#adhd brain calibrated show

[darkshrimpemotions]

People keep talking about pacing issues with season 2 and I literally think I must be too dolphinbrained to get it because this season has been perfect in every way to me, including pacing.

[tabl3]

ways the rats' neurodivergencies manifest

chase: autism, OCD, insomnia

autism: chase is intrinsically one of the kindest characters in the series. he deeply cares for his family and friends. however one of the manifestations of his autism is low empathy. he's very intelligent, and can tell when one of his loved ones is upset, but isn't great at approaching them in a more emotionally intelligent way. on top of that he struggles to show his own emotions, as well as deeply understand others (also a result of living in a basement for 14-odd years) his siblings are good at understanding him nowadays though, and gets when he is trying to help or express affection :) (mostly because tasha taught them how) this is one of the ways that having a partner like kaz is a double-edged sword. on the one hand, he's more comfortable expressing himself and has more of an ability to as well from spending time with kaz, who is the most passionate person he's ever met. on the other he struggles sometimes to understand how kaz feels and can unintentionally be insensitive. kaz is also pretty patient though :) he also has severe sensory issues and can go nonverbal at times. douglas has been working on ways to help the sensory things, like calibrating his nose against pet allergies

OCD: chase has a very specific way of doing things and specific expectations for how other things get done. he likes having certain things under his control and having protocol be followed, because without it he struggles to function (just like me fr) his thumbnail biting habit is a result of this and his anxiety

insomnia: chase has a hard time sleeping because of the rate that thoughts travel through his mind, his touch, sight, and hearing being intense, and his physical back pain. he also frequently has nightmares (due to both trauma and intrusive thoughts) and knows he doesn't need as much sleep as regular humans, making him not too keen on trying that hard to sleep. he does sleep well when he's with kaz though <3

extras - stims: flappy hands/the little jumping giggle thing show chase does when he's happy, lip biting/arm folding whenever, rocking when he's overwhelmed/upset. special interests: science, inventing, space, bugs

bree: ADHD (hyperactive), arrhythmia

ADHD: bree's bionics mixes with her ADHD. she is always moving in some way: touching her hair, tapping her foot, messing with her fingers. she chews gum to keep herself busy when she wants to be still. she also "glitches" a lot, jumping, twitching, etc. this is why skylar is a good partner for her, both because she's a very calm individual and can't be hurt if bree accidentally hits her from glitching. it was worse when she was younger, and she was jealous of her brothers: chase because he could peacefully put puzzles together without glitching and tossing the whole thing to the floor, and adam because he seemed carefree like his brain wasn't producing thoughts a million miles an hour. she can also be forgetful (not as much as adam) donald figured this was all linked to her bionics, but as soon as tasha met her she got her fidget toys to help her stay busy during school. this also has to do with bree being an artist. she likes the constant of moving her hand.

arrhythmia: this one is linked to her bionics and is a side effect of them: her heart sometimes beats too fast, especially when her overactive metabolism is out of fuel (which is why chase keeps snacks on hand for her)

extra - special interests: bree's fluctuate a lot. she likes one thing for a little, then another. but she's always hyperfixated on something

adam: ADHD (inattentive), dyslexia

ADHD: adam seems on the outside to lack intelligence. he isn't as book or street smart as his siblings, but he certainly isn't stupid by any means. he has great emotional intelligence (despite the emotional repression donald somewhat forced on him and the other two) and actually notices a lot. the reason he seemed dumb when he was younger is due to the spacey nature his ADHD gives him. he's often lost in his own thoughts and is very forgetful of short-term things. he doesn't ever pay much attention to anything unless it's something the specifically interests him, because he knows that chase and bree paid enough attention for all three of them. he also often asked for things to be repeated, which took another shot at his perceived intelligence. even though he's emotionally intelligent he also misses a lot of social cues (also a symptom of basement)

dyslexia: aside from struggling to pay attention in class, his dyslexia made doing schoolwork a huge difficulty. so he stopped caring because he wasn't interested in it anyway, dropping his grades, adding to the fuel of everyone thinking he was stupid. he could've asked chase for help, but he didn't want to be made fun of. now that they've both grown up, matured, and mended their relationship, he often calls chase to tutor him through his college courses, which chase does (as patiently as he can, though he does get frustrated sometimes bc autism lol)

extra - special interests: animals (esp dogs), cars (lesser), flowers, sports (he's in school to be a P.E. teacher) tasha gifted him a stim necklace to bite on when he started college because it helps him focus

