Have you ever drank kava after consuming a large amount of caffeine ?

[Plantacious]

So on this particular day, I had about 400 mg worth of caffeine, in the form of straight coffee.
Usually I get slightly jittery afterwards. So on this occasion, I decided to start a kava session to hopefully offset the jitters.
I figured with all that caffeine, I'd have to drink more kava than usual, to offset it.
I was a little surprised by the fact, that even though I drank about double the amount of kava I usually drink, I still had none of the positive effects.
Figured with double, the amount, I'd feel something, even if it was weaker, but there was nothing.

But this is what I found to be even more shocking : the opposite happened
After the kave session, I was about 3-4 times as jittery as I was after I drank the coffee.
I know it wasn't a late reaction to the coffee, because it's common for me to drink that much coffee, but never got this jittery to the point of a near panic attack.
I had also drank this same type of kava before, and never had a negative reaction.
But this was the first time I ever drank kava immediately after a large amount of caffeine.
So, based on all of the above, this is my conclusion : the kava actually potentiated the caffeine, causing me to be literally hyper-jittery.
Is a theory like that even plausible, or could there been some other factors that were overlooked, that could have caused this hyper-anxiety ?

 

[lonnyzone]

It's not an uncommon reaction. I know nothing of the pharmacology of the interaction, but it seems like mixing nootropics and Kava in general is no bueno. Here's my story with that: once upon a time I took two Gaia Herbs Kava capsules (about 70 mg kavalactones each), and while I was peaking off of those, I took a double shot of espresso. I spent the next two hours or so feeling like my body and mind were made of a million tightly wound metal wires. It kinda amplifies everything that sucks about caffeine for me.

Taking a wild guess as to why this occurs: according to this page http://kavaforums.com/forum/threads/how-it-works-kava.1580/ Kava interferes with norepinephrine reuptake. Assuming the studies cited in the same paragraph showing agonistic and antagonistic action are regarding the GABA and NMDA activity (none of them actually show anything for me when I try to visit them), I reckon that means it INHIBITS norepinephrine reuptake to some extent, which means that on its own it increases the bioavailability of said compound.
Caffeine has been shown in this study, in combination with a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (they didn't specify the subtype, unfortunately, but maybe it was subtype B?) to increase concentrations of norepinephrine in a rat's brain: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0014299970901585
Kava happens to be a monoamine oxidase B inhibitor, which means that it could hypothetically increase if not be the complete cause of an adrenergic response to caffeine that wouldn't be there otherwise. ASSUMING it was an MAOBI in the study. Or one that just inhibits both subtypes.

 

[Krunkie McKrunkface]

So on this particular day, I had about 400 mg worth of caffeine, in the form of straight coffee.
Usually I get slightly jittery afterwards. So on this occasion, I decided to start a kava session to hopefully offset the jitters.
I figured with all that caffeine, I'd have to drink more kava than usual, to offset it.
I was a little surprised by the fact, that even though I drank about double the amount of kava I usually drink, I still had none of the positive effects.
Figured with double, the amount, I'd feel something, even if it was weaker, but there was nothing.

But this is what I found to be even more shocking : the opposite happened
After the kave session, I was about 3-4 times as jittery as I was after I drank the coffee.
I know it wasn't a late reaction to the coffee, because it's common for me to drink that much coffee, but never got this jittery to the point of a near panic attack.
I had also drank this same type of kava before, and never had a negative reaction.
But this was the first time I ever drank kava immediately after a large amount of caffeine.
So, based on all of the above, this is my conclusion : the kava actually potentiated the caffeine, causing me to be literally hyper-jittery.
Is a theory like that even plausible, or could there been some other factors that were overlooked, that could have caused this hyper-anxiety ?

IME, and this could be just for me, I find kava is a potentiator for caffeine by a factor of 2 to 1. So, effectively, I deal with this by whenever I have coffee or tea while also drinking kava, I drink half the amount I usually would have. I never noticed any effect of the caffeine on kava.

FTR I drink kava and coffee together shortly after rising virtually every day. It is not a problem, but that's how I do it.

 

[Zaphod]

A while back @verticity posted that caffeine is metabolized by the same liver enzyme (CYP1A2) that is also involved in kava metabolism. So you could get an effect where it takes both kava and the caffeine in your system longer to metabolize and clear. If your looking to calm the jitters of caffeine I would try L-theanine. It is quite popular in nootropic stacks with a nice synergistic effect with caffeine for focus, and attention while keeping the jitters/anxiousness of caffeine at bay.