How often do you drink kava?
- Thread starter kavalover
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kl.Gray Owl
Kava Enthusiast
I just started a couple weeks ago and I've made some sort of kava almost every day, but maybe half the time it's a weaker instant rather than a session. Now that I'm figuring out what I'm doing I'll probably do like a lighter Fu'u most days and Friday or Saturday do something like Stone. I've been trying a lot of different things to figure out what I like. I've got a Mo'i coming in from HKC and a Kule'a sampler with Melomelo, Isa, and Fiji. I'd like to try an Hiwa if I can find it. I tend to get intensely interested in a topic and learn everything possible about it. Ethnobotany is one topic that I keep coming back to for over twenty years, originally I got into it looking for a cure for migraine headaches, but I rarely get migraines anymore.
kl.kavanah
Kava Curious
I went a good few months, maybe more, barely having it. Lately I drink kava most days or have some of the paradise kava chocolate orange extract.
kavalover
Outsider
There was a good few month break for me as well, I started getting in to fine wines and totally forgot about kava for like 4 months. Lately though I've been an almost nightly drinker, 8tbsp kava to 4 cups water ratio. Typically when I start drinking kava heavily I go a month or so without to give my body a break.
Gain interest > study intently > become enthralled > slowly lose interest > find new interest > forget everything you've learned about previous interest > ad infinitum (smiley: pimp)
I can relate. I've gone through countless hobbies in mere months. Instruments, gardening, model building, drugs/ethnobotanicals, - the list goes on. This quality of mine had me worried fir a while on how quickly I'd drop out of college to join a crab fishing ship or some other radical shift in fascination.
Gain interest > study intently > become enthralled > slowly lose interest > find new interest > forget everything you've learned about previous interest > ad infinitum (smiley: pimp)
kl.Gray Owl
Kava Enthusiast
Apparently, for Asperger's Syndrome, which I have, this behavior is completely normal and to be expected, highly recommend "Look Me in the Eye" by John Elder Robison if you're curious. One of the down sides is that my brain won't STFU which makes sleep nearly impossible at times. Kava seems to be quite effective at making my brain shut up with less drawbacks than the alternatives so far. I'm curious to try it in a group setting if it helps with the social anxiety and going out in crowded public places that will be fantastic.kavalover said:
If I can make it through an airport without feeling like I want to kill somebody that would be even better.
kl.homobonobo
Kava Curious
I've only been drinking kava for a couple of weeks, so it's been almost every night or every other night. I'm in that "omg something cool and new, let me obsess about it!" phase. I want to try all the kavas!!
kl.Gray Owl
Kava Enthusiast
Almost forgot tomorrow is Friday, making a batch of Kule'a Hawaiian Isa for tomorrow night it's some funky-smelling stuff. My wife now refers to kava as "that nasty tea that you make". I've taken to putting some chai and sugar in it if it's really bad, but the Fu'u is alright without it. I've taken to using about 1/2 of O.N.E. coconut water and 1/2 regular water. I tried part coconut milk but it makes it thick and harder to drink. Ginger beer was good though, only did 1/2 ginger beer, might try a Fu'u with all ginger beer that might be nice.
kavalover
Outsider
and the great part about this is all the varieties of kava out there, and variables of weather, place of growth, seasonal growth ect of those kavas - the urge to try more and more and more new kavas never truly ceases!
Let me know how their Isa is grayowl, I have never actually bought kava from them if my memory serves me right. Just coconut shells and strainers
My family and friends say the same thing. It's that 'gross stuff Sean makes all the time'. The only kava that was so 'bad' I had to try and mask it was with N@H chief's jungle early last year. Man that stuff was -potent- on the grassy, earthy, smack in the face kind of way. Even then, though, I don't seem to get the 'kava anxiety' too bad anymore and I have little problem downing potent shells. I agree with the coconut milk though, even though I love the taste of the kava + coconut milk combo, it's so think it fills you up too quickly and nausea is much more likely(smiley: sick)
kl.Gray Owl
Kava Enthusiast
Being in the moment is the feeling that I seek and yet is so fleeting. Doesn't matter whether it's drums, meditation, centering prayer, or World of Warcraft. All is one. One is all. Although I sometimes worry that it's self-indulgent and surely there is something more important that I should be doing with my life. Yet believing that humanity will end--not because of the 2012 BS--but life on Earth cannot exist forever in its current incarnation. The Wheel Turns.
Steve973
Kava Curious
Some of the comments here have put me in a bit of a philosophical frame of mind, so I am probably going to digress from the topic here a bit, so feel free to ignore this post if I'm being a little bit out of line or off-topic.
It seems like nomadically moving from keen interest to keen interest is kind of natural for people who are intelligent and inquisitive. When you try new things all of the time, don't some things stick and other things just fall off? Personally, I like to try new things. When there are lots of details or immersive technical aspects about something, you can really dive in and explore new territory. Whether you stick with something or not probably depends on what it offers that appeals to you after you have delved into it enough. Maybe this behavior indicates attention issues, but I am skeptical about putting someone into a box because of certain behaviors, especially if they're not exactly self-destructive.
