Licorice Allsorts, black jellybeans and Hershey’s Good & Plenty licorice candy do in fact contain licorice. Of course, these candies contain other highly undesirable ingredients like glucose syrup, corn syrup and artificial colourings. But I remember loving Licorice Allsorts as a child. Luckily, we used to eat sweets very infrequently, and that’s a safe plan. Licorice treats are acceptable as long as they are not consumed regularly.

But Halloween candy isn’t the only thing that could lure you into consuming excess licorice. Your favourite herbal tea companies like Yogi Tea and Traditional Medicinals offer stomach-soothing licorice teas and use licorice in many of their teas. This is fine as long as you only drink these teas once in a while.

Then there are the cough syrups and throat lozenges with licorice, like Wish Garden’s Serious Cough Syrup and Planetary Herbal’s Wild Cherry Bark cough syrup. If you don’t suffer with high blood pressure and aren’t taking a thiazide diuretic (a water pill), it’s probably fine to use these products for a short while.  But it’s best not to use them every day for a chronic cough.

 At Alandi, we have a special way of making herbal formulas. Because we combine 7-9 herbs in the same formula, you end up taking a tiny amount of any one herbs. The synergistic effect of the combination lets you receive the medicals benefits while avoiding unwanted side effects. There’s a similar process used in our tinctures as well. You get a tiny amount of licorice in an Alandi tincture that has licorice.  At the same time, we do avoid adding licorice to your formula if you have blood pressure concerns, just to be on the safe side. And if there is licorice in your formula or an Alandi tincture you’re taking, make sure you don’t introduce licorice from other sources.

I love licorice, my multi-talented herbal ally. But I use it very carefully, and advise you to be mindful of your overall licorice consumption from various sources.

  Alakananda Ma M.B., B.S. (Lond.) is an Ayurvedic Doctor (NAMA) and graduate of a top London medical school. She is co-founder of Alandi Ayurveda Clinic and Alandi Ayurveda Gurukula in Boulder Colorado, as well as a spiritual mother, teacher, flower essence maker and storyteller. Alakananda is a well known and highly respected practitioner in the Ayurveda community both nationally and internationally.

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