Hey, I know there has been some threads about this before but I want to ask anyway. I used to drink Kava when I was on 40mg Prozac ( SSRI ) and it was fine. I was changed to Wellbutrin 300mg XL and now also on Ritalin. Both Wellbutrin and Ritalin are dopamine/norenephrine re-uptake inhibitors. Now, when I need Kava for my anxiety more than ever it's causing me great discomfort drinking on these medications, the first hour of drinking is fine and I feel good but afterwards I get a fast heartbeat and headaches and an overall bad feeling. I don't know if this is just me being scared of the potential interactions between the meds and Kava. I understand Kavalactone Desmethoxyangonin is the strongest MAO-B reversible inhibitor(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9832350), numbered 1 in kava chemotypes -(http://www.kavalibrary.com/Chemotypes.html). Is Kava really an MAOB or is this being blown out of proportion? Let's assume I get these side effects because of the MAOB kavalactone, If Desmethoxyangonin is the strongest and the second strongest is Methysticin ( number 6 ), will Kava's with a chemotype profile of 6 and 1 at the lower part have less MAOB inhibition? For example chemotype 423615 of Borogu. I'm also thinking it may be because of other reasons as I saw a chart displaying Kava MAOB inhibition compared to Green Tea's MAOB inhibition and I drink Green tea all the time. Maybe something to do with the liver enzymes? What do you guys think?
Kava and medication interaction
- Thread starter Ryko
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I'm sure there's a lot to talk about in-depth, which I sadly can't contribute to, but here's a primer on what kava generally doesn't get along with: http://kavaforums.com/forum/brdc-document/kava-incompatibilities.13/
The MAOI-B is much out of proportion. While I don't have a scientific study to provide you, I believe we would be seeing an enormous amount of medication (and food) interactions due to kava, and we simply don't. Kava can interact with dopaminergic drugs by blocking dopamine. This could be causing the issues you're seeing with the combination. Wellbutrin also works within the norepinephrine and dopamine systems, so kava very well could be causing your issues.
That's interesting, according to wikipedia kavain, methysticin and desmethoxyyangonin are responsible for Dopamine/Norenephtrine reuptake inhibition. Chemotype numbers 6 4 and 1. I will see maybe there is a kava chemotype with less of those and try it.
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