Hypertension and Licorice?

Growing up I’ve always liked the taste of licorice flavored candies. Fortunately I was blessed with strict parents that place limitations on my consumption of these delicious confections. In the past, I did not have the slightest idea how it would affect my health or if it has any effects at all. I suppose I was a just kid with a sweet tooth for licorice. Then my “licorice-loving world” changed after I stumbled on Dr. Schwart’s article where I discovered that licorice contains a compound called glycyrrhizin whose structure resembles that of the hormone aldosterone. I began to worry because having taken human physiology I know full well the function of aldosterone in the human body. I learned the aldosterone is produced and secreted by the adrenal cortex, one of the two adrenal glands right on top of our kidneys. Normally, when our blood pressure falls the body has two ways of regulation to bring it back up: osmoreceptors in the hypothalamus (parts of the brain) that detect an increase in the osmotic pressure and the baroreceptors in the circulatory system that detect a drop in the blood volume. The adrenal cortex is then induced to secrete aldosterone which tells the kidney to reabsorb more sodium by active transport and water by passive transport, which restores the blood volume and blood pressure.
If glycerrhizin could induce the kidney to reabsorb water and sodium without any hormonal regulation by the body then it could potentially be a problem! For sporadic consumers like me it might not pose a major concern but for licorice addicts with high blood pressure it could be a health hazard. Armed with this information I was able to convince my sister to cut down on her consumption of licorice candies at least for now. She was not very happy to know this but because I was so adamant she had to take my word for it. I’m glad that my attention devoted to the discussions on renal biology in human physiology is already beginning to pay off. Furthermore, I was able to save my sister from possibly developing hypertension as a result of eating too many licorice candies even if the possibility of that happening might be very miniscule.