The case of a man who died after eating too much licorice

A newly published report details the case of a 54-year-old man who died of a sudden cardiac arrest as a result of irregular heartbeats after what seems to be eating too much licorice. The patient — who had no previous history of chest pains or heart failure — had a poor diet that included one or two large bags of licorice-flavored candy daily in the three weeks leading up to his death, according to the report. Several of the symptoms that the patient had — including low blood potassium levels — seemed consistent with the toxic effects of consuming a lot of licorice, which is used as a sweetener but also has a history of being used as medicine. The overconsumption of licorice seemed to have led to high blood pressure, which in turn may have triggered the cardiac arrest.