[sgkjd]

my problem with learning languages and having to practice them is that i can never lie when answering the general questions like "what are you doing today?" or "what will you do this weekend?" or "what clothes do you wear?" etc. especially when i'm not yet versed enough to answer them how i really want to. so the only way is to keep making up nonsensical stories just to show you have knowledge of certain vocab. which is not my default mode when communicating anything ever and more drains me than makes it easier for me.

i spend like 70 percent of time trying to word my answers because i cannot help but want to tell how it really is for me. it also adds up that my way of thinking is very complicated (having 10 thoughts at the same time and all other fun stuff of having autistic and adhd brain) and having to translate that yet into another new language.. the process of making a new language familiar to me and calibrating my mind to a completely new filter of experiencing the world happens very slowly for me.. if that makes sense...

all in all i'm always overcomplicating sentences with difficult yet useless gramatic structures WHICH i end up making mistakes in because i just make it too difficult for myself. when there is always an easier way available. at the same time it's not as interesting the easy way .... i need a Challenge to keep myself engaged ...... etc etc.....

[missioncoded]

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑹𝑨𝑪𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑺𝑯𝑬𝑬𝑻.

BASICS.

full name. RK800 CONNOR (anderson) serial number. 313 248 317 - 52  nickname. connor, con, deviant hunter, plastic ( etc. ) gender. male. height. 6′0” age. designed to appear in late twenties early thirties zodiac. virgo spoken languages. all languages available.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

hair color. dark brown eye color. brown skin tone. fair with faint freckling body type. athletic, lean. accent. none / neutral american voice. clear, warm and pleasant, though often uncertain and soft dominant hand. naturally both, uses left hand most now due to damage posture. generally fairly proper and stiff, though tense and often shifting scars. scar on both sides of his right hand tattoos. none. birthmarks. beauty marks and mild freckling all over.  most noticeable feature(s). LED on his right temple, puppy eyes

ADULT LIFE.

occupation. detroit police department detective. current residence. 115 michigan drive ( hank's home ), unknown condo ( purchased, never used ) close friends. hank, verse dependent relationship status. single ( verse dependent ). financial status. middle class? driver’s license. yes, for any kind of vehicle. criminal record. none. vices. doubt, impatience, recklessness, vanity

SEX & ROMANCE.

sexual orientation. homosexual romantic orientation. demi (homo?) romantic  preferred emotional role. submissive  | dominant  |  switch   preferred sexual role. submissive  |  dominant  |  switch libido. none at first, but when he discovers it, it's fairly average to high. turn on’s. touching his neck, wireplay, aggression / dominance, deep voices, arrogance*, being made to submit, being called a good boy, praise, ( degradation? ), spine kisses, bites, scratching, being claimed, muscular bodies, eye contact, giving oral turn off’s. excessive violence, excessive roughness, coldness, degradation and dominance to the point of being demeaned ( he likes to be made to submit, but in a loving way, not in a way that shows contempt and hatred or otherwise makes him feel bad about himself ) love language. words of affirmation (primary), physical touch (secondary), [ acts of service (tertiary)] relationship tendencies. connor is never very sure of himself, and tends to hold himself back in relationships. words often fail him, despite it being his primary love language, so instead he tends to do things for others as a primary. he doesn't know how to ask for the contact he craves, being incredibly touch starved, but in a long term commitment he tends to be more physically affectionate, and in private he is incredibly clingy.

MISCELLANEOUS.

character’s theme song. have a playlist instead hobbies to pass time. his hobbies are few and far in between, having never taken the time to find one. he does like to garden or care for animals, or otherwise calibrations with his coin, but if connor is forced into a day off he winds up repeating the same actions over and over again in a desperation to pass the time mental illnesses. ptsd (dissociative type), adhd combined subtype, ocd. unknown if he has major depression or if that's part of his ptsd physical illnesses. neuropathy ( nerve damage ) of the right hand. left or right-brained. left-center fears. failure, losing control, imperfection, amanda, helplessness, heights, interfacing, the cold / snow, having his regulator touched self-confidence level. very low vulnerabilities. see above, but also hank

TAGGED BY: got it from the dash :D TAGGING: anyone who wants to do it ♥

[anheliotrope-old]

Ramblings on Weirdbrains

I sometimes wonder if my father is autistic. I don’t really understand autism and don’t want to perpetuate inaccurate stereotypes, but he just seems to repeatedly misjudge social boundaries. He regularly annoys my mother with his jokes. He sometimes hangs around my room for obviously uncomfortable amounts of time and requires an overwhelming amount of repeated hints to leave. Even if outright told to leave, he will require a lot of repeated cases before he adjusts his behavior in any way. After he finishes his photography work he sometimes keeps clients busy for up to 6 additional hours to talk about politics, religion or philosophy with them at which point they will either be entranced or feel socially unable to escape this hint-impaired madman.

