The Prepper Broadcasting Network - MEDICAL MONDAY: Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Licorice

Episode Date: June 29, 2026

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Hey, y'all, welcome this week's show. Well, we're going to talk about really a very interesting medicinal herb today, and it is one I love. It's one that a lot of people really don't like, though. It's licorice. You either love licorice or you don't. I grew up eating licorice, especially black licorice. Most times, that's actually flavored with anise. We've talked about anise in a different chapter, a different show, I should say.

Real licorice comes from the licorice root, and it's what the candy used to be made from before they found that anise was a lot cheaper. If you actually want real licorice candy, you have to get the imported stuff like from Sweden. That's really not a flavor that most Americans are used to. It's bittersweet. and sometimes salted. And I actually like that a lot. But that's my taste.

Ex-girlfriend of mine, for instance, hated licorice. Couldn't stand the smell of it. It didn't matter if it was real licorice type of licorice. The real stuff actually has a great deal of medicinal value. But how you perceive it varies by really your genetics. I think we mentioned it a coriander that each of us is born essentially with a different number of taste buds. And those taste buds relate to our sinuses. Half of, well, really, probably more than half of taste is actually scent.

When you think about when you get a bad cold, your nose is stuffed up. Or if you had COVID and suddenly you lost the ability to taste your food, right? that was an interference with really the sinuses. When your nose is open and you can breathe clearly and everything, then your tongue and your nose work in conjunction, and each one of those goes to a little sensor in the brain. Some people are born with very few taste buds. Some people are born with less of a sense of smell.

But those that are born with fewer taste buds seem to, to have a lesser tolerance, we might say, for bitter things. Basically, most toxic plants, most poisons, most things that are dangerous have a bitter flavor. So, you know, our body's developed to be able to sense bitter and sour and kind of to freak out over it. Those that have more taste buds tend to be able to taste more of the complexities of flavor. So if you're someone that likes you know greens, collard greens, mustard greens and turnips, you probably have more taste buds than somebody who hates them. If you're someone who likes a little bitters in a cocktail, you probably have more taste buds. If you're

someone who enjoys licorice, you probably have a lot of taste buds. And I like liquorish, what can I say? Now, there is also a correlation, and I don't mean to offend anybody that doesn't like licorice, between having a heightened sense of smell and the maximum amount of taste buds and intelligence. You know, I said how all those trigger a little sensor in the brain, each one of those taste buds, and it can vary wildly. People can have hundreds more taste buds than somebody else, and it's dictated by genetics. There's nothing you can do about it. you can develop the sense of taste, the brain, and the nose. You won't grow new taste buds, but you can develop them if you start introducing children at a very young age to a variety of foods.

If we think about what Bobby Kennedy's been talking about and the whole Maha movement and all that, I mean, obviously America is suffering from a huge obesity epidemic, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, obesity, etc. And it's mainly due to our diet and our environment. Our water is pretty bad these days. I mean, you know, we need to admit that. But over the last hundred years or so, as more sugar has been introduced into the diet, people have adapted towards sweeter tastes and away from bitter tastes. And actually those bitter taste buds have begun declining. You can do a lot to, for your kids for future generations, getting them to taste and understand and enjoy, I mean, even things like dandelion grains and such when they're kids. And the more you do that, you're actually

going to stimulate their intellectual development. As the brain and the taste buds and the nose start working together, the brain develops. And really in future generations, their kids are going to have more taste buds than you may right now. So it not all, is lost if you don't like licorice just don't you know don't worry about that but you can still use it from medicinal value now actual liquorish root itself is a slightly different flavor than we have in licorice candy you can think of what's in licorice candy as a condensed liquor's taste you may actually like licorice root in a tea or a tincture it has a very subtle sweetness to it a very

subtle bitterness to it and really a nice aromatic scent. Interesting though, when we talk about licorice in conjunction with other bitter herbs, licorice will cancel out the medicinal value of several of them because it literally almost tricks the taste buds into thinking you're eating sugar because it does have this, I think it's inulin. No, it's not inuline. It's something along those lines. It kind of fools the brain a little bit. If you take licorice with organ grape

or anything else in the Barbary family or with ginschen, the two actually cancel each other out. I don't know how that works. It has to the chemical reactions when you're taking those herbs. Whereas we might use ginsion, or bourbon for liver health or to stimulate appetite for digestion.

