[Sca-cooks] Licorice

[Samrah]

My favorite heavy, duty herbal is Planetary Herbology by Michael Tierra, IBSN 0-941524/27/2.  It combines traditional English herbs, Ayuverdic, Chinese & Amer Indian herbs all in one book, with chemical consituents, medical properties, etc.  Tierra says "Its principal contraindication is in cases where there is a tendancy towards fluid retention, edema with high blood pressure."  
 
Penny C. Royal, Herbally Yours, IBSN 0-9609226-1-X, is very simple, but I have always found accurate states:  "Taken over a long period of time, or in large doses, it can cause sodium and water retention which elevates the blood pressure and may cause pains in the Heart."
 
While these sites say things like "edema with high blood pressure" and "in large doses", experience with my love and I has shown that even extremely small doses of licorice can make a huge difference.  We are talking a half dozen of those little tiny Good n' Plenty, a 1" piece of real licorice candy, herb tea you cannot taste the licorice in can all cause really nasty spikes.  My Galen has a tendancy to very high BP.  I had some troubles as a result of allergies to medication.  As those of you who have BP problems know, things just really need to die when your BP is too high, and licorice really makes this worse.
 
Just speaking from personal experience.  You may find things work differently for you, but please be careful with licorice.  Not intended to treat, diagnose or prescibe.  Consult your licensed health care professional.
 
Well wishes always,
Samrah

"Laura C. Minnick" <lcm at jeffnet.org> wrote:
At 10:56 PM 11/17/2004, you wrote:
>
>The biggie for blood pressure is licorice (not anise or licorice 
>flavorings). It is found in most herbal tea blends, like Red Zinger. You 
>do not even have enough licorice to taste to increase the BP so please 
>check your labels. Good n' Plenty candies are out. Most gum drops seem 
>to use artificial flavoring (perhaps even anise) so they seem to be OK.

Do you have some references for this? I've never heard of this, but I'd 
like to know more, especially since I'm hypertensive myself.

'Lainie
___________________________________________________________________________
The penalty good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be 
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