This makes me think more widely of the generational gap in how weirdbrains are viewed. The new generation figures out what weirdbrains they have several times faster and frame them under medical terms and try to manage them and are more eager to identify with their weirdbrains. The older generations are the exact opposite. They seem much more likely to dissociate from their weirdbrain and tell themselves a story. “Oh Joe just doesn’t care if he’s being annoying.” It’s no that Joe can’t tell when he’s being annoying, oh no, he tells himself a story about he’s just less sensitive to the idea of people finding him annoying and that this is just a personality trait of his. Maybe even a positive one. And later people get alienated.

The older generations, at least in my experience, will also be extremely skeptical of any self-diagnosis and generally actual diagnosis too. In their view, the new generations are too quick to stick labels to just personality differences, too quick to view themselves as special snowflakes, too sensitive, the medical community is overzealous etc.

In my case this manifests as my father completely disbelieving even the possibility that I have ADHD by fundamentally misunderstanding what ADHD is and saying that I don’t have ADHD because I can get things done and that I’m just trying to find an excuse that will allow me to externalize responsibility. Of course, some people do try to escape the stress of having to change themselves by identifying with disorders, but if you’re any sort of consistent deterministic physicalist, this way of conceptualizing responsibility doesn’t work. We are equally responsible for personality traits such as laziness and ADHD. They are not fundamentally different and we cannot assume they have different levels of authorship in them. They only seem different in the moral responsibility they put on us to change because of the stories we tell ourselves. 

Here’s a story about laziness: Laziness is just a person deciding to do easy things instead of the things they really need to do, valuing comfort more than their actual goals.

I know of no person who self-consciously chooses temporary comfort over their real goals and is happy about it. I know of people whose goal is to have a balance between goal-following and hedonism.

Looking back at that description of laziness, any sort of executive dysfunction works that way. Your brain temporarily values things tangential or harmful to your actual goals more than things that help you progress. The description of laziness is often virtually indistinguishable from executive dysfunction caused by ADHD.

While the underlying cause between what we call “laziness” and ADHD might be entirely different, they are often confused specifically because executive dysfunction all looks alike. While I can’t say this debunks the idea of a moral imperative to change oneself, I can say that it shows that the implementation of that concept in society is very poorly calibrated and has a faulty idea of authorship and responsibility.

[llotwor]

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[ongames]

What You Should Know About The Link Between Black Licorice And Fetal Health

Pregnant moms who crave black licorice may want to think twice. A recent study from Finland finds that kids born to mothers who ate a lot of licorice while they were pregnant scored lower on IQ tests, had poorer memory and had higher odds of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. Among the girls, tests showed that they had also started puberty earlier than normal. 

In the study, scientists at the University of Helsinki suggest that there are long-term health effects for the fetus if they’re exposed to too much licorice in the womb, and that “it appears no safe exposure during human pregnancy exists.”

First, an important note: In Finland, licorice tends to be black, hard and salty. It’s made with real licorice root extract. In the U.S., what Americans know as “licorice” tends to be red, tacky and sweet, and made with a whole variety of flavors that don’t usually include real licorice root. So if Red Vines are what you crave during pregnancy, there’s no need to worry, even as a precaution, that they may cause harm your child. 

In northern Europe, however, licorice made from the licorice root is a popular candy. The average northern European eats about 4.5 pounds of licorice a year. In 2016, Finland issued an official recommendation that pregnant women keep licorice consumption low because animal studies suggested it could make stress hormones from the mother pass more easily to the developing fetus.

So how exactly could a piece of candy be linked to such serious cognitive and physical health deficits? Scientists suspect it may have to do with the licorice root compound glycyrrhizin, which gives licorice candy its distinctive sweet taste and is sometimes used as a sweetener in teas, drinks and other foods. In the U.S., glycyrrhizin is also found in dietary supplements for digestion issues, menopause symptoms and infections. 

