What are the uses of Licorice?
Licorice is an herbal medicine that can help relieve various digestive tract problems after oral administration, such as Stomach Ulcers, Heartburn, Colic, and Chronic Gastritis. Some patients also take Licorice to relieve sore throat, Bronchitis, cough, an infection caused by bacteria Wait.
In addition, Licorice can also be taken orally to treat Addison’s disease, Diabetes Insipidus, Menopausal Symptoms, Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Liver Disorders, Malaria, Tuberculosis, High Potassium Levels in the Blood, food poisoning, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Rash, high cholesterol, and can also help recovery after surgery.
Licorice can also be taken orally with Panax Ginseng and Bupleurum Falcatum to improve the function of Adrenal Glands.
Especially for patients who take steroid drugs for a long time, because steroids inhibit the activity of the adrenal glands, and the adrenal glands produce important hormone so that the body can adapt to the pressure, so there are patients who take steroid drugs for a long time. Taken to improve adrenal function.
Licorice can be used orally with Peony to treat women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrom to increase fertility; it can also treat patients with abnormal Prolactin, muscle spasms, or to reduce the pain of cancer.
Licorice with other herbs can treat Prostate Cancer and Eczema.
In addition, Licorice can be used with Andrographis, Siberian Ginseng, and Schisandra to treat Familial Mediterranean Fever.
Licorice can be used for Irritable Bowel Syndrome if it is paired with Slippery Elm Bark, Lactulose, Oat Bran.
Some people use Licorice to wash their hair to improve their greasy hair. It can also be used as a gel on itchy and inflamed skin.
It can also be used as a solution to stop bleeding. It can be applied to the mouth or rinsed to treat Canker Sores, or cream can be used to treat Psoriasis, improve Melasma, and help lose weight.
In addition, it can also be applied to help postoperative recovery or make toothpaste to improve Dental Plaque.
Licorice is also administered intravenously to treat Hepatitis B and C and to improve the oral discomfort of patients with hepatitis C.
In addition, Licorice can also be used to flavor food, beverages, and tobacco products.
Licorice’s efficacy principle
There are currently not enough studies to prove the efficacy of Licorice, so please seek the help of a physician for more information.
However, it is now generally determined that Licorice contains some chemicals that can eliminate swelling, Mucus Secretions, relieve cough, and increase the number of chemicals in the body that can treat Ulcers.
Precautions
If you have the following conditions, please consult your doctor or pharmacist:
- Pregnancy or lactation: If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, you should only take the medicine recommended by your doctor.
- Are taking other medicines: including prescription medicines or medicines without a prescription.
- Allergic to any substance containing Licorice: or allergic to other drugs or herbs.
- Suffering from other diseases: for example, disorders of the physiological system, or any other health conditions.
- Allergies to certain substances: such as specific foods, artificial colors, preservatives, or animal allergies.
Compared with the regulation of medicines, the regulation of herbal medicines is less strict, and more research is needed to prove its safety.
Before use, please make sure that the benefits outweigh the risks. It is recommended to consult an herbalist or physician for more information.
Is it safe to use Licorice?
Most people ingest Licorice through food, so most are safe.
In terms of medical use, it is safe to take a large amount of oral or smeared skin in the short term.
However, if Licorice is taken orally for more than four weeks, or if it is taken for a long time, it may be dangerous.
- During pregnancy and breastfeeding: Oral Licorice may not be safe for pregnant women. Ingesting a high amount of Licorice (250 g/g per week) during pregnancy may increase the risk of premature delivery and may also cause miscarriage. It is not clear how safe it is to take while breastfeeding, so please avoid it if possible.
- Patients with heart disease: Licorice will make the body water, and worsen heart failure. Taking Licorice may also increase the risk of arrhythmia, so if you have heart disease, do not take it.
- Hormone-Sensitive Conditions patients: For example, patients with breast cancer, Uterine Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Endometriosis, Uterine Fibroids, and other hormone-stimulated and induced diseases should pay special attention. Licorice acts like Estrogen in humans, so patients with related diseases should avoid using Licorice.
- Hypertensive patients: Taking Licorice may increase blood pressure, so if you have high blood pressure, do not take Licorice in large amounts.
- Hypertonic patients: Licorice will reduce the potassium in the blood, which will make the condition of excessive muscle tension worse, so patients with related diseases should avoid using Licorice.
- Hypokalemia patients: Licorice reduces potassium in the blood. If the potassium in the blood is already low, Licorice may make the situation worse, so if there are related diseases, Licorice should be avoided.
- Kidney disease patients: Taking too much Licorice will make the kidney disease serious, so it should be avoided.