Liquorish will kind of signal the body, don't produce that extra stomach acid, don't produce that extra gall and bio and all that. Nobody really knows how that works, but it's been studied. The substance is glycoorizon. Yeah, it wasn't inulence, glycoorizum. Now, there's so many interesting things about this. plant. But from, in a very simplistic way, I just explained how it kind of like counters the bitter of other herbs. We also consider licorice to be a cooling herb. So if you had, say, an inflamed liver

and you wanted an herb to calm the liver, liquor should be perfect. Liquorish on its own will actually work pretty powerfully on the liver and the lungs and the kidneys especially and the skin. Those are all related organs. If you had a condition like that where your liver was very inflamed, berberin or gentian might be overstimulating. So that's one of those things we look at in herbal medicine. You know, is the liver inflamed? Is there a fever accompanying this? Is it a hot condition? Is the skin dry? Is it? There's just so many things we would associate with like a hot condition, if it's liver-related or lung-related, actually, or kidney-related. Liquorice is amazing for the kidneys, actually, but in a different way that I guess I should go ahead and explain.

But if it was an inflammation, we would use licorice as opposed to those stronger bitter herbs that may over-stimulate an already worn-out liver, in other words. My old herbal teacher, Michael Moore, had a case where this guy came in, and I mean, he was almost in liver failure. I mean, his liver was inflamed. He had jaundice. He had everything. And so for saying Michael Moore does say, well, let's give you some ginsion or barberry. I don't remember which it was. And it made things worse.

He had psoriasis. He had the dry skin and everything. Examer or psoriasis. I can't remember which one. But it made things worse. And he's like, wow, what's going on? And he's, you know, he'd already done the intake for him with the guy. The guy was not a heavy drinker at all.

So he didn't have a family history of fatty liver. He was not diabetic. I mean, he was going down the list of things that could possibly do it. Turns out the guy worked in a commercial kitchen. And the solvents, the strong detergents, they were using to clean really more than machinery, probably somewhat in doing the, you know, washing up the dishes and silverware and such, but really the machinery. You may know this if you've worked with around cars or, you know, trucks and stuff like that,

where you've got really harsh chemicals that will remove oil. They always tell you to wear gloves, right? Well, you don't want to get that stuff on your skin because your skin absorbs it, and those solvents can really damage your liver, much more so than alcohol. will in fact if you're working around chemical solvents I would even say if you are working in a commercial kitchen as a dishwasher probably not a big deal for home use where you're washing up the dishes or you're using your dishwasher or anything but definitely wear rubber gloves and it's actually recommended that you wear rubber gloves if you're washing up dishes in a kitchen most people do it just because their skin gets dry and irritated and cracked well those such solvents going into your skin and kind of pulling out the oil

from your skin, they go into your bloodstream. And so that ended up what it was, and he recommended licorice for the guy, and he had a full recovery. So very important, very important to keep in mind in some cases.

Now, you know, Tylenol is probably the substance, acetaminophen and along with alcohol and solvents, that are the three, I would say, biggest dangers to our liver. but like I said, don't forget your municipal water.

If you're not on a deep well, if you're not using spring water, if you're not collecting rainwater, sometimes even if you are, there can be chemicals in that water, excuse me, that are very, very tough on the liver. Other than that, processed foods definitely, a lot of the dyes and such. So you can remove or mitigate several of those things. I mean, I am not taking Tylenol in, I don't even know, 30 years. I mean, yeah, probably about that long.

I've told you this story before. I was working at a pharmacy and talking with the pharmacist, brilliant guy, one of the best pharmacists I've ever met. He would compounded in house. He was the old-fashioned type. And he said, if I had to choose between scotch and Tylenol, I'd take scotch every day. And I said, why is that? He said, Tylenol will destroy your liver.

He said, I've known far more 90-some or 100-year-old alcoholics with fairly decent liver health than I have 70- and 80-year-old people that take Tylenol every day. And so I stopped taking it, you know, right there, right then. Well, what did that mean? Well, every single over-the-counter cold and allergy medication essentially has Tylenol in it, except for like one generic version of AlkaSeltra Cold Plus, and that doesn't even work anymore since they change the nasal decongestant. It means you now have to look at all your NyQuil and Dayquil and flu this and, you know, all that. And look, does this contain acetaminophen?