Glycyrrhizin blocks an enzyme that the body uses to deactivate the stress hormone cortisol, causing cortisol levels to rise. Past research in humans has linked high cortisol levels in the womb to a higher risk of mood disorders, a heightened response to stress and an increased risk of premature births or low birth weights, but the findings are still inconsistent.

Other scientists say the findings in the University of Helsinki study are preliminary, too, and that more research needs to be done before definitively concluding that black licorice harms fetuses.

The Study Details

The Finnish study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, assessed 378 13 year-olds and divided them into two groups: those whose moms reported eating “large amounts” of licorice per week (about 250 grams of licorice) during their pregnancies, and those whose mothers ate little or no licorice during their pregnancy. 

To avoid skewing the results, the study surveyed only healthy children and excluded twins, children in special education classes or kids with a general estimated IQ of less than 70 (the threshold for cognitive deficiency). 

They found that kids whose mothers ate large amounts of licorice scored seven points lower on intelligence quotient tests. Kids in the high-exposure group also had more than triple the odds of having ADHD symptoms, compared to those whose mothers ate only a little licorice during their pregnancies.

Based on the range of cognitive deficits the high-exposure kids showed, their limbic systems may have been damaged by excess cortisol from the licorice their mothers ate when they were fetuses, researchers wrote. The limbic system, a group of structures in the brain in charge of emotion, behavior and processing information, is especially sensitive to fluctuating cortisol levels, according to previous research on animals. 

Heavy exposure to glycyrrhizin has also been linked to slightly earlier labor in pregnant women and was shown to raise blood pressure in rats. 

And Now For Some Caveats

There were some limitations to the University of Helsinki study, however. Scientists could only estimate how much glycyrrhizin women consumed based on how much of the actual candy they remembered eating, as different brands can contain different amounts of the compound. And while researchers were able to control for things like maternal intelligence and parental background, some hidden food or behavioral factor could confound the results. 

Finally, because Finnish people eat so much licorice, the researchers aren’t sure how meaningful these results are for women in other countries — although they note that glycyrrhizin is used in many American foods, tobacco and medicine.

In commentary published alongside the study, Katherine Keyes, an epidemiologist at Columbia University, praised the “intriguing and suggestive” study and said more research should be given high priority to confirm a potential causal relationship.

In the meantime, however, she cautioned that these results should still be considered preliminary. She pointed out that there’s incomplete information about most of the women who initially participated in the study. Also, because the women who fell in the “none to low” licorice consumption category ranged from those who had consumed absolutely no licorice to those who ate up to 249 milligrams of glycyrrhizin per week, the participant group was too diverse to draw any strong conclusions about the relationship between licorice consumption and cognitive effects in children. 

“The authors suggest that as a public health community we should advocate for avoiding licorice consumption during pregnancy at the same level on which we advocate against heavy alcohol consumption during pregnancy,” Keyes wrote. “We believe that such calibration of messages is unwarranted. Licorice and closely related substances have been used as herbal medicines for thousands of years, and they may have a variety of health effects, some of which may be positive.”

This reporting is brought to you by HuffPost’s health and science platform, The Scope. Like us on Facebook and Twitter and tell us your story: scopestories@huffingtonpost.com. 

  -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

What You Should Know About The Link Between Black Licorice And Fetal Health published first on http://ift.tt/2lnpciY

[yes-dal456]

What You Should Know About The Link Between Black Licorice And Fetal Health

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Pregnant moms who crave black licorice may want to think twice. A recent study from Finland finds that kids born to mothers who ate a lot of licorice while they were pregnant scored lower on IQ tests, had poorer memory and had higher odds of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. Among the girls, tests showed that they had also started puberty earlier than normal. 

In the study, scientists at the University of Helsinki suggest that there are long-term health effects for the fetus if they’re exposed to too much licorice in the womb, and that “it appears no safe exposure during human pregnancy exists.”

First, an important note: In Finland, licorice tends to be black, hard and salty. It’s made with real licorice root extract. In the U.S., what Americans know as “licorice” tends to be red, tacky and sweet, and made with a whole variety of flavors that don’t usually include real licorice root. So if Red Vines are what you crave during pregnancy, there’s no need to worry, even as a precaution, that they may cause harm your child. 

