A Canadian man 'overdosed' on homemade licorice tea

Drinking tea isn't generally considered to be unhealthy. It's sometimes said to be calming or invigorating, and some even claim it has health benefits. But as one man's peculiar situation shows, health risks can come from the most unsuspecting of places.

An 84-year-old Canadian man was sent to the emergency department for an extreme case of high blood pressure, chest pain, and headache — all of which had begun just in the past week. And doctors determined that the likely cause for the suddenness of his symptoms was a homemade brew of licorice root tea that the man had been drinking daily for two weeks. The man, who has a history of hypertension and cardiovascular disease, Gizmodo reports, could have ended up in even worse condition if he'd kept drinking the tea for longer.

"Excessive amounts of some herbal products can have harmful side effects," said Jean-Pierre Falet, a neurologist at McGill University in Montreal. And licorice root, specifically, has been known to cause problems with blood pressure. The Food and Drug Administration even recommends that people over 40 limit their intake of licorice candy.

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Thankfully, after the man stopped drinking his homemade tea, his symptoms faded and he was back to normal after two weeks. But his case was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Monday as a reminder to doctors to be aware of the dangers of eating — or drinking — too much licorice. Read more at Gizmodo.