Anyone into kavakava?

Healthy Body and Mind
1

I’m just messing around waiting for something and thought of bringing this up here.

Many people in my country (stereotypically a place full of drunktards) are moving away from alcohol consumption or they throttle it vastly. It seems a generational shift, mostly associated with strive for fitness and mind sharpness.
This goes in sync with more and more people arguing that every dose of alcohol is a poison that impairs one’s cognitive efficiency for around six weeks. I think it’s still a matter of dose but the claims seem much less controversial than the 5G debate we had covered somewhere on this forum.

In the US, the search for alcohol alternatives to relax, unwind and boost social interactions already took some time with several solutions and I don’t mean fentanyl. Kratom, kin, kanna, kava, that’s what I know.

Kavakava (piper methysticum; called differently on different islands: yaqona, malok, sakau, awa) is a plant related to black pepper. It grows on Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Hawaii and perhaps few more. The way it’s used is different depending on the local culture. It’s leaves are toxic, it’s root isn’t (although it can upset one’s stomach if seeps to the grog). The plant grows for 5+ years and its roots are dried and ground; then, you squeeze/knead the composition of 19 psychoactive substances into the water.
Not a great taste, not a great price, but it seems to give handful of health benefits of different kinds (anxiolytic, muscle relaxant, deeper sleep, mood boost, deep relax, anti-inflammatory, etc.).
Fun fact, kava has different “branches” of evolution, wild kava (piper wichmanii) that is strong and used locally for medicinal purposes. Tudei (2-day) kava that sometimes is used in kava bars across the US but can go too hard. Noble kava is not capable of spreading on its own, it’s been centuries of man-driven stemming of new plants from a grown-up plant.

In my place, kava became visible. Not widespread, but obtainable. I don’t drink alcohol at all but sometimes I go kava to unwind (good as a social enhancer as well as an introvert’s choice). The main drawback is curb of workaholism the next day, sometimes dehydrating/diuretic (can get a headache the next morning if maxed out), shouldn’t be taken in conjunction with alcohol and some of the psychiatric drugs.

Getting back to my question - did anyone know kavakava before? What are your thoughts on it?

1 Like
2

Hey! I live in Canada and a lot of my friends drink Kava Kava. We actually spoke about it last night when we all went out. Basically, everyone was in agreement. that it’s really good for reducing stress and anxiety. Good for sleep, meditation and relaxing activities. I’ve tried it personally and I like it. Makes me feel calm. It has a funny effect to the tongue but other than that it’s good! There’s some Kava Kava bars at different cities if you live in San Francisco or one of the bigger states. Sometimes they mix Kava with Kratom and it creates a bit of an altered state. Almost focused and calm at the same time, which tripped me out. So I would recommend just sticking with the Kava.

2 Likes
3

Oh yes, that’s very cool in North America that there are kava bars, also kava is like 2.5x cheaper over there than in Europe.
I heard some people help themselves going away from benzos with kava or kratom, but kratom itself acts like opioids, and can develop addiction on its own. Kava is free from that mechanism, although it’s fairly easy to develop a habit with it. For me, it’s hard to skip an evening with kava when I have it in my cupboard. But then, it can be gone for weeks or months and it doesn’t cause any addictive craving.

2 Likes
4

Yeah I find that it doesn’t have too much of an addictive quality to it! It’s definitely a very chill plant to work with :slight_smile: Best of luck!

2 Likes
5

I used to be big into it. It was really the only thing that helped my anxiety issues. Unfortunately I started getting some bad side effects from it and had to stop. My whole back was constantly itching, and my entire face turned deep maroon. Had a huge rash down my face, neck, chest and upper back.

2 Likes
6

Yes, dry skin and a rash can happen. I’m not sure with the rash whether it’s more sort of allergy or long usage side effect or interaction with something else from diet/supplements/medicine.

I’m drinking kava since late 2018, more frequently since two years ago, and from all side effects what I’m getting is sometimes a headache in the morning if I take a bad ratio of instant v. water (had it maybe 4 times out of 1-2 hundreds of kava sessions), and accelerated bowel movement (didn’t have it at the beginning). It was one particular package that, when started drinking, I was getting an itchy rash with hives from hips to neck and it lasted for around half hour. Never found out why it was, maybe it was something with the batch. I know people rarely get a rash that could last for several days.

This month I didn’t drink it at all and might extend this break as I have too much work to do, but then I see it’s hard for me now to let it all go on evenings and go to bed at the right time.

1 Like
7

Most likely an allergy, yeah

1 Like
8

I first tried kava on a trip to Hawaii and now I found out there’s a kava bar in a town not too far from me where they put it in teas and such. It was an interesting thing to try and I think I’ll still have some once in a while but it won’t serve as an alcohol replacement for me.

1 Like