- Men with sexual dysfunction: Licorice reduces male libido and reduces Testosterone, making Erectile Dysfunction worse.
- Before surgery: If you take Licorice, blood pressure control may be affected during or after surgery. Therefore, Licorice is forbidden two weeks before the operation.
What are the side effects of licorice?
For healthy people, taking Licorice every day for several weeks may cause some side effects, such as high blood pressure, hypokalemia, weakness, paralysis, and occasionally brain damage.
For patients who already eat high saltiness, have heart disease, kidney disease, and high blood pressure, as long as they eat 5 grams per day (g), the above side effects will occur.
Other side effects include fatigue, interruption of the menstrual period, headache, Water and Sodium Retention, etc. Men also have a reduced likelihood of desire and sexual dysfunction.
Chewing tobacco flavored with Licorice may cause serious side effects such as high blood pressure.
But not everyone will have the side effects mentioned above, and not all side effects are listed here, so please consult your physician for any doubts related to side effects.
Potential interactions using Licorice
Licorice may interact with medicines taken by individuals or suffer from diseases, so please check with your doctor before taking it. Drugs that may interact with Licorice include:
- Warfarin: Warfarin is an anticoagulant. The human body will expel warfarin through decomposition, and Licorice may slow down the process of warfarin, thereby increasing the risk of blood clotting. Therefore, be sure to do regular blood tests. The dosage of warfarin may also need to be adjusted.
- Digoxin: Taking Licorice in large amounts will reduce potassium in the blood, which in turn increases the risk of side effects of cardiotonic.
- Estrogens: Licorice seems to affect the body’s hormones. Taking Licorice and estrogen drugs at the same time may reduce the effectiveness of estrogen drugs. Such pharmaceutical ingredients include, for example, Conjugated Equine Estrogens, Ethinyl Estradiol, and Estradiol.
- Ethacrynic Acid: Licorice will let the body excrete potassium, and elixir acid also has the same function; therefore, if taken at the same time, the potassium in the body may become too low.
- Furosemide: Licorice will let the body expel potassium, and Furuxie also has the same function; therefore, if taken at the same time, it may make the potassium in the body too low.
- Drugs that are susceptible to liver cytochrome catabolism and produce interactions: Ingestion of Licorice may reduce the rate at which the liver decomposes drugs. Therefore, if you take Licorice and drugs degraded by the liver at the same time, the rate of drug metabolism may decrease, which may enhance the effect side effect. If you are taking these drugs, please consult your doctor before using Licorice.
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- Drugs that interact easily with liver cytochrome Cytochrome P450 2B6 (CYP2B6): Ketamine, Phenobarbital, orphenadrine, Secobarbital, Dexamethasone, etc.
- Drugs that interact easily with liver cytochrome Cytochrome P450 2C9 (CYP2C9): Celecoxib, Diclofenac, Fluvastatin, Glipizide, ibuprofen, irbesartan, Losartan, Phenytoin, Piroxicam, Tamoxifen, Tolbutamide, Torsemide, Warfarin, etc.
- Drugs that interact easily with liver cytochrome Cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4): Lovastatin, Ketoconazole, Itraconazole, Fexofenadine, Triazolam, etc.
- Antihypertensive Drugs: Taking Licorice in large amounts may increase blood pressure and thus reduce the effectiveness of high blood pressure drugs. Hypertension drugs include Captopril, Enalapril, Losartan, Valsartan, Diltiazem, Amlodipine, Hydrochlorothiazide, Furosemide, etc.
- Anti-inflammatory drugs: Some anti-inflammatory drugs reduce potassium in the body, and Licorice also reduces the amount of potassium. If taken at the same time, it may make the potassium in the body too low. Anti-inflammatory drugs include Dexamethasone, Hydrocortisone, Methylprednisolone, Prednisone, etc.
- Water pills/Diuretic drugs: Taking large amounts of Licorice will reduce potassium in the body, and diuretics will also reduce potassium, so if used at the same time, potassium may be too low. Diuretics that excrete potassium include Chlorothiazide, Chlorthalidone, Furosemide, Hydrochlorothiazide, etc.
Where can I buy the best Licorice supplements?
In recent years, food safety problems in various countries have exploded, and it is not healthy but black-hearted products that everyone spends on. Therefore, European and American products with relatively strict quality control have become popular products.
And iHerb.com is a large-scale medical cosmetics e-commerce company in the United States. It has a high satisfaction rate of 97% in the evaluation of Google customers. It provides global home delivery so that you can buy it without risking buying fakes through purchasing high-quality health products.
