kava kava

has anyone here had any experience with kava kava? i'm looking for alternatives to the things my pdoc is trying to shove down my throat that end up making me feel like crap!

Hi RubyLizard,

KavaKava is banned here in Canada due to the liver damage it causes. However, I've ordered some from the US. We are allowed to order personal amounts for 2-month periods. Go figure!

I personally do not like the Kava Kava. If it does anything at all, it tends to make me nervous. And it STINKS! I have the boxes stored in a cosmetics case, and boy oh boy, what a smell it builds up! Lol!

A lot of people really seem to like Kava Kava, though.

Sandy

Yes it does stink. I didn't like it either. Never liked the side effects of the "herbal" meds. I tried St. John's Wort, which made me photosensitive to the point I had to stay inside so that went down the toilet. Tried Valerian (touted as "nature's valium") and the smell was so bad, it was sickening (literally). I'd discuss it because sometimes herbal meds have side effects that you just dont want and can interact with prescription meds. Just because they're herbal doesn't mean they're safer. But some people do like it....and it works for them....guess it's just body chemistry and what you can handle.

GOOD LUCK!

Take Care,
Kimberly.

If your interest is in general calming properties, there are three nutrients you might be interested in.

Magnesium is essential for the proper functioning of GABA receptors (the same place benzos act). More than half of all North Americans are clinically deficient in magnesium, producing a syndrome that used to be known as latent tetany. Most doctors don't recognize it as such. One symptom is anxiety. Another is mitral valve regurgitation. Another is a tendency to brochospasm (asthma). There are other signs, too. Magnesium supps can cause diarrhea if you take too much, but you'll only know if you're taking too much if diarrhea occurs. You can use any magnesium salt, but avoid magnesium oxide (it's not even a salt, technically, and it's very poorly absorbed). Magnesium taurate is particularly good (see below). You're going to want to take a minimum of 300 mg elemental magnesium a day, in divided doses, with meals. Increase by 100 mg per week until you hot 600 mg (if tolerated). Some people get drowsy from magnesium, so night-time dosing might work better.

Another nutrient with direct impact on the GABA receptor is niacinamide. Note well, not niacin. NiacinAMIDE. Niacinamide is antihistaminic. Niacin promotes histamine release (niacin flush).

Niacinamide also potentiates GABA-ergic function, and has the bonus effect of directly stimulating the GABA receptor as a GABA agonist. You can take 500 mg at a time, up to four times a day.

Finally, the amino acid taurine has amazing calming qualities (at least in this man's body). If you replaced the carboxylic acid end of GABA with a sulphonic acid group, you've got taurine. GABA and taurine are almost chemically identical, and they do the very same thing. They calm the brain, directly shutting down the excitatory effects of glutamate and acetylcholine.

1 gram of taurine does wonders for me. The effect is not like taking a benzo, it's like not needing one in the first place. I also find that 1-2 grams just before bed improves my sleep quality. Also, if I am accidentally exposed to MSG (I'm very sensitive to it), 1 gram of taurine totally eliminates the adverse effects, within minutes.

Oh, actually there's one more substance to consider. Glutamine. I know the names are confusing, but bear with me a minute. Just as with niacinamide and niacin, one is activating and the other is calming. Glutamine is calming, glutamate is activating. 1,000 mg of glutamine is a reasonable dose.

You can buy glutamine at walmart. I know you can get a variety of magnesium supps there, as well as niacinamide. All are inexpensive. Taurine is cheap cheap cheap, and is available where body builders get their supplies.

All these substances are depleted by stress. All these substances are your body's normal stress regulators, but if you use them up, anxiety and burn out will inevitably follow, unless you replenish them.

Rather than take all of them at once, it's best if you try each separately, so you get an idea how they work for you.

Lar

Larry,

Your knowledge of nutrition is awesome.

Can I ask you. Am I right in thinking that our diets have become depleted through the lack of simple organically grown foods? I innocently imagine that if I was to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, then I would be OK. But, maybe supermarket foods are structurally different these days. Maybe the nutrients are just not in the food anymore.

It's a thought.

Hi.

I've always used herbal products and what I have to say is this: when it comes to medication, kawa kawa might work on individuals who aren't really chemically challenged. It goes for what on normal people would be like simple day-long sadness or lack of energy.

It's like, if I'm depressed and take amphetamines, they'd surely get me up and running, but the depression would be there cause it's different proteins and hormones being worked on in the brain cells...

Does that make sense?

So it's not that these herbs are bad, cause they aren't and the very opposite is true. It's just that maybe they're even as strong as the designer drugs we're prescribed by our doctors then ultimately you'd be mixing substances - sort of like drinking alcohol and smoking weed.

Thanks. I have done, and continue to do, major research on nutritional aspects of disease states. I think it is a totally underappreciated aspect of care. Drugs are not the only answer, and may not be even the best answer, in some cases.

I'm aware of research showing that nutrients have declined in many foodstuffs, particularly due to mineral depletion in soils. Whether or not organically grown foods are sufficient is not really clear, but obviously, there is a better chance that the nutritive value will be greater than that of conventionally grown food.

There's much more to the picture than organic/conventional farming, though. Food processing, the whole "food industry" has substantially changed what people eat, let alone the nutrients in foods themselves. We did not evolve next to Twinkie trees, to make an absurd example.

I know it sound like heresy, but I am of the studied and sincere belief that it is not even possible to obtain all the nutrients we know a person needs (RDAs) from normal diet, no matter what it is you select, and still remain within the energy requirements to avoid obesity. That may be so because our energy needs have declined, but not our nutrient needs. Still, it cannot be done. Not for even a single day.

Here's a link to a table of US zinc intake. I'm going to emphasize some points of interest. The table is in terms of Adequate Intake, which is itself only 77% of the RDA, which is itself only that level that prevents *overt* (obvious) deficiency symptoms in 97.5% of NORMAL HEALTHY people, whoever they might be. Roughly half the US population does not even get the adequate intake of zinc. What about people with health issues? Surely their needs are greater, not lesser. http://www.nutrition.org/cgi/content...130/5/1367S/T4

The RDA also does not even remotely take into consideration what might be the optimal intake of a nutrient. It is defined in terms of deficiency, not optimal health.

I keep coming back to a simple truth. You are what you eat. I do not have a Prozac deficiency, ya know?

Lar

Lar, whatcha got is a Fruit Loop deficiency. That's what makes you so loopy! :-)

Yours truly, Emmy

wow. what a lot of good info. i'm looking for something to possibly replace the low dose of klonopin that i am on. i dumped my pdoc yesterday because he was a complete *****. i don't want to be on the drugs anyway, but i think i need something calming at the moment. i'm not there yet, to live without the drugs....or something completely. i've been to a naturopath and willl discuss some of this stuff on here that i've learned with her to see what she thinks would be good for me

e

If you need any verification of what I said, or some more explanations, I'd be happy to oblige.

Lar