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Kava and Alcohol

D

dankrubis

Newbie
Hello! I somehow found out about Kava by researching teas. I suffer from mild, though constant, anxiety and started drinking passionflower tea to alleviate it. Sadly I was looking for something more like xanax and the tea wasn't cutting it. Before I did any major research I bought some Kava pills by Gaia from Amazon and they were quite good. Even though the effects were very light, I could tell the real stuff would be right down my alley. Now I'm waiting on some micronized mahakea in the mail. Can't wait!

So now then. I've been a heavy drinker since college 15 years ago. Probably 30 to 50 drinks a week. I know it's horrible for you, thus the Kava. But I don't believe in getting rid of alcohol completely, so I plan on drinking once a week or two. Can't give up my microbrews and fine bourbons entirely.

I know drinking alcohol excessively along with Kava is a no-no, but I'd like to know how far apart I should space my consumption. Is it safe to drink Kava on a Friday night, drink 8-15 alcoholic drinks on Saturday, and then drink Kava on Sunday? Or should there be a bigger time buffer before and/or after? I'd like to be safe about this, but it would be nice to cut down a hangover with Kava. I don't know if it matters any, but I got my liver tested a month ago and it came back clean. And I never take Asprin.

Anyways, this place is pretty awesome! Thanks!
 
Roaddog

Roaddog

Kava Who?
Kapmcrunk said:
The major consensus among the members here is that 24 hours from the time you drink alcohol you'll be ok to drink kava.
Click to expand...
Yes, @Deleted User01 Does it all the time. I personal only drink Kava. But I also make my own liquors, and spirits. But mainly they are Xmas gifts that I give out to all my friends who drink. But for me, I'm already on my third shell of MAHAKEA, form GHK, and its only 3:30 pm. Much Love. Roaddog....
 
D

Deleted User01

Roaddog said:
Yes, @Deleted User01 Does it all the time. I personal only drink Kava. But I also make my own liquors, and spirits. But mainly they are Xmas gifts that I give out to all my friends who drink. But for me, I'm already on my third shell of MAHAKEA, form GHK, and its only 3:30 pm. Much Love. Roaddog....
Click to expand...
And that being said, I must warn that my tolerance to alcohol has gone down. I have to be careful to keep it to 2 or 3 beers max or else. The good news is that I used to abuse alcohol on almost a daily basis and that doesn't happen anymore. I love the taste of beer. I fell in love with it at an early age when my uncle gave me a sip of his beer. They thought I would gag, but I smacked my lips. :hungry: Anyway, make sure you watch how much you drink on your non-kava days. Perhaps fill your glass 3/4 of the way and call that a beer and sip it slow. I know, I know, it's hard but dem is the facts.
 
D

dankrubis

Newbie
Thanks all! And yeah, I've just recently been cutting back the liquor and I can already tell my tolerance has gone down. It'll be nice to actually get tipsy on only a few beers as opposed to the 8 or 9 it takes now.
 
D

Deleted User01

Dude, I gotta warn ya, you are still going to want to drink 8 or 9. You have to make an effort to kill those old habits. Drink smaller glasses and sip instead of chug. It has taken me a while to get to that point. Also, the holidays are coming and I know I will be drinking lots of wine on the day before and on Thanksgiving. I may just stop the kava on Monday and give myself 48 hours. Unfortunately, I love the taste of red wine and I love sitting around with the family doing it. I gots lots of challenges ahead for sure and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
 
sɥɐʞɐs

sɥɐʞɐs

Avg. Dosage: 8 Tbsp. (58g)
Review Maestro
I still drink with friends every 2 or 3 weeks, and I gladly hop back into kava a.s.a.p afterwards.
I can absolutely feel a harshness to it though, the 1st night back, after a weekend of taking shots. I've also had another suspicious thing happen after switching back and forth so quickly. I haven't had my bloodwork done yet, so I don't really know the state of my body. But based on my repeated experience, I can tell it's hard on my body and probably not safe.
Having a couple drinks every once in a while and then switching to kava isn't gonna be that rough.
But heavy drinking near kava consumption, is a risk. Flushing your system with enough water the whole time, might play a pretty big role.

The good thing is, if you get into kava, stick with it long enough to really feel it at it's best...you'll start preferring it.
Then when you drink alcohol, after some time away from it...you'll really notice how shitty it makes you feel, and how horrible the stupid hangovers are, how unrestful your sleep feels. Then all those things will reaffirm your growing preference for the kava buzz...and you'll find yourself less and less eager to ever drink alcohol.
Of course, in some scenarios alcohol is much better suited...nightclub, birthday bash, domestic violence, pagan orgy in the woods...
::awesomesmiles::
 
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D

Deleted User01

Yes, of course @shakas. But besides Pagan Orgies, we also have Octoberfest, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and South Sea Island Native Canoe Totem Pole Kava Day. I think one of the vendors here celebrates that one.
 
Sean D.

Sean D.

Kava Enthusiast
Yeah, I also tried passionflower and it just never seemed to have much kick.

I also go by the 24 hour rule. For those rare occasions. But generally I prefer Kava anyway.

Welcome.
 
kavapup

kavapup

Kava Curious
I was wondering the same thing, but about smaller amounts of alcohol. (I almost started a thread on this topic yesterday, but got called away from the computer!)

