Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Licorice

Hey, y'all, welcome this week's show. Well, we're going to talk about really a very interesting medicinal herb today, and it is. It's one I love. It's one that a lot of people really don't like though. It's licorice. You either love licorice or you don't. I grew up eating licorice, especially black licorice, and most times that's actually flavored with Annis. We've talked about Annis a different chapter, a different show. I should say, real licorice comes from the licorice root, and it's what the candy used to be made from before they found that ANNIS was a lot cheaper. If you actually want real licorice candy, you have to get the imported stuff, like from Sweden. That's really not a flavor that most Americans are used to. It's bittersweet and sometimes alted, and I actually like that a lot, but that's my taste. Ex girlfriend of mine, for instance, hated liquors. Couldn't stand the smell of it. It didn't matter if it was real liquorice or the Anis type of liquorice. The real stuff actually has a great deal of medicinal value, but it really how you perceive it. Varies by really your genetics. I think we mentioned at a coriander that each of us is born essentially with a different number of taste buds, and those taste buds relate to our sinuses. Half of well, really probably more than half of a taste is actually sent. When you think about when you get a bad cold, your nose is stuffed up, or if you had COVID and so only you lost the ability to taste your food, right, that was an interference with really the sinuses. When your nose is open and you can breathe clearly in everything, then your tongue and your nose work in conjunction, and each one of those goes to a little sensor in the brain. Some people are born with very few taste buds. Some people are born with a less of a sense of smell. But those that are born with fewer taste buds seem to have a lesser tolerance, we might say for bitter things. Basically, most toxic plants, most poisons, things that are dangerous have a bitter flavor. So you know, our bodies developed to be able to sense bitter and sour and kind of to freak out over it. Those that have more taste buds tend to be able to taste more the complexities of flavor. So if you're someone that likes, you know, greens, collared greens, mustard greens, and turnips, you probably have more taste buds than somebody who hates them. If you're someone who likes a little bitters and a cocktail, you probably have more taste buds. If you're someone who enjoys licorice, you probably have a lot of taste buds. And I like licorice. What can I say? Now? There is also a correlation and I don't mean to offend anybody that doesn't like licorice, between having a heightened sense of smell and the maximum amount of taste buds and intelligence. You know, I said, how all those trigger a little censor in the brain, each one of those taste buds, and it can vary wildly. People can have hundreds more taste buds than somebody else, and it's dictated by genetics. There's nothing you can do about it. You can develop the sense of taste the brain and the nose. You won't grow new taste buds, but you can develop them. If you start introducing children at a very young age to a variety of foods. If we think about you know what Bobby Kennedy has been talking about, and the whole Maha movement and all that. I mean, obviously, America is suffering from a huge obesity epidemic, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, obesity, etc. And it's mainly due to our diet and our environment. Our water is pretty bad these days. I mean, you know, we need to admit that. But over the last one hundred years or so, as more sugar has been introduced into the diet, people have adapted towards sweeter tastes and away from bitter tastes, and actually those bitter taste buds have begun declining. You can do a lot for your kids for future generations getting them to taste and under stand and enjoy I mean, even things like dandelion greens and such when they're kids. And the more you do that, you're actually going to stimulate their intellectual development. As the brain and the taste buds and the nose start working together, the brain develops, and really in future generations, their kids are going to have more taste buds than you may right now. So it not always lost. If you don't like licorice, just don't worry about that, but you can still use it from medicinal value. Now, actual licorice root itself is a slightly different flavor than we have in liquorice candy. You can think of what's in liquorice candy as a condensed liquorice taste. You may actually like licorice root in a tea or a tincture. It has a very subtle sweetness to it, a very subtle bitterness to it, and really a nice aromatic scent. Interesting though, when we talk about licorice in conjunction with other bitter herbs, licorice will cancel out the medicinal value of several of them because it literally almost tricks the taste PUDs into thinking you're eating sugar because it does have this I think it's inuline. No, it's not inuline. It's something along those lines. It kind of fools the brain a little bit. If you take licorice with oregon grape or anything else in the barbary family, or with gentiin it, will the two actually