Licorice - Personal Experience

Since I have been studying in the herbal field, I have come to appreciate herbs in combination with each other. They seem to work together more synergistically than by themselves, so I often turn to an herbal combination when treating various types of illnesses. Knowing that this report had to be on one herb and that I had to have personal experience with that one herb gave me pause. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. My first reaction was to turn to either Aloe Vera or Echinacea.

I attribute these two herbs to my introduction into “natural health.” I grew up in Arizona and I was definitely a sunbather and with that came sunburns, so I quickly learned the value of Aloe Vera for the skin, especially since we had it growing all around us. Echinacea is what we went for first when we felt a cold or the flu coming on, but for my thesis I felt these herbs and remedies were too common. I wanted a bit of a stretch in writing this paper.

I became intrigued with Licorice when I was talking to someone who used Licorice to keep a common but serious problem at bay. This person had bipolar depression. It runs in his family and he was cursed with the weakness. Once diagnosed as Bipolar, he went the medical route and tried many different kinds of medication. None seemed to be working and he became suicidal. At this point he wanted and needed something different. His neighbor was into natural health and counseled this gentleman on a different way to treat his “disease.”

He was instructed to take a home test to help “diagnose” where the true problem may lie. This test indicated adrenal and thyroid fatigue. If a person’s eyes are very sensitive to light and if they stand up quickly and get dizzy these are some of the indications that these glands may have a problem. This led him to the Dr. Christopher formulas for the adrenals and thyroid. Within six weeks, he was off medication and had a noticeable change in his condition. The combination of these two formulas stopped his chemical imbalance. Now if he feels a little stress coming on he will take Licorice extract to help calm him down. A few simple herbal formulas and a Licorice extract have taken care of a problem that over 5 years of traditional prescription medication couldn’t help.

A problem that I had that modern medicine couldn’t seem to touch is, what I’m sure most women suffer with in one form or another, PMS. I would get very moody and have tender breasts as well as painful cramps during my menstrual cycle. I found out about the dynamic duo of New Fem and Herbal Changease formulas. Dr. Christopher stated that within 100 days of taking both of these herbal formulas a woman would see a complete change in her menstrual cycle. I found that to be very true and have referred many other women/girls to the same program with the same terrific results. Now I just maintain by taking these formulas starting on the 17^th day of my cycle to when my period begins. In fact, I had run out of the Hormonal Changease (the formula with Licorice in it) and tried using another tonic formula (which didn’t have Licorice) and my mood swing came back, and came back even worse. I won’t be caught again without this formula.

In addition to taking the Hormonal Changease formula, I will also add Licorice root and Red Raspberry leaf tea to my regimen. I enjoy the smooth sweetness of the Licorice tea and the calming effect it seems to have. I drink this combination warm in the winter months and cool in the summer months.

I have also found that this calming effect works on my teenage son who is going through puberty. He seems to get stressed, angry and moody as well. During these volatile times I give him the Hormonal Changease and I can almost immediately see his shoulders loose the tension, his fists unclench and his jaw ease. He is a bit nicer to his brother and a little more cordial around the house. I’m trying to get him to drink my tea combination, but he won’t go that far yet.

A situation where I was able to see the effects of just straight Licorice extract was a time when my husband had a bad night and was awakened with diarrhea. When he told me about it in the morning I suggested to him to take the Lower Bowel formula, but that just didn’t compute for him. Having diarrhea and taking a formula take made your bowels more active. Since I was doing my report on Licorice, I told my husband about the soothing effect that licorice has on the intestinal tract and had him take a couple of droppers of Licorice extract. What I didn’t tell him about was the laxative properties of Licorice as well. Anyway, those few droppers did the trick for him and he was feeling better through the day.

Knowing that Licorice has a “No Doz” effect for people without the caffeine jitters opened up another experiment. My mother has a case of sleep apnea, so therefore has trouble staying awake in church and during long distance travel. I gave her a bottle of Licorice extract to experiment with. At first she only took a couple of drops of the extract and didn’t notice any change. I told her to take a couple of droppers instead. Now on Sundays she is taking 3 droppers and has no trouble staying awake in church. My parents are now on a trip to Mexico in which they are driving. I made sure my mother had plenty of Licorice extract with her for the long drive.

I’m sure I will continue to experiment with this wonderful herb that has so many great qualities. Licorice is truly more than a well-known candy.