Any of these things seem to be able to draw you into the moment. If you have something that naturally helps you to focus your attention onto what's right here and right now, then you're in the moment. I guess the real trick is to "be here now" no matter what reality is currently presenting. It is all too easy to drift sometimes as if we're in a dream.
Gray Owl, what were you getting at with your comments about life ending?
It seems like nomadically moving from keen interest to keen interest is kind of natural for people who are intelligent and inquisitive. When you try new things all of the time, don't some things stick and other things just fall off? Personally, I like to try new things. When there are lots of details or immersive technical aspects about something, you can really dive in and explore new territory. Whether you stick with something or not probably depends on what it offers that appeals to you after you have delved into it enough. Maybe this behavior indicates attention issues, but I am skeptical about putting someone into a box because of certain behaviors, especially if they're not exactly self-destructive.
Any of these things seem to be able to draw you into the moment. If you have something that naturally helps you to focus your attention onto what's right here and right now, then you're in the moment. I guess the real trick is to "be here now" no matter what reality is currently presenting. It is all too easy to drift sometimes as if we're in a dream.
Gray Owl, what were you getting at with your comments about life ending?
kl.Gray Owl
Kava Enthusiast
About life ending, when I was younger I felt like I had to cure cancer or something like that or my life would be meaningless. I enjoyed music, art, literature, but I believed that to pursue them as a career would be frivolous, but in making that judgment I lost out on a lot of opportunities for self-expression. Now I believe you might as well do what you want, although hopefully you will take care of the needs of your dependents and yourself and not mooch off other people. It's not as important specifically what it is that you do. You can contribute to the direction that humanity is headed, but you cannot know and cannot control everything, chaos has a part to play.
kl.Gray Owl
Kava Enthusiast
The other point that I was trying to make is that I was extremely crunked. I was in a place of total acceptance and oneness with the universe.
It was a very strange night, it was as if there was a shift in the universe. Over the past few days I've had some difficult conversations with people that I have needed to have, it has honestly been stressful and unpleasant, but so far there are not bodies and the outcomes have been positive. I can't say it was the kava, it was a confluence of a lot of elements. Sometimes it's good to look back at the Earth from outer space without judgments or attachments so that you can have clarity about what needs to happen independent of desire.
It was a very strange night, it was as if there was a shift in the universe. Over the past few days I've had some difficult conversations with people that I have needed to have, it has honestly been stressful and unpleasant, but so far there are not bodies and the outcomes have been positive. I can't say it was the kava, it was a confluence of a lot of elements. Sometimes it's good to look back at the Earth from outer space without judgments or attachments so that you can have clarity about what needs to happen independent of desire.
I'd like to raise this question yet again with a follow-up question: "How often do you drink kava and do you regular users do anything extra for liver health?" I've been drinking kava pretty much every day lately and decided to take milk thistle this morning after stopping it for a few months and was wondering what/if anything others do. Anyone have regular bloodwork that would care to share? I haven't had and bloods done in a year or so.
kl.penguinbrah
Kava Curious
I thought liver health wasn't a problem as long as you were drinking the root and not other parts?KarmaG said:
Since i've found this stuff I've been drinking it everyday. I drink about 20-25 grams of fresh frozen paradise kava in about 11 ounces of coconut water and 5 ounces of water. It's very mild taste wise and effect wise... taste isn't bad at all.. I actually enjoy the taste. I barely notice anything but a slight relaxation and calming effect, but I do get deep sleep when I try to go to sleep and wake up refreshed.
kavalover
Outsider
KarmaG wrote:I'd like to raise this question yet again with a follow-up question: "How often do you drink kava and do you regular users do anything extra for liver health?" I've been drinking kava pretty much every day lately and decided to take milk thistle this morning after stopping it for a few months and was wondering what/if anything others do. Anyone have regular bloodwork that would care to share? I haven't had and bloods done in a year or so.
I drink about 4 - 5 cups of kava daily. Prepared with 8 tbsp of kava root powder. I also chew on milk-thistle seeds all the time as I like the taste. I get a blood test every now and then, my last one was 2 months ago and everything was normal. My ALP/GGT levels were higher than normal, which concerned my doc, but there was no evidence of liver inflammation so he monitored me for two weeks (for which I stopped drinking kava during that time) and the levels went back to normal. My doc knows I drink kava, he's cool with it but he does get nervous about my ALP/GGT levels as those are indicators of liver damage. It seems that kava directly affects my liver enzyme levels to sometimes worrying levels, but they almost immediately go back to normal range after discontinuation. Plus, the lack of inflammation or build up of bilirubin puts our mind at ease.