In northern Europe, however, licorice made from the licorice root is a popular candy. The average northern European eats about 4.5 pounds of licorice a year. In 2016, Finland issued an official recommendation that pregnant women keep licorice consumption low because animal studies suggested it could make stress hormones from the mother pass more easily to the developing fetus.

So how exactly could a piece of candy be linked to such serious cognitive and physical health deficits? Scientists suspect it may have to do with the licorice root compound glycyrrhizin, which gives licorice candy its distinctive sweet taste and is sometimes used as a sweetener in teas, drinks and other foods. In the U.S., glycyrrhizin is also found in dietary supplements for digestion issues, menopause symptoms and infections. 

Glycyrrhizin blocks an enzyme that the body uses to deactivate the stress hormone cortisol, causing cortisol levels to rise. Past research in humans has linked high cortisol levels in the womb to a higher risk of mood disorders, a heightened response to stress and an increased risk of premature births or low birth weights, but the findings are still inconsistent.

Other scientists say the findings in the University of Helsinki study are preliminary, too, and that more research needs to be done before definitively concluding that black licorice harms fetuses.

The Study Details

The Finnish study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, assessed 378 13 year-olds and divided them into two groups: those whose moms reported eating “large amounts” of licorice per week (about 250 grams of licorice) during their pregnancies, and those whose mothers ate little or no licorice during their pregnancy. 

To avoid skewing the results, the study surveyed only healthy children and excluded twins, children in special education classes or kids with a general estimated IQ of less than 70 (the threshold for cognitive deficiency). 

They found that kids whose mothers ate large amounts of licorice scored seven points lower on intelligence quotient tests. Kids in the high-exposure group also had more than triple the odds of having ADHD symptoms, compared to those whose mothers ate only a little licorice during their pregnancies.

Based on the range of cognitive deficits the high-exposure kids showed, their limbic systems may have been damaged by excess cortisol from the licorice their mothers ate when they were fetuses, researchers wrote. The limbic system, a group of structures in the brain in charge of emotion, behavior and processing information, is especially sensitive to fluctuating cortisol levels, according to previous research on animals. 

Heavy exposure to glycyrrhizin has also been linked to slightly earlier labor in pregnant women and was shown to raise blood pressure in rats. 

And Now For Some Caveats

There were some limitations to the University of Helsinki study, however. Scientists could only estimate how much glycyrrhizin women consumed based on how much of the actual candy they remembered eating, as different brands can contain different amounts of the compound. And while researchers were able to control for things like maternal intelligence and parental background, some hidden food or behavioral factor could confound the results. 

Finally, because Finnish people eat so much licorice, the researchers aren’t sure how meaningful these results are for women in other countries — although they note that glycyrrhizin is used in many American foods, tobacco and medicine.

In commentary published alongside the study, Katherine Keyes, an epidemiologist at Columbia University, praised the “intriguing and suggestive” study and said more research should be given high priority to confirm a potential causal relationship.

In the meantime, however, she cautioned that these results should still be considered preliminary. She pointed out that there’s incomplete information about most of the women who initially participated in the study. Also, because the women who fell in the “none to low” licorice consumption category ranged from those who had consumed absolutely no licorice to those who ate up to 249 milligrams of glycyrrhizin per week, the participant group was too diverse to draw any strong conclusions about the relationship between licorice consumption and cognitive effects in children. 

“The authors suggest that as a public health community we should advocate for avoiding licorice consumption during pregnancy at the same level on which we advocate against heavy alcohol consumption during pregnancy,” Keyes wrote. “We believe that such calibration of messages is unwarranted. Licorice and closely related substances have been used as herbal medicines for thousands of years, and they may have a variety of health effects, some of which may be positive.”

This reporting is brought to you by HuffPost’s health and science platform, The Scope. Like us on Facebook and Twitter and tell us your story: scopestories@huffingtonpost.com. 

  -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from http://ift.tt/2kTFkMB from Blogger http://ift.tt/2lpDbsX

[imreviewblog]

What You Should Know About The Link Between Black Licorice And Fetal Health

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Pregnant moms who crave black licorice may want to think twice. A recent study from Finland finds that kids born to mothers who ate a lot of licorice while they were pregnant scored lower on IQ tests, had poorer memory and had higher odds of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. Among the girls, tests showed that they had also started puberty earlier than normal. 