Hopefully, that's one of those things that Bobby Kennedy's doing, Bobby Jr. to get the acetaminophen out of the things it's hidden in. I mean, I guess they're, you know, they're going to say, if you want to take Tylenol, we're not going to withhold it from you, but there really ought to be more visible labeling, and there ought to be more alternatives. Why can't you just take aspirin? That's what I always ask. Doctor says, take Tylenol. I say, why? I mean, first of all, I stopped knowing the doctors years ago, but I say, why? Well, it can be hard on your stomach. And I'm, yeah, yeah, but it doesn't turn your liver into jello. And they're like, we recommend Tylenol. And I say, why? Well, it's just what we do. Okay, why not take aspirin and don't take it on an empty stomach. If you have a stomach ulcer, maybe that's not the best idea, but if you're a healthy person, why in the world are you taking Tylenol? Now, you know, when I went and had a dental procedure last year, the dentist said take ibuprofen. And he was a very smart guy, a friend of mine. And I said, well, I'm glad you didn't recommend Tylenol.

He said, we always did. He said, but now I recommend ibuprofen or naproxin. neproxin, he said, but I don't really like neproxin because it cause nerve damage long term. He said, ibuprofen also has some toxicity, but it's nowhere near as dangerous as acinaminofin. And I was like, yeah, man, that makes sense. And in that case, aspirin was not indicated because, you know, I just had a tooth extracted and you don't want that gun to start bleeding again. You want to keep the clot in there, aspirin being a blood thinner.

That's the other reason, you know, is sometimes not recommended. but I can't see any reason why Tylenol is the one that is the go-to. I do see actually one reason, Tylenol, or I should say the Cedomenopin, is a petroleum byproduct. And there's been a lot of lobbying by the petroleum industry that's probably put it in that position. But anyway, we have herbs, we have things we can use, we can pretty much stay away from that kind of stuff if we need to,

or put on some gloves. Of course, the gloves. gloves have issues as well. That's a whole other discussion for another day. Some people are actually allergic to them. But if you're working with heavy solvents, you want to be very, very careful. That's all I'm saying about that. Now, I said that licorice also has a really powerful effect on the kidneys.

Lickrish stimulates the kidneys as opposed to the way it like calms and cools the liver. Liquorice actually strengthens the kidneys. It's often used as an herbal remedy for people who are having various issues with their kidneys, you know, kidney deficiency. We'll just put it that way. If you actually have kidney disease, of course you're going to want to talk with your doctor and all that. So standard disclaimer. But you may notice that you are somewhat, your kidneys are deficient.

If when the weather changes, when a storm front comes in, you get like really sleepy and cold. if you change elevations, like if you stand up and get dizzy, or if you drive up a mountain or get an airplane and you get dizzy. The kidneys actually are regulating the water within the body. And when they're strong, everything is good. When they're weak, a drop in barometric pressure or a change in altitude can cause an imbalance that causes you to get dizzy or to feel like you have the flu. I mean, that's another symptom, like, especially when the barometric pressure drops. What you're experiencing is essentially a low blood pressure episode caused by deficient kidneys. And in that case, we would use licorice very much for that purpose.

The kidneys, lungs, and skin, and liver are all very closely related. When we stimulate the kidneys, we are also strengthening the lungs. Liquorice is often used in all kinds of bronchial issues. Gosh, everything from acid. to COPD to just chest colds and such. It's a really good herb you might want to look into. If you have an issue with it, Angelica can somewhat substitute for that. And when certain skin issues, eczema psoriasis are often very closely related to liver conditions. And so, licorice is one we would use looking at that, especially if there's signs of inflammation of the liver.

