Licorice is a very common traditional Chinese medicine, which has good medicinal value and has many functions, such as: nourishing the spleen and replenishing qi, relieving spasms and relieving pain, eliminating phlegm and relieving cough, clearing heat and detoxifying, and reconciling the potency of certain drugs. Therefore, licorice has become one of the most frequently used Chinese herbal medicines.
According to statistics, among the more than 700 kinds of medicinal materials commonly used clinically in my country today, the prescription rate of licorice is more than 70%. In addition to being used as medicine, some people also use licorice to soak in water to drink to achieve the effect of health preservation. However, long-term and large-scale consumption of licorice or its compound preparations will not only fail to maintain health, but may even cause limb edema, which is actually not conducive to health.
Why does licorice cause edema? Through the analysis of licorice components, licorice extract has mineralocorticoid effects, which can cause water and sodium retention, lower blood potassium levels and other symptoms of pseudo-aldosteronism, and rhabdomyolysis can also occur. Therefore, taking a large amount of licorice preparations for a long time may cause fatigue, decreased muscle strength, muscle pain, decreased urine output, limb edema, and increased blood pressure.
If you have edema due to long-term consumption of large amounts of licorice preparations, don't be nervous. First of all, we need to simply identify the cause of the edema, whether there are other organ diseases, such as nephritis, chronic heart failure, hyperthyroidism and other diseases; whether there is asthma, hematuria, increased foam in urine, palpitations, heat intolerance, protruding eyes and other symptoms.
Secondly, check whether there are licorice preparations in your long-term oral medicine or tea. If after excluding your own organ diseases, you find that there is licorice preparation in the oral medicine, you can stop using the medicine for about a week to distinguish. Generally, licorice preparations cause edema, and the edema will disappear after one week of stopping the drug.
The prerequisite for identifying whether the edema is caused by the compound licorice preparation is that you do not have obvious symptoms above. If the above symptoms are obvious, please go to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible.
The active components of licorice have a variety of pharmacological effects. Not only traditional Chinese medicine pays attention to it, but also Western medicine has discovered such effects as anti-oxidation, anti-inflammation, detoxification, anti-histamine, antibacterial, and liver protection. Children and the elderly should strengthen monitoring and use rationally when using licorice .