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Chills shaking vomiting kava sick:(

LMNOP

Newbie
Hey everyone, I’ve been enjoying kava for a few years now , took a break during 2020 but back to enjoying , once per week at a local kava bar. I have yet to read anyone describe what’s happened to me a few times from apparently too much kava ( last night it was 4 shells) … really, really intense shivering chills body fever and vomiting. Lasted about 3-4 hours. This has happened once before back when I tried 2 shells of a concentrated kava drink. But I’m surprised that 4 shells of regular kava did this.. ive seen people drink a lot more with no issue. It was ROUGH. Worse than any alcohol nausea/puking I’ve ever had.
wondering if I may have liver issues that this is signaling, or if this is something that can happen when you simply have too much.
thanks for reading, let me know your thoughts.
 

The Kap'n

The Groggy Kaptain (40g)
KavaForums Founder
Hey everyone, I’ve been enjoying kava for a few years now , took a break during 2020 but back to enjoying , once per week at a local kava bar. I have yet to read anyone describe what’s happened to me a few times from apparently too much kava ( last night it was 4 shells) … really, really intense shivering chills body fever and vomiting. Lasted about 3-4 hours. This has happened once before back when I tried 2 shells of a concentrated kava drink. But I’m surprised that 4 shells of regular kava did this.. ive seen people drink a lot more with no issue. It was ROUGH. Worse than any alcohol nausea/puking I’ve ever had.
wondering if I may have liver issues that this is signaling, or if this is something that can happen when you simply have too much.
thanks for reading, let me know your thoughts.
Welcome!

It's most people's first instinct to think something is up with their liver, but the truth of the matter is that kava is in no way hepatotoxic. Idiosyncratic organ injuries can occur with a massively wide range of botanical products. Plus you can only assess liver injury with AST/ALT metabolism tests. This really leads me to believe that you picked up some sort of stomach virus. Puking and feeling a bit chilled aren't that far outside the standard wheelhouse for kava effects when over-imbibing, but fever, fever is never a component of kava intoxication unless rash is accompanied as a sign of alternate inflammation.

I hate to say it, but there is a possibility that the kava was bacteriologically contaminated. Keep in mind this leaves quite an open door for what could have happened. The powder itself could have been poorly processed and had a high bacterial load, or the storage conditions of the prepared kava may have been poor, or handling procedures could cause kava to be a vector for a stomach bug.

What you describe is not common for having 4 shells of kava for anyone.

Were both of these poor experiences at the same kava bar?
 

Aceofwands9

Kava Enthusiast
Yeah, I personally doubt kava in general is to blame and would suspect that something is up with the kava bar you're going to... either their kava is of variable quality or they are storing and preparing it improperly. Try getting and making some kava from a reputable vendor listed on this site and see if you have a similar reaction.
 

LMNOP

Newbie
Interesting.. I’ve thought that this kava bar is pretty respectful and informed about the plant and practices:/ but .. something to think about. Thanks for the thoughts!
 

LMNOP

Newbie
Welcome!

It's most people's first instinct to think something is up with their liver, but the truth of the matter is that kava is in no way hepatotoxic. Idiosyncratic organ injuries can occur with a massively wide range of botanical products. Plus you can only assess liver injury with AST/ALT metabolism tests. This really leads me to believe that you picked up some sort of stomach virus. Puking and feeling a bit chilled aren't that far outside the standard wheelhouse for kava effects when over-imbibing, but fever, fever is never a component of kava intoxication unless rash is accompanied as a sign of alternate inflammation.

I hate to say it, but there is a possibility that the kava was bacteriologically contaminated. Keep in mind this leaves quite an open door for what could have happened. The powder itself could have been poorly processed and had a high bacterial load, or the storage conditions of the prepared kava may have been poor, or handling procedures could cause kava to be a vector for a stomach bug.

What you describe is not common for having 4 shells of kava for anyone.

Were both of these poor experiences at the same kava bar?
Interesting.. I’ve thought that this kava bar is pretty respectful and informed about the plant and practices:/ but .. something to think about. Thanks for the thoughts!
Ps … the two similar reactions of intense chills and burning up body/vomiting were from 2 different sources! I’m wondering if it’s just my body.. hard to know.
 