of the liver, then we can, it's actually a pretty effective remedy, like one of those super simple. Like you don't need a formula kind of thing. You just kind of go for that, along with, you know, oatmeal baths and different things that people use. But as I mentioned, the compound in licorice, the extract is glycolyazin. And there was recently a study, I guess this is a few years old now but it was at UC Davis researcher Mark Zern found that glyco rhizin showed promises a possible remedy for chronic hepatitis C and liver cancer so you know this is being borne out by testing there's let's see I got an article here I was trying to find who wrote it oh this is from the website plant

medicines dot org it says liquor's root can help heal liver down Now this is, as I said, this is, whereas we might use Genshin or Oregon grape or something like that, bourbon to stimulate the liver, this is the opposite way. We're calming. This would probably be okay with milk thistle though because milk this has been shown to help regenerate liver tissue and it's not intensely bitter. But, you know, you're going to want to research that and make sure there's no contraindication there. Anyway, this one cites various medical studies down in its footnotes, but it comes out with a few main points. The first one is liquor's root stops the damage.

It says when we drink alcohol, our liver produces an enzyme to help repair the damage that alcohol does. When you drink in moderation, these enzymes do the job and repair the liver without a problem. However, people who drink in excess are found with a lot more of these enzymes, and the liquorish root actually helps stop the damage that's occurring in the first place. And for the study, it says these results suggest that consumption of proprietary glycoison during alcohol consumption may support improved liver health compared with drinking alcohol alone. Probably no coincidence that most of the old European liqueurs have licorice in them. People were having their licorice along with their alcohol, and how they knew to do that,

I don't know. Liquorous root repairs and improves liver enzymes. Actually increases the efficiency of that enzymatic repair. That comes from another scientific study. Let's see. Science explains liquorish root can heal liver damage. Also reduces stomach inflammation and liquor's root is one of the best things for stomach ulcers. I've forgotten to mention that.

That's another one, the reason we use it a lot. Now, if you did, let's see, if you did want to use something like Burbrin or Genshin, you would need to alternate it with licorice. You don't take them at the same time. Like you may take this for a week and then that for a week, okay? But then you can combine licorice with other bitter herbs, like, Dandelion burdock root. They're both what we would call more cooling bitter herbs. And I would put milk thistle in the same category. And I think it's just a really good combination, actually.

Lichorish with dandelion burdock and probably milk thistle. Yeah, I'd put it together with milk thistle. So that kind of gives you the rundown on licorice. It's really good. Let's see, what else have I got in my notes? um yeah hippocrates was making liquor space tonics and around 400 bc discorities uh describes it and said it was bitter and sweetish which sweetish not Swedish he said it was good um for the stomach disorders in the chest and liver skin diseases bladder and kidney disorder he would put it in a raisin-based wine and uh and uh Used topically, he said it would heal wounds and chewed was good for the stomach, and yes, it is. Oh, St. Hildegard von Bingen, the great herbalist around 1080, 1100, like to use it for hoarseness, and that's another very hoarseness and coughing and throat issues,

very common use for licorice. That's really why licorice ended up in candy. People were making cough drops out of it, and it became a popular candy. She said, no matter how it is eaten, it gives a person a clear voice. Makes one's mind agreeable and his eyes clear. It sues his stomach for digestion and it is a great benefit to an insane person. I have no idea how or why that is. But she said, if eaten frequently, it would clear the furor from his head.

I have no idea. Like more recently, this would be like 1920s, brother Aloysius said, Liquorice was used to dissolve flim for burning fevers, treatments of chronic conditions of the respiratory organs, also used for lung complaints, chills, coughs, hoarseness, mucus in the lungs, consumption, measles, dry costs, painful, difficult urination, stones, gallant, and rheumatism, so bladder and kidney stones and all that. Yep, but, I mean, it's very, another common herb used for that, or an herb commonly used for that, I should say. in the Russian tradition it was actually known as sweet herb so they saw it as more of a sweet herb and apparently in Russia it was highly valued for its use in confectionery or candy that would be in

17-1800s but was considered a remedy for the bladder and kidney ailments bladder and kidney ailments gestational toxicosis and constipation and ointment made from it treat burns, axiomal lupus hives. Yeah, that all makes sense. And it was also used to neutralize poisons in Russia since ancient times. Very interesting. Again, I don't really know how that works. But anyway, I was written up by Theoplastus and Pliny the elder.

