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Kava and pain medication...reason for worry?

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David H.

Kava Curious
I hurt my knee pretty bad today and had to visit the ER. They gave me some weak Codeine/Tylenol combo to hold me over until I see an ortho. I took the pill at 6 and waited until 11 to drink my Kava. Even 5 hours after my medication, I’m feeling the kava way more than usual. I tend to be a bit paranoid and am sitting here with visions of my breathing stopping while I’m asleep.... Anyone ever mixed pain meds and kava? What were the effects?
 

Zaphod

Kava Lover
I hurt my knee pretty bad today and had to visit the ER. They gave me some weak Codeine/Tylenol combo to hold me over until I see an ortho. I took the pill at 6 and waited until 11 to drink my Kava. Even 5 hours after my medication, I’m feeling the kava way more than usual. I tend to be a bit paranoid and am sitting here with visions of my breathing stopping while I’m asleep.... Anyone ever mixed pain meds and kava? What were the effects?
In general the recommendation is to not take kava and Tylenol (acetaminophen). Tylenol is pretty harsh on the liver. If you feel you need to take the Codeine/Tylenol to alleviate the pain then I would stop taking kava.
 

Krunkie McKrunkface

Kava Connoisseur
I agree with Zaphod (as usual). I wouldn't be concerned about interaction with the codeine, aside from making sure you not drive or operate heavy lachinery or run down the stairs, but the tylenol/acetominophen/parrots eat 'em all. I'm reasonably confident this one time event will do no harm, so no sense worrying overly, but in general, you don't want to have acetominophen and kava at the same time. And you don't want to take acetominophen unless you have to, and then only for short periods.

FWIW, for short term pain relief I use kava instead of painkillers. I use specific kavas for that, mainly Supreme and Savusavu. We have used them with great success for even broken bones and after major surgeries.
 

fait

Position 5 Hard Support
In general the recommendation is to not take kava and Tylenol (acetaminophen). Tylenol is pretty harsh on the liver.
This is good to know. For a while, I was taking Tylenol instead of ibuprofen for headaches and/or neckaches (stomach-sleeping is one heck of a habit to stop) because of heartburn concerns and I've been drinking kava again lately, so I will refrain from using tylenol so close to kava.

What about NSAIDs? Does kava interact with any NSAIDs like ibuprofen or nabumetone?
 

Zaphod

Kava Lover
This is good to know. For a while, I was taking Tylenol instead of ibuprofen for headaches and/or neckaches (stomach-sleeping is one heck of a habit to stop) because of heartburn concerns and I've been drinking kava again lately, so I will refrain from using tylenol so close to kava.

What about NSAIDs? Does kava interact with any NSAIDs like ibuprofen or nabumetone?
In general they should be better. Here is a good resource:
https://livertox.nih.gov/NonsteroidalAntiinflammatoryDrugs.htm
That said I tend to err on the side of caution. On those occasions where I feel I need a pain reliever instead of kava I just lay off the kava for a bit. Here is another thread with a link in it to a study showing possible interactions of kava and tylenol:
http://kavaforums.com/forum/threads...minophen-induced-hepatotoxicity-in-mice.4908/
 
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