The Kap'n

The Groggy Kaptain (40g)
KavaForums Founder
Ps … the two similar reactions of intense chills and burning up body/vomiting were from 2 different sources! I’m wondering if it’s just my body.. hard to know.
Do you ever get any skin effects with it? Also, do you know how high your temperature got?

Sounds like you may have something up, and I'd love to dig deeper.

One more question, are you on any medications?
 

LMNOP

Newbie
Hey there. So we could Not find the thermometer which was a little scary cause I wasn’t sure if I needed urgent care. my body was very hot to the touch,but I was freezing at the same time. What’s crazy was the shivers.. I’ve never had shivers as severe as that from any regular flu fever .. I couldn’t even control my hands to look up info on my phone. Once I vomited a few times things slowwwwwly improved but it was several hours of hell.
I have NOT had skin effects from kava… I’ve seen others with that before as well as styes but have not had that issue.
I did drink around 30 oz of water so I’d be surprised if kava dehydrated me that bad from 4 shells.

As for regular medications I take a standard dose of an SSRI . I have not heard of that being an issue for negative interaction with kava but maybe???
 

ThePiper

Kava Lover
That does sound like a stomach flu. I’m not a doctor but it does sound like the SSRI could be the problem if it’s not a stomach flu. SSRI meds can cause all sorts of side effects and if you mix them with a whole range of kavalactones I have no doubt you could get the effects you describe. I have heard of a similar complaint (albeit there was only one anecdote) when someone took a good amount of mucuna (L-dopa and possibly serotonin but that part may be inactive) and had awful sickness and shakes.

me personally I’ve only had an experience close to like what your talking about maybe 2-3x, and it was 2times taking health food store capsules(yellow green staining puke That looked almost like greenish iodine) and you could count one time when I drank way too much heavy kava and hugged the toilet
 

The Kap'n

The Groggy Kaptain (40g)
KavaForums Founder
That does sound like a stomach flu. I’m not a doctor but it does sound like the SSRI could be the problem if it’s not a stomach flu. SSRI meds can cause all sorts of side effects and if you mix them with a whole range of kavalactones I have no doubt you could get the effects you describe. I have heard of a similar complaint (albeit there was only one anecdote) when someone took a good amount of mucuna (L-dopa and possibly serotonin but that part may be inactive) and had awful sickness and shakes.

me personally I’ve only had an experience close to like what your talking about maybe 2-3x, and it was 2times taking health food store capsules(yellow green staining puke That looked almost like greenish iodine) and you could count one time when I drank way too much heavy kava and hugged the toilet
Do you know the reason this person was taking l-dopa? I have heard of individuals being treated with l-dopa for Parkinson's having a negative reaction when combining with kava extracts. I personally think it has something to do with the yangonin content of extracts causing the sharp reduction in dopamine in areas of the brain that are affected during Parkinson's disease. Just a theory though, and based solely on the research I've read so far.
 

LMNOP

Newbie
That does sound like a stomach flu. I’m not a doctor but it does sound like the SSRI could be the problem if it’s not a stomach flu. SSRI meds can cause all sorts of side effects and if you mix them with a whole range of kavalactones I have no doubt you could get the effects you describe. I have heard of a similar complaint (albeit there was only one anecdote) when someone took a good amount of mucuna (L-dopa and possibly serotonin but that part may be inactive) and had awful sickness and shakes.

me personally I’ve only had an experience close to like what your talking about maybe 2-3x, and it was 2times taking health food store capsules(yellow green staining puke That looked almost like greenish iodine) and you could count one time when I drank way too much heavy kava and hugged the toilet
Thank you for your input I’m gonna look more into the ssri combo ..
 

Orz[EST]

Kava Enthusiast
Chills occur when temperature is about to rise. I would not be surprised if this was bacteriological. After all kava is not made with hot water that is usually the case with herbs. I do not know about fungi and molds so much.
 
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