Licorice – measuring dosages

Whole Licorice/Liquorice Extract

Licorice causes you to retain cortisol and increases the effect of cortisol throughout your body. This supports your adrenals by making them work less hard to produce cortisol. It can also mimic the effect of aldosterone, another adrenal hormone. Licorice should not be taken in conjunction with cortisol supplementation, use either one or the other.
When using licorice make certain you are: not overtly hypertensive; not pregnant; and make sure you stop after six weeks of use, or it will lose its effect. After a two week break you can repeat using it for another six weeks and then take another two week break. It may be valuable to use low-dose cortisol (20mg or less during this break if you are worried about your adrenals crashing).
Thereafter, maintenance could be one or two weeks per month after the initial program if necessary.  Review the Adrenal Restoration Plan for the full adrenal protocol to be used in conjunction with licorice.

Measuring the Whole licorice Extract.
To measure the correct dose use a size ‘O’ capsule
Fill only the smaller part of the empty capsule (discard the bigger part).
The smaller part filled to the brim will measure 250mg of Whole Licorice Extract.
Empty this portion into 250ml of luke-warm (not hot) distilled water and shake it up.
This 250ml mixture will now contain 36mg of Glycyrrhizic Acid (the active ingredient of Licorice, since standarised whole licorice extract has a G.Acid content of 14.4%).
Every 50ml of that water will thus contain 7.2mg of G. Acid.
Measure out the amount to suit your needs.

Take:

• 70 – 105ml of mixture (= 10-15mg of G.Acid) between 6-7am, if you have low cortisol (low energy) near 8am.
• 35 – 70ml of mixture (= 5-10mg of G.Acid) between 11-12pm if you have low cortisol (low energy) at that point,
• 35 – 70ml of mixture (= 5-10mg of G. Acid) at 4pm of you have low cortisol then.

If you have not had the cortisol saliva test to see when you are low in cortisol, decide how much to take based on energy levels (low energy correlates with low cortisol), and based on your response to the licorice.
Start with a once-daily dose of 50ml at 11am -noon and adjust up or down. If you have low energy in the morning add 50ml there too. If you feel too hyped or have insomnia your dose must be lowered.

Very important: Do not exceed a total daily dose of 25 to 35mg G.Acid. (180ml – 250ml of the mixture)
If you feel ‘too hyped’ it means you are retaining too much of the stress hormone cortisol and you must lower your dose.
Licorice causes a retention of Sodium (found in normal salt) and a loss of potassium.
Therefore eat food rich in potassium and use Potassium Chloride salt (found in health stores)

Foods rich in potassium:
Fruits: Orange, grapefruit, banana, strawberries, avocado, apricots, dates, watermelon, cantaloupe, raisins, prunes, and pineapple.
Meat: Hamburger, beef chuck, beef round, rib roast, turkey.
Vegetables: Tomatoes, artichoke, Brussels sprouts, carrot (raw), cabbage (raw), mushrooms (raw), parsnips, potatoes, soybeans, spinach, and squash., especially organic potato skins!!!