In pregnancy the problems can be multiple : nausea, headache, stomach pain, digestive difficulties, low blood pressure, high blood pressure, swollen legs, water retention, lymphatic stasis.
Erroneously it is thought that it is sufficient to enter an herbalist's shop and buy natural products to resolve disorders where drugs cannot be taken. But herbal remedies have their own toxicity and contraindications to which we always pay attention, especially in such a particular condition.
Licorice has many beneficial properties: it facilitates digestion, disinfects the throat, calms the cough, protects the gastrointestinal tract, counteracts constipation. If taken at high doses, licorice raises the pressure.
All these properties are very useful in pregnancy, because they solve problems that can be easily presented among pregnant women.
Use of Licorice
However, licorice should be taken at low dosages when expecting a baby, so it should not be used for the purpose of raising the pressure. Worrying data emerged from research carried out in Finland, where liquorice is widely used.
Babies born to women who consumed more than 500 mg of licorice a week had neurological problems. The glycyrrhizin contained in the licorice is able to damage the placenta and convey the stress hormones from mother to child, thus causing significant damage to cognitive and behavioral level. It can also help increase prostaglandins with the risk of inducing premature birth .
So let's try to scale down the alarmisms about this remedy. A licorice every now and then after meals to help digestion or quell the nausea has no contraindication, as long as the amount does not exceed 300 mg a week . On the contrary, high dosages, necessary in case the objective is to counteract a hypotensive condition, must be completely banished during pregnancy.
