Ancient Herb Licorice to Relieve Symptoms Associated with Crohn's Disease

At the age of 17, after many tests to find out what was wrong, my youngest son was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. Crohn's Disease is an autoimmune disease that affects parts of the gastrointestinal tract from the mouth all the way to the rectum. Some symptoms of Crohn's include diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss, skin rashes, and hemorrhoids, and my son suffered all these. In high school, he ran cross-country and was very good at it, winning many medals and awards, but after being stricken with Crohn's, he had to give up the sport. Overtime he was put on many drugs, such as Pentasa and Remicade, and had to watch what he ate. These drugs helped the disease overall, but he still suffered from some of the symptoms and that was when I started to research Crohn's on the internet and my reference books in my library on Chinese and Western alternative medicines. I had been growing and studying herbs for years, so I knew there had to be some herbal remedy that could help my son with the symptoms of Crohn's.

What I found was the herb licorice or licorice tea was known to relieve the symptoms of Crohn's disease. As I never rely on one source for information when it comes to using herbs for medicinal purposes, I consulted resource after resource (Chinese and Western herbal medicines), and all had positive findings regarding using licorice tea to help the symptoms of Crohn's. Crohn's is a relatively newly named disease in that its existence was not known until the early 1900s, but licorice has ancient ties to being a remedy for gastrointestinal ailments.

I told my son about it and asked if he would like to try licorice tea. He said yes, so we consulted with his doctor to ensure that drinking this tea would not be harmful while he was also taking his current medications. He assured us it would be fine and had even heard of it himself, so I went to a health food store and purchased an organic brand of licorice tea.

My son was anxious to try the tea and I made him a cup as soon we got home. After his first sip, he added some sugar, and commented that it tasted good. I knew it would be some time before we would not know if and how it would affect his Crohn's disease. After about 10 days, he did notice some relief with his diarrhea and gas pain, and a soothing or relaxed feeling in his abdomen.

Licorice tea did not cure my son's Crohn's disease, but it did help alleviate the symptoms. He continued to use licorice tea off and on through the years when his Crohn's would flare up. Today he is symptom free.

Source: The Way of Chinese Herbs and The Way of Herbs, by Michael Tierra