Major issues with Yogi Kava Tea

[Ihavequestions]

Hello all, I don’t know if anyone will be able to help with this but I figured it was worth a shot.
32 days ago I stopped drinking Yogi Kava Tea. Prior to that I was drinking it multiple times a day, using 2 or 3 tea bags per tea. I realize that’s kind of a lot.
When I first stopped drinking it, I was experiencing hallucinations, cold sweating, racing thoughts, and loud ringing in my ears, for about 2-3 days. It’s become more mild over time, but after 32 days it’s still not over. I’ve spent hours and hours searching online for information and there’s not a lot, but here’s my best guess as to what’s going on:

I think it’s absorbed in to my fat/tissues and gradually making its way to my blood stream, at which point, anything I eat kicks it up several dozen notches. Dairy, fried food, nuts, and vinegar seem to be the worst offenders. I alternate between exhausted, and unnaturally awake/over energized, based on what I ate. Some things, for example bananas, are ok sometimes and other times cause a reaction.
After 32 days, there are still never times where I can’t feel it.
I am on no other medication, I have no diagnosed mental health conditions, and I’ve been back to the doctor 6 times for testing, they’ve found nothing besides a decreased white blood cell count, which actually does show up twice under Yogi Kava Tea on the FDA reports.
I know there’s not a good chance anyone will have any answers, but I’m a bit desperate at this point and I thought posting here seemed worth a try.
thank you for reading

 

[Kalm with Kava]

Hi,

Yogi Tea famously has almost no kava in it. It might say it has kava on the front label, but it's miniscule in comparison to actual kava powder, of which most people consume hundreds if not thousands of times more in a single night than is in a bag of Yogi tea. I would look to a different compound in Yogi tea to find out what's really going on, because I highly doubt it's kava.

All the best,
Morgan

 

[The Kap'n]

Echoing Morgan here, Yogi has very little kavalactones at all, and these are not things we see with the consumption of kava.

Kava isn't taken up in fat and stored like THC is, so whatever is affecting you this far along most certainly is not anything related to kava.

 

[Ihavequestions]

Hi,

Yogi Tea famously has almost no kava in it. It might say it has kava on the front label, but it's miniscule in comparison to actual kava powder, of which most people consume hundreds if not thousands of times more in a single night than is in a bag of Yogi tea. I would look to a different compound in Yogi tea to find out what's really going on, because I highly doubt it's kava.

All the best,
Morgan

I guess that’s possible that it’s something else in the tea that’s unlisted, the part that’s throwing me off is the intense drug high style food reactions, the only reference to that I could find anywhere about anything is in relation to kava.

 

[Ihavequestions]

Kava isn't taken up in fat and stored like THC is, so whatever is affecting you this far along most certainly is not anything related to kava.

Isn’t kava fat soluble?

 

[The Kap'n]

Isn’t kava fat soluble?

Kavalactones are lipophilic. Quite a number of substances are, however that doesn’t mean they’re distributed directly and stored in adipose fat tissues.

 

[Ihavequestions]

Kavalactones are lipophilic. Quite a number of substances are, however that doesn’t mean they’re distributed directly and stored in adipose fat tissues.

I don’t know a lot about this and I’m desperate for information so I really appreciate you taking the time to answer me.
Does that mean even a low quality extract like the type they use in this tea wouldn’t store in fat tissues?

 

[Michael Nielsen]

Have you been in touch with their customers service?

 

[The Kap'n]

Does that mean even a low quality extract like the type they use in this tea wouldn’t store in fat tissues?

Correct, however it should also be kept in mind that this is a poly-botanical product. The "proprietary blend of herbs" is over 2 grams worth of other herbs you should also question. Be that as it may, none of these listed would cause any constituent to persist in your system for over 4-5 days. It could be something like the licorice that caused your ear ringing effects, due to its ability to modulate blood pressure.

​

Kava isn't your culprit here. Kavalactones are rapidly metabolized and excreted from the body. "Low quality" extracts would be those that were weaker than advertised, and hence would be less kavalactones.

If you want to read some more information regarding THC's pharmacokinetics, see the following study:

Grotenhermen, Franjo. 2003. “Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Cannabinoids.” Clinical Pharmacokinetics 42 (4): 327–60. https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.2165/00003088-200342040-00003

 

[kavakarma]

It sounds like a coincidence, to me, because even if you imbalanced yourself i.e. circadian rhythym, natural flow of energy, and gut bacteria balance, I feel the impacts should cease and your body should feel restored in much less time than thirty days. We are built to heal, healing does not need conscious participation. Another possibility I don't think is the case is the kava suppressed something you had going on within you and you let it release by stopping. I honestly feel it is a coincidence and you are on the right track by being aware and documenting and reaching out to others about what you consumed and whether it might be the causs of your ailment. Sadly, I don't think it is, and without totally forgetting or dismissing your idea, you may wish to consider what else could be the culprit of such feelings. The one that really convinced me was "hallucinations". Before I started drinking dry root kava I drank Yogi Stress Relief tea for a couple years, in quantities higher than what you describe. The only answer I can think of is possibly you have a large amount of caffeine in your diet? Even the yogi kava tea doesn't play well with high doses of caffeine. Here is an email I received after inquiring about the nobility of their kava extract. The request they couldn't accomidate was the chemotype of the kava used to make the extract:

"At Yogi, we use a very pure and standardized Kava Root Extract. This extract comes only from the root of the plant and is not derived at all from the stems or leaves. Although we are unable to accommodate your request, we can confirm that the Kava botanical species used in our tea is Piper methysticum, and we perform routine confirmatory testing on botanical identity for each lot of material received before use."

Some other information, unrelated to kava, dairy and fried food are high in cholesterol, while nuts are considered healthy. I don't eat a whole lot of vinegar because it is acidic though small amounts can be healthy. In my honest opinion , vinegar is more of a preservative than a food, due to its low Ph level. I'm not sure what is going on for you and I hope my information helps you. I know I am not supporting the idea that it is the tea bags which caussd this, although I am open minded to the possibility. Thank you for sharing. If you are ever feeling really poor in health, take your temperature with a thermometer that only you use and sterilize it after. Do not drink any water, or eat any food for ten to fifteen minutes before doing this. After you find a stable or high/low (for you) body temp, sit comfortably with straight-back and open diaphragm posture and take some deep breaths to make sure your oxygen capacity is full potential and you have no mucous in your lungs. Not everybody has O2 sensors and blood pressure monitors at home, so listening to your body works just as well. Check to make sure your fingernails look healthy (white spots are a sign of oxygen deficit or sleep deprivation). The temperature and breathing are first two things I check if I feel unwell physically. Giving yourself a clean bill of health in those two areas can take a lot of stress off your mind.

 

[Ihavequestions]

Thank you for this. I emailed Yogi to see if they had any insight on this situation, I doubt they will but we’ll see. I’ve considered your thought too, that it was masking something else. So far after many rounds of testing the doctors haven’t turned up anything, but I’m gonna keep going in that direction too.

 

[kavakarma]

Thank you for replying. How are you feeling today? Have you ever tried kava brewed from fresh-dry or fresh-green root to see if you have a positive or negative reaction to that?

 

[Ihavequestions]

Thank you for replying. How are you feeling today? Have you ever tried kava brewed from fresh-dry or fresh-green root to see if you have a positive or negative reaction to that?

My husband suggested that also but as of right now I’m not a huge fan of the idea, just because I’m afraid of it making things worse, but I do see the merit. I’m still thinking the tea is the likely culprit, there’s not a lot of other options despite tons of tests and searching. All of the symptoms line up with things I’ve seen people say they experience with Kava, but for them it’s just right after they drank it. I don’t really know how to make sense of it but I’m trying. I’ve spent a ton of time reading everything I could find, this forum, Reddit, scientific studies I’m not qualified to understand, I’ve spoken to the directors of the VERY few drug rehabs that claim to handle Kava addiction. One of them said “it’s impossible to say how long it will take, I’ve seen everything from a few days to several weeks. It depends on weight, how much you were drinking, your physiology.”
I bought the Yogi tea specifically because it had so little kava in it, and if I wasn’t experiencing this myself I probably wouldn’t believe it either. When I said “hallucinations” that’s not a great way of explaining it, it’s more like changes in the way I’m perceiving things. Like visual distortions. That element has decreased over time. Granted, I didn’t experience any of this when I was actually drinking the tea, it was always very mild. I did find a short list of Kava related entries on a scientific report on Sciencedirect.com that says Kava dissolves in to tissues, and the stuff I’m experiencing perfectly mirrors one of the Yogi Tea FDA reports on Kava related hospitalizations, minus liver failure, down to the height weight and age of the patient. I think I might just be the one in a million with the perfectly wrong physiology, I also wonder if it had something to do with the way I was preparing it.
Im still open to the idea that it’s something else. Next on the schedule is a CT scan.
I really appreciate that the replies on here are so kind. Part of my motivation to post it was because it was so hard for me to find information, and this forum comes up on Google searches, if anyone else is ever in a similar situation I wanted them to be able to find it.