The other week, my partner came home with chicken wings for supper. I had already had a shell or two of kava that afternoon. I wasn't feeling the effects by dinnertime and so went ahead and had a beer (which is my beverage of choice to go with wings!). Conversely, I was wondering if it would be ok to say, have a beer with lunch and still have a shell of kava before going to bed. I'm talking about one, maybe occasionally two beers max. I would never think of ingesting one while feeling the effects of the other. Would I still have to wait 24 hours or is 5-7 hours ok?
 
Triskan

Triskan

Kava Curious
I hope the 24 hour rule is right. I am trying that tonight (am feeling the Stone pretty heavily), but I drank pretty hard last night. Not planning on drinking alcohol any time soon after this.
 
D

dankrubis

Newbie
I just wanted to provide a quick update here, just in case anyone has a similar question and happens upon this thread.

So, what Deleted User01 said is extremely vital. You cannot drink very much if you're gonna wait 24 hours after drinking kava. Source: my bowels. Sadly I misinterpreted what he was suggesting, thinking that after doing kava for a month or so, after my liquor tolerance dropping considerably, that then you wouldn't be able to handle more than 4 drinks. I'm now realizing he probably meant immediately, as there has to be some sort of reaction or something going on between liquor and kava.

To wit: Had 3 1/2 tablespoons of micro Mahakela (per shakas repeated suggestions here, very nice stuff). Fun had by all.

The next day the wife came home from her retail job and wanted to have some drinks due to holiday stress. Not wanting her to drink alone, I obliged. I consumed the final tablespoon of kava the night previous at roughly 9:30 PM. My first drink was at 8:00 PM the following night. I had about 9 shots of buffalo trace. I noticed something strange while drinking. Sometimes, when I go on a 3-4 day binge, my breath smells like alcohol whenever I exhale. Like I've drank so much that my body is now sweating liquor. It's a symptom that let's me know I've had enough and that it's time to take a break.

I got that same feeling after consuming the first glass of bourbon. I ignored it because I hadn't had any liquor for three days, but I'm really wishing I hadn't.

The next morning I woke up with a hangover much worse than the 9 shots I had normally produces. I actually took a sick day from work (it was the first sick day in over a year, so I felt I deserved it). Along with the super-hangover, I kept getting these stabbing pains in my stomach. Episodes lasted 5 - 20 seconds and happened once or twice an hour, all day long. My day was spent curled up on the couch with a glass of water.

So I got through that, and now we're at today. Feeling much better, but I have just been glued to the toilet all day. My god. Send help.

In conclusion: Sure you can drink the day after kava, but DO NOT have more than 4 drinks. If you plan on drinking heavy, I suggest waiting 48 - 72 hours. You need to give your body time to get the kava completely out of your system.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think it's time for round 5 with my poor porcelain throne.
 
D

Deleted User01

@dankrubis, my concern was that my tolerance for alcohol has gone way down since I started on Kava. Every day it is either Kava or Alcohol in limited quantities (like a few Home Brews). I have never gotten sick like you describe but it doesn't take much alcohol to get a hangover anymore. Please remember that there is also a very nasty stomach flu going around. Alcohol can lower your immunity and you may have gotten a bad dose of flu. I had a mild case of it but my wife got thetoilet hugging version and she doesn't do Kava or Alcohol. In my case, it was the porcelain throne but luckily no toilet hugging. FYI, I know a ton of people including my brother who got the toilet hugging version.
 
sɥɐʞɐs

sɥɐʞɐs

Avg. Dosage: 8 Tbsp. (58g)
Review Maestro
@dankrubis I've also noticed that I can taste and smell alcohol breath now, if I drink. I hate it, it's gross. I hardly noticed it before I got into kava 'full time'. I also notice the hangovers are worse, to the point where I hardly find the experience worth it. I'm not sure if either of these are actually due to recently having kava in your system or if it's just like @Deleted User01 is saying. When you drink kava instead of alcohol, you're body cleans itself of it and no longer has the tolerance to it, that it previously had . Jumping back into drinking, after losing your tolerance to alcohol, would hit anyone harder and allow you to smell the alcohol breath again, with or without kava. The brain stops paying attention to odd scents when it's exposed to them constantly. But it will notice again, if it became absent and then returned suddenly.

I've personally never had the GI problems you're having while jumping from kava to alcohol. For me, alcohol seems to ease stomach problems...and kava often disturbs my stomach. I also notice the first time I have alcohol after weeks of kava, the buzz is more sedate and kava-ier, in a way. But only that first night.
But jumping from alcohol to kava, definitely feels more harsh on me and my gut, the 1st night.
So I just stick to kava, alone, more often than not. If I could ever get all my friends on the kava train, I'd almost never have to make the jump back and forth.
 
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D

Deleted User01

Here is the bottom line. If you are doing Kava, NO MORE BINGE DRINKING. 2-3 drinks max. After all, many of us got into Kava so we would quit binge Drinking or Binge other things. Kava can punish those who Binge. Here is a novel idea, how about we have a couple of glasses of wine/beer with our meal and sip and enjoy both wine and food. Who woulda thought it could be done that way? :rolleyes:
 
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