cancel each other out. I don't know how that works. It has to the chemical reactions when you're taking those herbs. Whereas we might use gentin or berberin for liver health or to stimulate appetite for digestion, licorice will kind of signal the body, you know, don't produce set extra stomach acid, don't produce that extra gall and bio and all that. Nobody really knows how that works, but it's it's been studied. The the substance is glycohizin. Yeah, that's it was. It wasn't ennulus glycorizin. Now, there's so many interesting things about this plant, but from in a very simplistic way, I just explained how it kind of like counters the bitter of other herbs. We also consider liquors to be a cooling herb. So if you had, say an inflamed liver, and you wanted an herb to calm the liver, liquors should be perfect. Liquorice on its own will actually work pretty powerfully on the liver and the lungs and the kidneys especially, and the skin. Those are all related organs. If you if you had that a condition like that where your liver was very inflamed, berberin or gentien might be over stimulating. So that's one of those things we look at in herbal medicine, you know, is the liver and flamed? Is there fever accompanying this? Is it a hot condition? Is the skin dry? Is There's just so many things we would associate with like a hot condition. And if it's liver related, or lung related actually, or kidney related, liquorice is amazing for the kidneys actually, but in a different way that I guess I should go ahead explain. But if it was an inflammation, we would use licorice as opposed to those stronger bitter herbs that may over stimulate and already worn out liver. In other words, my old urbal teacher Michael Moore had a case where this guy came in and I mean he was almost in liver failure. I mean his liver was inflamed, he had jaundice, he had everything, and so for saying Michael Moore does say, well, let's give you some gingen or barberry, I don't remember which it was, and it made things worse. He had psoriasis, he had the dry skin and everything exomers ariusis I can't remember which one, but it made things worse and he's like, Wow, what's going on, and he's you know, he'd already done the intake for him. With the guy. The guy was not a heavy drinker at all, so he didn't have a family history of fatty liver. He was not diabetic. I mean, he was going down the list of things that could possibly do. It. Turns out the guy worked in a commercial kitchen and the solvents, the strong detergents they were using to clean really more the machinery. Probably somewhat in doing the you know, washing up the dishes and silver word and such, but really the machinery. You may know this if you've worked with around cars or you know, trucks and stuff like that, where you've got really harsh chemicals that will remove oil. They always tell you to wear gloves, right, well, you don't want to get that stuff on your skin because your skin absorbs it, and those solvents can really damage your liver much more so than alcohol will. In fact, if you're working around chemical solvents, I would even say if you are working in a commercial kitchen as a dishwasher, probably not a big deal for home use where you're washing up the dishes or you're using your dishwasher or anything. But definitely wear rubber gloves. And it's actually recommended that you wear rubber gloves if you're washing up dishes in a kitchen. Most people do it just because their skin gets dry and irritating cracked. Well, those solvents going into your skin and kind of pulling out the oils from your skin, they go into your bloodstream, and so that ended up what it was. And he recommended licorice for the guy and he had a full recovery. So very important, very important to keep in mind in some cases. Now you know thailand all is probably the substance a set of menthone and along with alcohol and solvents, that are the three I would say biggest dangers to our liver. But like I said, don't forget your municipal water. If you're not on a deep well, if you're not using spring water, if you're not collecting rainwater. Sometimes even if you are, there can be chemicals in that water, excuse me, that are very very tough on the liver. Other than that, processed foods definitely a lot of the dyes and such, So you can remove or mitigate several of those things. I mean, I have not taken thailand al in. I don't even know thirty years. I mean, yeah, probably about that long. I've told you this story before. I was working at a pharmacy and talking with the pharmacist, brilliant guy, one of the best pharmacists I've ever met. He compounded in Now. He was the old fashioned type, and he said, if I had to choose between Scotch and thailand al I take Scotch every day. And I'm said, why is that? He said, Tailanol will destroy your liver. He said, I've known you know, far more ninety summer one hundred year old alcoholics with fairly decent liver health than I have seventy and eighty year old people that take tailan all every day. And so I stopped taking it right there, right then. Well what did that mean? Well, every single over the counter cold and allergy medication essentially has tailan all in it, except for like one generic version of Alca Cultra cold Plus, and that doesn't even work anymore since they