Hair loss, weight loss, and hearing loss?

[lonnyzone]

My brother's medicinal botany professor says that long term use of high doses of Kava is associated with the three symptoms listed in the title, as well as the ol' dermo. I have yet to hear of this being a thing among people who drink lots of Kava. Anybody ever heard of/confirmed this?
Edit: I'm asking specifically about the ones that aren't dermo, I'm well aware that that's a real thing.

 

[Krunkie McKrunkface]

My brother's medicinal botany professor says that long term use of high doses of Kava is associated with the three symptoms listed in the title, as well as the ol' dermo. I have yet to hear of this being a thing among people who drink lots of Kava. Anybody ever heard of/confirmed this?

I think the key issue is the definition of "long term" and "high doses." Constant very high doses of almost anything will be problematic, and kava would be no exception. It's well known that when people completely give up on everything else in life except drinking kava all the time they become rail thin and look like crocodiles from it.

 

[lonnyzone]

Just had a thought - maybe the alleged weight loss has to do with the fact that you have to have not eaten for a bit for the Kava to really be effective, so if you're using it all the time, you end up eating less because, for so much of the time you're eating, there's a bunch of Kava in your stomach beforehand, so you eat less...

I think the key issue is the definition of "long term" and "high doses." Constant very high doses of almost anything will be problematic, and kava would be no exception. It's well known that when people completely give up on everything else in life except drinking kava all the time they become rail thin and look like crocodiles from it.

I was thinking this too. Curious as to what the standards of "long term" and "high doses" were for whoever the professor heard these things from, how many people they were looking at, what age those people were, where they were from, etc.

 

[kasa_balavu]

Dermo, yes.

I've seen a lot of heavy long-term kava drinkers and see no correlation whatsoever between hair/hearing loss and kava.

Weight loss only via appetite suppression.

 

[lonnyzone]

Update: after making my way around Yahoo and NCBI, I'm fairly convinced that there's nothing to the idea that Kava causes hair loss or hearing loss, and the weight loss, if any, is a result of dietary supression due to the fact that you've gotta starve yourself a little for it to work. Dermo is old news and pretty dang reversible. Kinda sad that this professor is pushing striaght up misinformation on her students...

 

[Krunkie McKrunkface]

Update: after making my way around Yahoo and NCBI, I'm fairly convinced that there's nothing to the idea that Kava causes hair loss or hearing loss, and the weight loss, if any, is a result of dietary supression due to the fact that you've gotta starve yourself a little for it to work. Dermo is old news and pretty dang reversible. Kinda sad that this professor is pushing striaght up misinformation on her students...

Some of it is semantics.

Yes I "lost" 40 lbs in 8 months, but I don't miss what I lost, I should never have had them. Kava adjusted my weight, readjusted it properly.

I was obese due to an inflammatory condition. Kava treated the inflammatory condition, and absent the cause of the obesity, my weight adjusted back down to normal. That's not a bug, it's a feature. It's not a candy or a breath mint, it's a lifesaver.