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A man in the US state of Massachusetts died after eating too much licorice, writes The Guardian.
Eating licorice regularly can cause, among other things, high blood pressure, potassium deficiency, or heart rhythm disorders.
“Even if you eat a small amount of licorice, your blood pressure can go up a bit,” says cardiologist Dr. Neel Butala.
Photo: TT
The man had eaten half a bag of licorice a day. Licorice genre image.
The 54-year-old was having lunch at a fast food restaurant when suddenly, without any symptoms, he collapsed. The rescue service was called and managed to revive the 54-year-old man, but he died the next day.
The Guardian newspaper writes that the 54-year-old went from eating red fruit flavored licorice sticks to the black variant of candy a few weeks before he died. I should have eaten a bag and a half of licorice a day for several weeks.
My body is out of balance
According to the doctors, the consumption of licorice unbalanced its nutrients, causing the heart to stop.
Dr. Elazer R Edelman writes in The New England Journal of Medicine that death was caused by glycyrrhizinic acid, which is naturally found in licorice, among other things.
The substance can, among other things, cause high blood pressure, potassium deficiency, kidney failure, and oxygen base or heart rhythm disorders, writes Elazer R Edelman. All of this could be found in the 54-year-old man.
Dr. Neel Butala, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, has also written about the case in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Even if you eat a small amount of licorice, your blood pressure can go up a bit,” he says in the magazine.
“Very rare”
According to the Swedish National Food Administration, eating too much licorice for a long time can be harmful. Children are more sensitive than adults, so children under the age of five should not eat licorice regularly. But sometimes it goes well.
However, it is unusual for people to die from excessive licorice consumption.
– It is very rare that I die from an excessive intake of licorice. During my 25 years as a doctor, I have never come across anything like this, says Håkan Fureman, who works as an endocrinologist at Östersund Hospital for SVT.
Fureman also tells SVT that he doesn’t think you should worry if you eat licorice sometimes.
– If you know that you are a heavy consumer, you should review your intake and have it. If you’re concerned, you can get your blood pressure under control, it usually gives an early rise in blood pressure if you take too large amounts, he tells the channel.
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