It is one of the cases that are causing the scientific community to discuss that of a man who died in the US for having eaten too much licorice.
The 54-year-old, who did not suffer from any previous medical conditions, had eaten a pack and a half of black licorice every day. The rest of his diet consisted of a rather poor diet.
The medical history of the construction worker is described in the New England Journal of Medicine by physicians at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
An “excess of glycyrrhizic acid contained in the licorice root” killed the patient.
Other studies have previously shown that glycyrrhizic acid can cause “hypertension, fatal arrhythmias and kidney failure”. The worker fell ill in a fast food restaurant: he began to tremble, then he lost consciousness. Immediately taken to hospital he was given artificial ventilation and therapy to raise potassium levels, but died 32 hours after hospitalization.
(Unioneonline/s.s.)
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