# Licorice?



## gizmo (Aug 21, 2004)

I had read some info a while back on a man named Victor Frankl who had given people a drug called percorten and it snapped them out of dp and what it is, is desoxycorticosterone, which is some kind of adrenal hormone.well, i looked up licorice because i know it is good for the adrenals and it said it helps the body produce desoxycorticosterone.from talking to a couple of naturopaths, the adrenals have a lot to do with dp/dr.i was just curious if anyone has tried licorice.i do know you are not supposed to use it if you have high blood pressure.


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## Guest (Jan 1, 2006)

Are you going to try it? My anxiety has been quite bad the past few weeks, I wonder if licorice would stimulate that. I have a couple of herb-reference sites bookmarked, but they don't cover everything.


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## gizmo (Aug 21, 2004)

i have ocd and there are so many things i obsess about and one of them is what to take because i start analyzing all the options and i make myself tired.i have read so much about natural health-i worked at a health food store for six years and i was obsessive about reading health books because it is very interesting to me.anyway, also when i start something new, i analyze every feeling i get, and sometimes i think i feel worse because i analyze it too much and we know that makes dp worse.anyway, i have been feeling better for a while and i am afraid to change anything.


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## enigma (Feb 18, 2005)

Sounds interesting, I might give it a try, it couldn't kill me.

Though I've never liked licorice (I've always suspected "licorice" to be a word for "edible plastic" in some language).

But I'm just that desperate at this point.

e


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## Guest (Jan 1, 2006)

But you'd use the natural licorice root, which isn't much better tasting than the candy - but at least it's natural.

What gets difficult is when you have two or more health probs and the remedies/solutions for them conflict.


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## Guest (Jan 2, 2006)

Glycyrrhiza glabra is one of the most common ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine; it has little to do with what is known as licorice candy other than once being an ingredient in it; today the taste is probably artificially manufactured, in the candy.

Licorice root was used as a sweetener by the ancient Egyptians; it's 50 times sweeter than sugar and has had a variety of medicinal uses.

I've used this in tea just as a sweetener; it had no effect on the DP.


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## Guest (Jan 2, 2006)

Yeah, it probably only works on some cases of dp. Also, I think you'd have to take a lot of it for quite a while. Was the licorice you used in powder form?


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## Guest (Jan 2, 2006)

It was the whole root simmered in tea.

It's also used as a fertility aid for women (so be careful if you do take it!).


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## Guest (Jan 2, 2006)

In traditional Chinese medicine there are some diagnostic descriptions of insomnia that sound similar to DP disorder. The variety caused by lowered function of the heart and spleen is described as "Excessive dreaming during sleep, tendency to awake, palipitation, amnesia, dizziness, blurred vision, lassitude, porr appetite, pallor, pale tongue, weak pulse." There are 14 ingredients in the detoction for that kind of insomnia:

Radix Codonopsis Pilosulae
or 
Radix Ginseng
Rhizoma Atractylodis macrocephalae
Radix Astragali
Radix Angelicae Sinensis
Semen Ziziphi Spinosae
Arillus Longan
Lignum Pini Poriaferum
Radix Polygalae
Fructus Schisandrae
Semen Biotae
Cortex Albiziae (this herb is used to treat "trance")
Dens Draconis
Concha Ostreae
Concha Margaritifera

Herbs are rarely used alone in Chinese medicine but are combined with other "helper" herbs in a decoction.

But how one would accurately describe DP to someone who doesn't speak much English and ascertain they're being treated for the right problem I'm not sure. Around here most of the Chinese herbalists really don't speak much English at all.


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## Guest (Jan 2, 2006)

My cranio-sacral therapist is a doctor of traditional chinese medicine and she's an English-speaking caucasian. I told her about dp, but she didn't respond as if she knew what I meant. Around here, chinese med. is very accepted and widely spread and there are lots of "whites" going to school to earn their DTCMs.
I would try herbs if I thought it would help, but the other DTCM I saw was a man and he wasn't open to hearing about too many emotional probs, which he thought should be solved with meditation and yoga.


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## Guest (Jan 3, 2006)

I know beachgirl: if you can't explain this to someone fluent in English, how will you explain it to anyone else? I guess what I meant to say is that the only _affordable _Chinese herbalists around here are, well, Chinese.


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## gimpy34 (Aug 10, 2004)

I have read that article. Victor Frankl also wrote some book about the Holocaust that I actually remember reading (or was supposed to read) for a religion class my sophomore year in high school.

I think he studied a lot of Holocaust survivors and found them to be incredibly DPed, motsly due to trauma. I think their brains just learned to become DPed after witnessing all the atrocities. That kind of DP is probably different than what most people on this board have. I'm not sure if derealization accompanied their DP.

But, anyway, I think feeding the adrenals can relieve aspects of DP, especially increasing your concentration and motivation and stuff.


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