In the study, scientists at the University of Helsinki suggest that there are long-term health effects for the fetus if they’re exposed to too much licorice in the womb, and that “it appears no safe exposure during human pregnancy exists.”

First, an important note: In Finland, licorice tends to be black, hard and salty. It’s made with real licorice root extract. In the U.S., what Americans know as “licorice” tends to be red, tacky and sweet, and made with a whole variety of flavors that don’t usually include real licorice root. So if Red Vines are what you crave during pregnancy, there’s no need to worry, even as a precaution, that they may cause harm your child. 

In northern Europe, however, licorice made from the licorice root is a popular candy. The average northern European eats about 4.5 pounds of licorice a year. In 2016, Finland issued an official recommendation that pregnant women keep licorice consumption low because animal studies suggested it could make stress hormones from the mother pass more easily to the developing fetus.

So how exactly could a piece of candy be linked to such serious cognitive and physical health deficits? Scientists suspect it may have to do with the licorice root compound glycyrrhizin, which gives licorice candy its distinctive sweet taste and is sometimes used as a sweetener in teas, drinks and other foods. In the U.S., glycyrrhizin is also found in dietary supplements for digestion issues, menopause symptoms and infections. 

Glycyrrhizin blocks an enzyme that the body uses to deactivate the stress hormone cortisol, causing cortisol levels to rise. Past research in humans has linked high cortisol levels in the womb to a higher risk of mood disorders, a heightened response to stress and an increased risk of premature births or low birth weights, but the findings are still inconsistent.

Other scientists say the findings in the University of Helsinki study are preliminary, too, and that more research needs to be done before definitively concluding that black licorice harms fetuses.

The Study Details

The Finnish study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, assessed 378 13 year-olds and divided them into two groups: those whose moms reported eating “large amounts” of licorice per week (about 250 grams of licorice) during their pregnancies, and those whose mothers ate little or no licorice during their pregnancy. 

To avoid skewing the results, the study surveyed only healthy children and excluded twins, children in special education classes or kids with a general estimated IQ of less than 70 (the threshold for cognitive deficiency). 

They found that kids whose mothers ate large amounts of licorice scored seven points lower on intelligence quotient tests. Kids in the high-exposure group also had more than triple the odds of having ADHD symptoms, compared to those whose mothers ate only a little licorice during their pregnancies.

Based on the range of cognitive deficits the high-exposure kids showed, their limbic systems may have been damaged by excess cortisol from the licorice their mothers ate when they were fetuses, researchers wrote. The limbic system, a group of structures in the brain in charge of emotion, behavior and processing information, is especially sensitive to fluctuating cortisol levels, according to previous research on animals. 

Heavy exposure to glycyrrhizin has also been linked to slightly earlier labor in pregnant women and was shown to raise blood pressure in rats. 

And Now For Some Caveats

There were some limitations to the University of Helsinki study, however. Scientists could only estimate how much glycyrrhizin women consumed based on how much of the actual candy they remembered eating, as different brands can contain different amounts of the compound. And while researchers were able to control for things like maternal intelligence and parental background, some hidden food or behavioral factor could confound the results. 

Finally, because Finnish people eat so much licorice, the researchers aren’t sure how meaningful these results are for women in other countries — although they note that glycyrrhizin is used in many American foods, tobacco and medicine.

In commentary published alongside the study, Katherine Keyes, an epidemiologist at Columbia University, praised the “intriguing and suggestive” study and said more research should be given high priority to confirm a potential causal relationship.

In the meantime, however, she cautioned that these results should still be considered preliminary. She pointed out that there’s incomplete information about most of the women who initially participated in the study. Also, because the women who fell in the “none to low” licorice consumption category ranged from those who had consumed absolutely no licorice to those who ate up to 249 milligrams of glycyrrhizin per week, the participant group was too diverse to draw any strong conclusions about the relationship between licorice consumption and cognitive effects in children. 

“The authors suggest that as a public health community we should advocate for avoiding licorice consumption during pregnancy at the same level on which we advocate against heavy alcohol consumption during pregnancy,” Keyes wrote. “We believe that such calibration of messages is unwarranted. Licorice and closely related substances have been used as herbal medicines for thousands of years, and they may have a variety of health effects, some of which may be positive.”

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from Healthy Living - The Huffington Post http://huff.to/2krEV0h