changed the nasal decongestant. It means you now have to look at all your night quill and day quill and flew this, and you know all that, and look does this contain a seed of menathon. Hopefully that's one of those things that Bobby Kennedy's doing, Bobby Junior, to get the seat of mining out of the things that's hidden in. I mean, I guess they're you know, they're gonna say, if you want to take tailanol, we're not going to withhold it from you. But there really ought to be more visible labeling and there ought to be more alternatives. Why can't you just take aspirin? That's what I always ask. Doctor says take tailand I'll say why. I mean, first of all, I stop going to doctors years ago. But but I say why, well, it can be hard on your stomach, and I'm yeah, but it doesn't turn your liver into jello. And they're like, ah, we recommend talanol, And I say, why, well, it's just what we do. Okay, why not take aspirin and don't take it on an empty stomach. If you have a stomach ulter, maybe that's not the best idea. But if you're a healthy person, why in the world are you taking talentow? Now? You know, when I went and had a dental procedure last year, the dentist said, take ibuprofen. And he was a very smart guy, a friend of mine. And I said, well, I'm glad you didn't recommend talent al. He said, we always did. He said, but now I recommend ibuprofen or neproxy And he said, but I don't really like neproxyden because it cause nerve damage long term. He said, Ibuprofen also has some toxicity, but it's nowhere near as dangerous as a seed of menifhin. And I was like, yeah, man, that makes sense. And in that case, aspirin was not indicated because you know, I just had a tooth extracted, and you don't want that gun to start bleeding again. You want to keep the clot in there asper being a blood thinner, that's the other reason, you know, sometimes not recommended. But I can't see any reason why thailand all is the one that is to go to. I do see actually one reason Thailand, or I should say, the seed of meniphon is a petroleum byproduct, and there's been a lot of lobbying by the petroleum industry that's probably put it in that position. But anyway, we have herbs, we have things we can use. We can pretty much stay away from that kind of stuff. If we need to or put on some gloves. Of course, the gloves have issues as well. That's a whole nother discussion from another day. Some people are actually allergic to them. But if you're working with heavy solvents, you want to be very, very careful. That's that's all I'm saying about that. Now. I said that liquorice also has a really powerful effect on the kidneys. Liquorice stimulates the kidneys as opposed to the way it like calms and cools the liver. Liquorice actually strengthens the kidneys. It's often used as an herbal remedy for people are having various issues with their kidneys, you know, kidney deficiency. Will just put it that way. If you actually have kidney disease, of course you're going to want to talk with your doctor and all that. So standard disclaimer, but you may notice that you are somewhat your kidneys are deficient if when the weather changes, when a storm comes in, you get like really sleepy and cold, if you change elevations, like if you stand up and get dizzy, or if you drive up a mountain or get an airplane and you get dizzy. The kidneys actually are regulating the water within the body, and when they're strong, everything is good. When they're weak, a drop in barometric pressure or a change in altitude can cause an imbalance that causes you to get dizzy or to feel like you have the flu. I mean, that's another symptom like especially when the barometric pressure drops. What your experience is essentially a low blood pressure episode caused by deficient kidneys, and in that case we would use liquors very much for that purpose. The kidney's, lungs, and skin and liver are all very closely related. When we stimulate the kidneys, we are also strengthening the lungs. Liquors is often used in all kinds of bronchial issues, gosh, for everything from asthma to COPD to just chess colds and such. It's a really good orb you might want to look into if you have an issue with it. Angelica can somewhat substitute for that. And when certain skin issues x meusoriasis are often very closely related to liver conditions, and so liquorice is one we would use looking at that, especially if there's a signs of inflammation. Of the liver. Then we can It's actually a pretty effective remedy, like one of those like super simple, like you don't need a formula kind of thing. You just kind of go for that along with you know, oatmeal baths and different things that people use. But as I mentioned, the compound in liquorice, the extract is glycorizin, and there was recently a study I guess this is a few years old now, but it was at UC Davis. Researcher Mark Zern found that glycorizin should promise is a possible remedy for chronic hepatitis, sea and liver cancer. So you know this is being borne out by testing. There's let's see, I got an article here. I was trying to find who wrote it. Oh uh. This is from the website Plantmedicines dot org. It says liquors root can help heal liver damage. Now, this is as I said, This is whereas we we might use gentien or oregon grape or something like that, bourberan