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A person dies after eating this candy every day for weeks
Sweets are indeed a kind of consolation, but not in this case.
A 50-year-old man ate too much black licorice for several weeks - which rushed him to the hospital in critical condition and eventually caused his death.
How did it happen?
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Sweets
potassium
Licorice
Walla!
health
Wednesday, 30 September 2020, 10:06
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Can be dangerous.
Sweets (Photo: shutterstock)
When you say that sweets can be dangerous to your health, you probably do not mean what happened to this person.
In a case report in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors described how a classic candy led to the death of a 54-year-old man from Massachusetts.
When the patient arrived at Massachusetts General Hospital, he did not respond following cardiac arrest.
He was reportedly in good health that day until he collapsed at a fast-food restaurant around noon, and lost consciousness.
After undergoing CPR on the spot, he was transferred to the emergency room with irregular heartbeats of 40 beats per minute, before being connected to a respirator in the intensive care unit.
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The tests revealed that the man's blood was low in potassium, and his medical history was borrowed from his friends and family.
The patient, it turned out to the doctors, was in good health, with no history of chest pain, shortness of breath or other symptoms of heart failure or abnormal heart rate.
None of his friends were ill, and he showed no suspicious signs.
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However, one detail in his diet aroused suspicion, as doctors learned that the man needed several packets of sweets a day.
Moreover, he changed the type of candy he had eaten just 3 weeks earlier, from a soft fruit-flavored candy (red licorice) to a black licorice-flavored candy.
This figure gave the medical staff an idea of what caused the collapse, especially in light of his condition which included low potassium levels.
Even a small amount every day can be dangerous.
Black licorice (Photo: shutterstock)
Black licorice contains glyceric acid, which can cause changes in potassium levels, disrupt electrolytes and increase cortisol levels, which can lead to hypertension, hypokalemia, metabolic alkalosis, dangerous arrhythmias and kidney failure, all of which were seen in the patient.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, people 40 and older who eat 56 grams of black licorice a day for two weeks may arrive at the hospital with an irregular heartbeat or arrhythmias.
However, death here was an extreme case.
"The goals of the treatment were discussed with his family, who refused alternative kidney treatment, and then the patient was transferred to a means of treatment that would facilitate him only," the authors wrote in the report.
"He died comfortably with his family at his bedside, 32 hours later."
If you are a lover of black licorice, it is important to know that this man's consumption was excessive, and it is very likely that you will not eat enough to harm your health.
However, this does not mean that it is risk free.
"Even a small amount of licorice you eat can slightly increase blood pressure," Dr. Neil Bottle, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, told the Associated Press.
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