Disputed Media Brutal 2011 Webmd article on kava

[Aloha Kava]

Came across this today. A decade ago, but crazy that something like this can still appear on the front page of search results if someone looks up kava (https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/features/risky-herbal-supplements). Thankfully they have a slightly more favorable explanation here (https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-872/kava) but that wasn't what first came up on google. We still have a lot of outreach work to do my friends!

"
Kava
Kava (Piper methysticum) can reduce anxiety, and for some it has worked as well as prescription anti-anxiety drugs. But it may take up to eight weeks to work. In women experiencing anxiety in menopause, kava has worked in as little as one week, according to the National Institutes of Health.

However, the National Institutes of Health and the FDA urge people not to take kava because of the risk of serious illness, liver damage, and death even when taken for only a short time at normal doses. Kava use has led to liver transplants and death in one to three months. "Heavy kava use has been linked to nerve damage and skin changes," Weil tells WebMD.

Kava can worsen depression and is not safe for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. Because the herb has effects similar to those of alcohol, the two should not be combined.

A number of prescription drugs should not be combined with kava. The two drugs with the potential for greatest drug interactions are alprazolam (Xanax) and sedatives.

Weil only recommends kava for a maximum of three to four weeks in patients with healthy livers. "I do not recommend kava for people at risk for or who have liver disease, regularly drink alcohol, or take drugs with known adverse effects on the liver, including statins and acetaminophen."

Other experts have completely ruled kava out. "I prefer to use herbs that have a good risk-to-benefit ratio, and for kava that's no longer true," Fugh-Berman says."

 

[bogmonkey]

A lot of people these days are on tons of prescription meds that make kava potentially dangerous.
I am not on a single medication, and don't use acetaminophin at all. Been using kava for years with nothing but amazing effects.

 

[The Kap'n]

Came across this today. A decade ago, but crazy that something like this can still appear on the front page of search results if someone looks up kava (https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/features/risky-herbal-supplements). Thankfully they have a slightly more favorable explanation here (https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-872/kava) but that wasn't what first came up on google. We still have a lot of outreach work to do my friends!

"
Kava
Kava (Piper methysticum) can reduce anxiety, and for some it has worked as well as prescription anti-anxiety drugs. But it may take up to eight weeks to work. In women experiencing anxiety in menopause, kava has worked in as little as one week, according to the National Institutes of Health.

However, the National Institutes of Health and the FDA urge people not to take kava because of the risk of serious illness, liver damage, and death even when taken for only a short time at normal doses. Kava use has led to liver transplants and death in one to three months. "Heavy kava use has been linked to nerve damage and skin changes," Weil tells WebMD.

Kava can worsen depression and is not safe for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. Because the herb has effects similar to those of alcohol, the two should not be combined.

A number of prescription drugs should not be combined with kava. The two drugs with the potential for greatest drug interactions are alprazolam (Xanax) and sedatives.

Weil only recommends kava for a maximum of three to four weeks in patients with healthy livers. "I do not recommend kava for people at risk for or who have liver disease, regularly drink alcohol, or take drugs with known adverse effects on the liver, including statins and acetaminophen."

Other experts have completely ruled kava out. "I prefer to use herbs that have a good risk-to-benefit ratio, and for kava that's no longer true," Fugh-Berman says."

lol, this article is awful. No sources, and when you click "Nerve damage", on its claim there it just sends you to their generic page about nerve damage.

You can trust this article as far as you can throw it.

 

[kavamehameha]

You can trust this article as far as you can throw it.

... into the trash can.

 

[The Kap'n]

I created a "Disputed Media" Tag and added it to this post. Everyone can use the tag when posting information they believe to be incorrect from the past.

 

[Zaphod]

lol, this article is awful. No sources, and when you click "Nerve damage", on it's claim there it just sends you to their generic page about nerve damage.

You can trust this article as far as you can throw it.

I love how there is this FDA double standard where you can't claim health benefits or curing a disease without adequate evidence, but they have no issue claiming something will kill you without any reliable evidence.

 

[kasa_balavu]

I believe @Alia has contacted WebMD in the past to try and correct their misconceptions/falsehoods.

 

[Alia]

I believe @Alia has contacted WebMD in the past to try and correct their misconceptions/falsehoods.

Yes, tried and tried but they never replied. There was however once a reply regarding misconceptions/falsehoods and it was from Consumer Reports. I'd written to them for about a year trying to get them to reply and on May 29, 2017 they did! I posted it and re-post here:
Forum readers may recall the September 2016 Consumer Reports (CR)-- 15 supplement ingredients to avoid, which listed Piper methysticum, kava, could cause liver damage and sudden death. After nearly a year of back and forth communication with CR, they have sent me this which suggests they meant that only the supplements are in question, not the traditional beverage. I added the RED font within their quote.
"We did forward your previous comments to our editors, ... With all due respect, our information is geared to inform consumers here in the US about the products sold and advertised as Kava. While indigenous Polynesian cultures may have originated certain preparations using the kava plant, by and large that has no bearing on our readers, and means no disrespect to any culture where this preparation originates. Issue should be taken with producers of the supplements sold here that produce a product which has known problematic effects".

 

[kasa_balavu]

Kudo's for trying, @Alia.
I guess they just weren't aware of the thriving market for real kava that exists outside of the brick and mortar supplement industry. Or more likely, they just didn't care. The article wasn't written to save people from killer supplements, but to attract clicks and sell ad space.

I do think that their response does raise a very important point, which is that these supplement manufacturers are mislabelling their product.

"our information is geared to inform consumers here in the US about the products sold and advertised as Kava."

Kava extracts and kava are not the same thing, and the intentional mislabelling of kava extract as kava is a serious problem.

 

[Aloha Kava]

Kudo's for trying, @Alia.
I guess they just weren't aware of the thriving market for real kava that exists outside of the brick and mortar supplement industry. Or more likely, they just didn't care. The article wasn't written to save people from killer supplements, but to attract clicks and sell ad space.

I do think that their response does raise a very important point, which is that these supplement manufacturers are mislabelling their product.

Kava extracts and kava are not the same thing, and the intentional mislabelling of kava extract as kava is a serious problem.

It's a huge misconception, I find. Everyone I talk to who's interested in kava says something like "Oh yeah I have a bottle of kava pills somewhere," or "I think I drank kava tea I got from Safeway once."