I mean, wow, so much history on it. I think Gerard is basically, yeah, repeating the same thing. I'm just to see if I have any use here. I haven't mentioned. Powder of Liquors, this is according to coal pepper, blown into the eyes that have a web or rheumatic distillation, as they call it, doth cleanse and help them. I'm really not sure what that even means.

and he used he said it was really good for horses that we used as well given to them in their feed yeah let's see I'm going to get up to more modern use because I'm kind of going on a little bit here Miss Grieve gets into tons of history tons of history but she mentions there was a popular well-known remedy for coughs consumption of the chest complaints generally notably bronchitis

and it was often taken in cough loss and such, you know, interesting. All right, modern use, plants for future. Lickrish is one of the most commonly used herbs in Western herbal medicine has a very long history of use, both as a medicine as a flavoring, to disguise unpleasant flavors and other medications. It is a very sweet, moist, soothing herb

that detoxifies and protects the liver and is also powerfully anti-inflammatory. Being used in conditions as varied as arthritory, is varied as arthritis and mouth ulcers. The root is alternative, antispasmodic, demulsant, diuretic, emollient, emollient, expectant. Alternative means it gradually brings you up back up to health, essentially. Demulcumulsant means softening. Let me see. Oh, so is amoliant, moistening and softening.

Diarrotic, you should probably know. Gets rid of excess fluids. Expectorant gets some eucos out of the lungs. Laxative, moderately pectoral, and tonics. So soothing to the chest and stimulating to the appetite. The root has been shown to have a hormonal effect similar to the ovarian hormone. That's especially true of Dongquai. That's a fermented licorice in Chinese medicine.

It can really help with menopause and such as that. Liquorous root is much used in cough medicines and also in the treatment of cataral infections. That means congestion of the urinary tract. It is taken internally in the treatment of Addison's disease. Yes, it does have an effect on cortisol. I've forgotten that. asthma, bronchitis, coughs, peptic, ulceritis, allergic complaints, and following steroidal therapy. It should be used in moderation.

And this is also very important. You don't want to take large doses of licorice or moderate doses for a long period of time. It can actually have a little toxicity to it. It can affect the nerves especially. But it should not be prescribed for pregnant women or people with high blood pressure. As I said, it affects the kidneys. strengthen those kidneys, it can actually raise your blood pressure a little bit. Not used for people with kidney disease.

Gamma is going to stimulate those kidneys that are already weakened. Now, if you're in that pre-state, may be a good idea. So, you know, that's something you're going to want to research if that's an issue. Or those taking a dejoxin-based medication. Prolonged usages, raise the blood pressure and cause water retention. All right. externally the root is used the treatment of herpes, exos, shingles, the root is harvest in the autumn

when the plant is three to four years old and dried for later use. Now, a gross overdose of the use, this is actually how it's pronounced. I mean, not pronounced, labeled a gross, so a huge amount can cause edema, high blood pressure, and congestive heart failure

because it's causing your body to retain fluids. I think we've covered just about all that. Oh, Stephen Herod Boehner, great herbless, passed away a couple years ago now, said that he found liquors to have antiviral properties that were useful, especially when combined with other herbs. But he gives strong warnings, never in high doses, never for long periods of time. I guess that is about it. All right, we have wrapped up licorice.

I find it one of the most interesting. the medicinal herbs and it's another one of those that I mean you see it so often candy and such you wouldn't think you know there's any potential danger to it but you got to remember that's a culinary dose when we're talking about medicinal doses we're talking much stronger extracts and much higher dosages you get licorice root tablets they're fairly mild I mean I've taken them for off and on over the years I'm tall like 6-4 and when I was younger I would have like get dizzy if I stood up too fast

and with my bronchial issues that I've had since I was a kid licorice was an herb I used pretty frequently never had any issues with it but then again I'm more prone to low blood pressure than high blood pressure so I'll look into it I think it's a really interesting herb and have a good one I'll talk to you next week The information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing I say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I'm not a doctor. The U.S. government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine,

and there is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs. I'm not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true. I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for. I can tell you my own experience. and if I believe an herb has helped me. I cannot, nor would I tell you to do the same.

If you use an herb, anyone recommends, you are treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals, and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, a sensitivity, an underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog,

you agree to be responsible for yourself, to your own research, make your own choices, and not to blame me for anything ever.