to stimulate the liver. This is the opposite way we're calming. This should probably be okay with milk thistle though, because milk thistle has been shown to help regenerate liver tissue, and it's not intensely bitter, but you know you're going to want to research that and make sure there's no contraindication there anyway. This one's cites various medical studies down in its footnotes, but it comes up with a few main points. The first one's liquorice root stops the damage. This is, when we drink alcohol, liver produces an enzyme to help repair the damage to liquor that alcohol does. When you drink in moderation, these enzymes do the job and repair the liver without any problem. However, people who are drinking excess are found with a lot more of these enzymes, and the liquorice root actually helps stop the damage that's occurring in the first place. And for the studies as these results suggest that consumption of proprietary glycorizon during alcohol consumption may support improved liver health compared with drinking alcohol alone. Probably no coincidence that most of the old European liqueurs have liquorice in them. People were having their liquorice along with their alcohol, and how they knew to do that, I don't know. Liquorics root repairs and improves liver enzymes, actually increases the efficiency of that in somatic repair. That comes from another scientific study. Let's see, that's science explains liquorice root can heal liver damage, also reduces stomach inflammation, and liquors roots one of the best things for stomach cultures. I've forgotten to mention that. That's another one the reason we use it a lot. Now, if you did let's see, if you did want to use like something like Berberin or Gentien, you would need to alternate it with liquorice. You don't take them at the same time, like you may take this for a week and then that for a week. Okay, But then you can combine licorice with other bitter herbs like dandelion burdock root, because they're both what we would call more cooling bitter herbs. And I would put milk fistle in the same category, and I think that's just a really good combination, actually licorice with dandelion, burdock and probably milk thistle. Yeah, I'd put it together with milk thistle. So that's kind of gives you the rundown on licorice. It's really good let's see what else have I got in my notes. Yeah, Hippocrates was making liquorice bace tonics and around four hundred BC discorities describes it and said it was bitter and sweetish with sweetish not sweetish. He said it was good for the stomach disorders in the chest and liver, skin diseases, blattering, kidney disorder. He would put in a raisin based wine and used topically. Said it would heal wounds and chewed. Was good for the stomach, And yes it is, Oh, say Hildegard von Bingen the Great blisted around ten eighty eleven hundred like to use it for horseness, and that's another very hoarseness and coughing and throat issues, very common use for liquors. That's really why liquors ended up in candy. People were making cough drops out of it and it became a popular candy. She said, No matter how it is eaten, it gives a person a clear voice, makes one's mind agreeable and his eyes clear. It sues his stomach for digestion, and it is a great benefit to an insane person. I have no idea how are white that is? But she said if eaten frequently, it would clear the furor from his head. I have no idea like more recently, this would be like nineteen twenties brother Alwishus said, licorice was used to assolve phleim for burning fevers, treatments of chronic conditions of the respiratory organs also used for lung complaints, chills, coughs, horseness, mucus, and the lungs consumption, measles, costs, pain for difficult urination, stones, gravel, gout, and rheumatism. So blattering kidney stones and all that. Yep, But so I mean it's very another common herb use for that, or an herb commonly used for that, I should say. In the Russian tradition it was actually known as sweet herb, so they saw it as more of a sweet herb. And apparently in Russia it was highly valued for its use in confectionery or candy that would be in seventeen eighteen hundreds, but was considered a remedy for the blattering kidney ailments, bladder and kidney alments, gestational toxicosis, and constipation. An ointment made from it used treat burns ex lupus hives. Yeah, that all makes sense. And it was also used to neutralize poisons in Russia since ancient times. Very interesting. Again, I don't really know how that works, but anyway, I was written up by Theoplasts, three of Theoprastus and Pliny the Elder. I mean, whow so much you know history on it? I think Girard is basically, yeah, repeating the same thing. I'm gonna see if I haven't any use here, I haven't mentioned powder of liquors. This, according to Culpepper, blown into the eyes that have a web or rheumatic distillation as they call it, death, cleanse and help them. I'm really not sure what that even means. And he used to He said it was really good for horses that we used as well, given to them and their feed. Yeah, let's see, I'm going to get up to more modern use because I'm kind of going on a little bit here. Miss Grieve gets into tons of history, tons of history, which she mentions there was a popular, well known