Sideshow: Was He Tested For Covid-19? September 24, 2020

From a reader:

A Massachusetts Construction worker's love of candy cost him his life. 

The 54-year-old, who has not been named, died in a fast-food restaurant while having lunch after consuming a bag and half of black licorice for a few weeks, a study by The New England Journal of Medicine. 

"He had a poor diet, consisting primarily of several packages of candy daily," the study claimed, before noting that three "weeks earlier, he had switched the type of candy he was eating" to black licorice. 

The study also said that licorice's glycyrrhizic acid (usually found in the candy's extract) can cause the "unimpeded presence of cortisol," which in turn "can cause hypertension, hypokalemia, metabolic alkalosis, fatal arrhythmias, and renal failure — the constellation of signs and symptoms seen in this patient." 

The Journal's findings listed the following as the diagnosis of Dr. Elazer R. Edelman, a doctor cited in the study: "Metabolic, renal, vascular, and cardiac toxic effects from apparent mineralocorticoid excess due to licorice consumption." 

The man, who suffered experienced "full-body shaking and loss of consciousness" before his death, also smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 36 years and had a medical history that "included previous heroin use disorder and untreated hepatitis C virus infection."

And they're blaming licorice for his death? LOL.  

Shirley, the NEJM is jesting.

And quit calling me Shirley.