10-year-old suffering from seizure, candies to blame

London, March 3: Confectioneries may be more harmful for your child than you ever imagined for they can lead to high blood pressure or even seizures in kids, says a study. The case study details the a

By: Agencies | | Published: March 4, 2015 10:54 am

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London, March 3: Confectioneries may be more harmful for your child than you ever imagined for they can lead to high blood pressure or even seizures in kids, says a study. The case study details the account of a 10-year-old boy who suffered seizures after over-indulging in licorice (a confectionery). Licorice is a confection flavoured with the extract of the roots of the liquorice plant. A wide variety of liquorice sweets are produced around the world.

A 10-year-old boy was admitted to hospital in Bologna, Italy after suffering a two-minute tonic-clonic seizure. Dr. Davide Tassinari and colleagues from the University of Bologna reported that a cluster of another three generalised seizures occurred in the next few hours. The boy also complained of a severe headache and had high blood pressure. (Read: 7 symptoms of congenital heart disease)

During medical examination, doctors noticed that the boy’s teeth were black. It came out that he had been eating at least 20 licorice sweets each day for the past four months. This resulted in the consumption of 2.88 mg/kg of glycyrrhizic acid (one of the active ingredients of licorice) — well above the World Health Organization’s recommended maximum of 2 mg/kg. (Read: 7 innovative ways to keep your child’s heart healthy)

This excessive consumption had resulted in his developing hypertension, and, in turn, posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES). After the boy stopped eating the sweets, his anti-hypertensive treatment was gradually reduced and his blood pressure returned to normal. The authors noted that the risk was particularly high for children with a low body weight. (Read: VitD deficiency in childhood could lead to heart disease risk in adulthood)

The study appeared in the journal Paediatric Neurology.

Source: IANS

Photo source: Getty images

Published: March 4, 2015 10:54 am

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