I've never heard of either kava or Claritin causing that side effect. It could have been an unrelated UTI. -- So I would obviously see a doctor if it comes back -- antibiotics might be in order.So the urethral irritation was either from the Claritin or the GSL tablets. I haven't taken either one for a couple days now, and it seems to have gone away. I used the Yogi tea last night, so it's at least not from kava in general. I'm going to wait another day or two and then try the GSL tablets again. If it doesn't start hurting again, I'm going to assume it was the Claritin. It had other (not as bothersome) side effects anyway.
Nail polish remover is made out of acetone, but sometimes it also contains coloring. It's better to get some acetone from the hardware store or Home Depot equivalent. It's also kind of hard to interpret the results if you don't have standard nobles and tudeis to compare it to. You could mail some to @Deleted User and he'll test it for you.Yeah, I was going to go to the doctor if it didn't go away after I quit taking the stuff I suspected. It didn't actually hurt while urinating which made it seem like probably not a UTI, but who knows.
And back to the GSL tablets, it sounds like I can use some of my daughter's nail polish remover to test one, after I crush it up, and see what color it turns?
So why do they sell guitar picks in addition to kava tablets?I'd be happy to test them, but I can tell you with 95%+ certainty that they are made with two day kava. And regardless of how they're labeled, they're probably made in China. Here's a sample of the offerings from one of the many Chinese manufacturers, Brightol:
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Well, it's kava. It won't knock you out right away. It doesn't really work that way. Plus the fact that Gaia might be a fairly heady strain; I'm not sure what it's chemotype is. Generally during a kava session I'll start out with the "good" feelings, and then after a couple hours maybe feel tired/sleepy. It's a complex experience. You could try taking the kava a few hours before bedtime; right before dinner is a good time.So I tried the Gaia capsules last night. I took 1, and didn't feel anything and was still awake an hour later. I took another, and started feeling it within about 20 minutes, but it still wasn't helping with the sleep. So I took a third. I was feeling pretty nice by then, but my alarm was going to go off in about 5 hours and it didn't feel like sleep was coming, so I gave up and took some melatonin, which did the job.
So is Gaia not the right kind for sleep? Or do I need to take more - or perhaps take at least 3 at once instead of staggered? I'm trying to replace melatonin and the other stuff I typically use, because they all leave me drowsy the next day. Interestingly, although I ended up using melatonin last night, I'm not as drowsy today as normal, so perhaps the kava at least helped with that.