There's an interesting study done on this as well, check it out.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14677792
I drink about 4 - 5 cups of kava daily. Prepared with 8 tbsp of kava root powder. I also chew on milk-thistle seeds all the time as I like the taste. I get a blood test every now and then, my last one was 2 months ago and everything was normal. My ALP/GGT levels were higher than normal, which concerned my doc, but there was no evidence of liver inflammation so he monitored me for two weeks (for which I stopped drinking kava during that time) and the levels went back to normal. My doc knows I drink kava, he's cool with it but he does get nervous about my ALP/GGT levels as those are indicators of liver damage. It seems that kava directly affects my liver enzyme levels to sometimes worrying levels, but they almost immediately go back to normal range after discontinuation. Plus, the lack of inflammation or build up of bilirubin puts our mind at ease.
There's an interesting study done on this as well, check it out.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14677792
Thank you for sharing that link, kavalover. I've been drinking a little less than you (probably about 3 tbsp per day) but also daily. From what I've read, it seems like even water extracts may increase liver enzymes (most notably ALP/ GGT) but, like you said, the elevation is quickly reversed back to normal levels upon cessation. As well, it doesn't appear that these elevated levels indicate any liver damage or inflammation, as we don't see any negative physical effects and don't see kava drinkers keeling over due to liver failure. Here's the article that I was reading just the other day that prompted me to ask this question: http://www.eclecticherb.com/kava/study.htmlI'm pretty confident in the studies of kava being relatively harmless or I wouldn't be drinking it. For me, it's far less detrimental to my health than alcohol. Still, being a health-conscious person, I wonder if there is any way to mitigate these elevated ALP/GGT levels. It's interesting that you take milk thistle as well. Im guessing it had no effect on your liver enzyme levels?
kavalover
Outsider
Yes, I have found no evidence of liver damage from use of aqueous kava extracts. It still concerns me, though, as I think it should. Higher enzyme levels can damage the liver over time, which is why moderation is key. I usually go a few weeks without kava if I've been binging. For instance, I've been drinking everyday as of late, as finals are so nearby and I have a stressful job. After next week, I'll probably go 2 weeks or so without kava. Just to be on the safe side. Also, I don't drink alcohol or take any medications within a week period of kava consumption. I've suffered through many headaches simply because I didn't want to push my liver over any edges with acetaminophen of ibuprofen. Again, just to be on the safe side.
My doc told me once that my liver enzyme levels after drinking kava were very similar to liver enzyme levels registered after a night of drinking. So it's important to realize that YES drinking kava does have impact on liver health, and to be careful. Everyone. I know that some cultures like to drink alcohol + kava (I'm told this is a big thing for ceremonies in Hawaii) but to be honest I just wouldn't risk it for the sake of long-time health.
The milk thistle I don't think had any effect on my enzyme levels, and if you do research you'll find mixed results from milk thistle. The only reason I chew milk thistle seeds is because, during a mushroom identification class I took last summer, we were told about milk thistle for Amanita poisoning. When I had bought seeds to grind up into capsules (which was part of our class), I really liked the bitter taste. So really, any health benefits are a bonus. lol. I just like the stuff.
My doc told me once that my liver enzyme levels after drinking kava were very similar to liver enzyme levels registered after a night of drinking. So it's important to realize that YES drinking kava does have impact on liver health, and to be careful. Everyone. I know that some cultures like to drink alcohol + kava (I'm told this is a big thing for ceremonies in Hawaii) but to be honest I just wouldn't risk it for the sake of long-time health.
The milk thistle I don't think had any effect on my enzyme levels, and if you do research you'll find mixed results from milk thistle. The only reason I chew milk thistle seeds is because, during a mushroom identification class I took last summer, we were told about milk thistle for Amanita poisoning. When I had bought seeds to grind up into capsules (which was part of our class), I really liked the bitter taste. So really, any health benefits are a bonus. lol. I just like the stuff.
If anyone's interested, I found the complete paper that kavalover referenced: http://www.hawaii.edu/hiv...queous_Kava_Extracts.pdf
I guess the important thing to keep in mind is that regular breaks are good to give the ol' liver a rest. I wish there were a magic supplement that would keep liver enzymes in check so the hypochondriac in me wouldn't have to worry. I did read that casein intake is inversely related to ALP levels. I didn't look into it in any great detail but it's still a perfect excuse to eat lots of cheese!
I wanted to add these two links about foods that can help lower ALP and GGT:http://www.livestrong.com...er-alkaline-phosphatase/http://www.livestrong.com...63-what-foods-lower-ggt/
I guess the important thing to keep in mind is that regular breaks are good to give the ol' liver a rest. I wish there were a magic supplement that would keep liver enzymes in check so the hypochondriac in me wouldn't have to worry. I did read that casein intake is inversely related to ALP levels. I didn't look into it in any great detail but it's still a perfect excuse to eat lots of cheese!
I wanted to add these two links about foods that can help lower ALP and GGT:http://www.livestrong.com...er-alkaline-phosphatase/http://www.livestrong.com...63-what-foods-lower-ggt/