remedy for coughs consumption of the chest complaints, generally notably bronchitis. It was often taken in cough lozenges and such. Interesting, all right, modern US plants for future. Licorice is one of the most commonly used herbs in Western herbal medicine, has a very long history of use both as a medicine, as a flavoring to disguise unpleasant flavors, and other medications. It is a very sweet, moist soothing herb that detoxifies and protects the liver, and is also powerfully anti inflammatory. Being used in conditions is varied as arthritis and mouth alters. The root is alterative, anti spasmodic, emulsion, diuretic, emollient, expected alternative means it gradually brings you up back up to health. Essentially, demulscon means softening. Let me see that also is emollient, moistening and softening diuretic you should probably know gets rid of excess foods. Expector it gets the mucous o the lungs. Laxative, moderately pectoral, and tonic, so soothing to the chest and similarly into the appetite. The root has been shown to have a hormonal effect similar to the or variant ovarian hormone. This especially true of don qui that's a fermented licorice in Chinese medicine. It can really help with menopause and such as set Licorice root is much used in cough medicines and also in the treatment of cattoral infections that means congestion of the urinary tract. It is taken internally in the treatment of Addison's disease. Yes, it does have an effect on cortisol. Forgotten that asthma, bronchitis, coughs, peptic alters, arthritis, allergic complaints, and following steroidal therapy. It should be used in moderation. And this is also very important. You don't want to take large doses of licorice or moderate doses for a long period of time. It can actually have a little toxicity to it. It can affects the nerves especially, but which should not be prescribed for pregnant women or people with high blood pressure. As I said, effects the kidneys, streaking those kidneys. It can actually raise your blood pressure a little bit. Not used for people with kidney diseasegain because it's going to stimulate those kidneys that are already weakened. Now, if you're in that pre state, may be a good idea, So you know, that's something you don't want to research. If that's an issue, or those taking into jocxin based medication. Prolonged usages raise the blood pressure and cause water retention. All right, Externally, the root just use the treatment of herpes x me ma shingles. The rooters harvests in the autumn when the planet is three to four years old and dried for later use. Now, a gross overdose of the use this is actually how it's pronounced, I mean, not pronounced labeled. A grosser's a huge amount can cause a edema, high blood pressure, and congestive heart failure because it's causing your body to retain fluids. Think we've covered just about all that. Oh, Stephen Harrod Buhner, great Herblists, passed away a couple couple of years ago. Now, I said that he found it liquors to have anti viral properties that were useful, especially when combined with other herbs. But he gives strong warnings not never in high doses, never for long periods of time. I guess that is about it, all right. We have wrapped up licorice. I find it one of the most interesting of the medicinal herbs. And it's another one of those that I mean you see it so often in candy and such, you wouldn't think, you know, there's any potential danger to it. But you've got to remember that's a culinary dose. When we're talking about medicinal doses, we're talking much stronger extracts and much higher dosages. You can get licorice root tablets. They're fairly mild. I mean I've taken them for off and on over the years. You know, I'm tall, like six', four and WHEN i was, YOUNGER i would have like get dizzy of a stood up too. Fast and with my bronchial issues that have had SINCE i was a, kid licorice was an HERB i used pretty, frequently never had any issues with, It but then, Again i'm more prone to low blood pressure than high blood. Pressure So i'll look into. IT i think it's a really interesting, herb and have a good. One i'll talk to you next. Week the information this podcast is non intended to diagnose or treat any disease or. Condition NOTHING i say or write has been evaluated or approved by THE. Fda i'm not a. Doctor THE us government does not recognize the practice of verbal, medicine and there is no governing body regulating. Herbs, Therefore i'm really just a guy who says. IRBs i'm not offering any. ADVICE i won't even claim that ANYTHING i write or say is accurate or. TRUE i can tell you what earths has been traditionally used. FOR i can tell you my own, experience and IF i believe in herb has helped, ME i, cannot nor WOULD i tell you do to. Say if you use an herb anyone recommends you are treating. Yourself you take full responsibility for your. Health humans are, individuals and. No two are. Identical what works for me may not work for. You you may have an allergy of sensitivity and underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know. About be careful with your health by continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog you read. It be responsible for, yourself your own, research make your own, choices and not. To blame me for anything. Ever