 

[The Kap'n]

My husband suggested that also but as of right now I’m not a huge fan of the idea, just because I’m afraid of it making things worse, but I do see the merit. I’m still thinking the tea is the likely culprit, there’s not a lot of other options despite tons of tests and searching. All of the symptoms line up with things I’ve seen people say they experience with Kava, but for them it’s just right after they drank it. I don’t really know how to make sense of it but I’m trying. I’ve spent a ton of time reading everything I could find, this forum, Reddit, scientific studies I’m not qualified to understand, I’ve spoken to the directors of the VERY few drug rehabs that claim to handle Kava addiction. One of them said “it’s impossible to say how long it will take, I’ve seen everything from a few days to several weeks. It depends on weight, how much you were drinking, your physiology.”
I bought the Yogi tea specifically because it had so little kava in it, and if I wasn’t experiencing this myself I probably wouldn’t believe it either. When I said “hallucinations” that’s not a great way of explaining it, it’s more like changes in the way I’m perceiving things. Like visual distortions. That element has decreased over time. Granted, I didn’t experience any of this when I was actually drinking the tea, it was always very mild. I did find a short list of Kava related entries on a scientific report on Sciencedirect.com that says Kava dissolves in to tissues, and the stuff I’m experiencing perfectly mirrors one of the Yogi Tea FDA reports on Kava related hospitalizations, minus liver failure, down to the height weight and age of the patient. I think I might just be the one in a million with the perfectly wrong physiology, I also wonder if it had something to do with the way I was preparing it.
Im still open to the idea that it’s something else. Next on the schedule is a CT scan.
I really appreciate that the replies on here are so kind. Part of my motivation to post it was because it was so hard for me to find information, and this forum comes up on Google searches, if anyone else is ever in a similar situation I wanted them to be able to find it.

I'm pretty familiar with the adverse reports.

Is this the one you're speaking of?

2018-CFS-011550

9/18/2018

7/28/2018

SUSPECT

YOGI KAVA STRESS RELIEF

31

year(s)

F

DYSPNOEA, PHARYNGEAL OEDEMA, ABDOMINAL DISTENSION, ERYTHEMA, SWELLING FACE, GASTROINTESTINAL PAIN, FOOD ALLERGY, HYPERSENSITIVITY

Life Threatening, Hospitalization, Patient Visited ER,

 

[Ihavequestions]

I'm pretty familiar with the adverse reports.

Is this the one you're speaking of?

2018-CFS-011550

9/18/2018

7/28/2018

SUSPECT

YOGI KAVA STRESS RELIEF

31

year(s)

F

DYSPNOEA, PHARYNGEAL OEDEMA, ABDOMINAL DISTENSION, ERYTHEMA, SWELLING FACE, GASTROINTESTINAL PAIN, FOOD ALLERGY, HYPERSENSITIVITY

Life Threatening, Hospitalization, Patient Visited ER,

Yes. With that and a few news articles and reports I found I wish there was a way I could speak to people involved.

 

[ThePiper]

All of the symptoms line up with things I’ve seen people say they experience with Kava, but for them it’s just right after they drank it.

a little ear ringing occasionally while drinking kava, but I’ve not heard of the other effects.


I’ve spoken to the directors of the VERY few drug rehabs that claim to handle Kava addiction. One of them said “it’s impossible to say how long it will take, I’ve seen everything from a few days to several weeks. It depends on weight, how much you were drinking, your physiology.”

Kava hasn’t been found to be addictive in any scientific way. People might find it to be habit forming in the way fast food or candy is, but it’s not going to cause a neurochemical withdrawal.

 

[Slipperwood]

Kapmcrunk has a good point about licorice which could also be causing hypokalemia (test for low potassium maybe?). I think another likely culprit is drinking large amounts of a concentrated liquid "cinnamon" infusion. Yogi probably uses cheaper bulk cassia/Cinnamomum species with exceptionally high amounts of coumarin and eugenol [which is also found in significant amounts in cloves and tulsi] that can cause hypoglycemia and even liver damage over time which may possibly explain some of your symptoms like the visual and cognitive distortions, cold sweats, tinnitus, low white blood cell count and intolerance of fatty foods <can affect long-term insulin levels & liver> and vinegar <mainly insulin levels>. I assume you've gotten your liver, kidneys, pancreas and blood sugar levels checked so if none of them are in the danger zone then just follow a mildly restrictive hepatitis diet with plenty of high-potassium foods (you mentioned bananas seemed ok sometimes, but be wary of ingesting too many simple sugars all at once, even from fruits) and small amounts of whole grains eaten frequently to bring blood sugar back up to a healthier baseline in a slow and sustainable manner [don't forget to still eat some unsaturated fats and omega fatty acids too for optimal vitamin absorption] for a while just to be safe. If it is some kind of brief bout with licorice or cinnamon/cassia toxicity the body should heal itself in time provided your doctors don't find anything further. Hope you feel better soon, aloha

 

[Ihavequestions]

Just a little update-
If you can think of it, I’ve been tested for it. Liver failure, intestinal tumors, parasites, thyroid diseases, and so on and so on and so on. There’s no other culprits so far.
day 40, things are slowly improving though there’s still ups and downs.
I have a new thought, though: I’m not working right now because of this, but I’m a recreational scuba instructor, diving 10 times per week, frequently deeper than 100 ft. I know pressure and nitrogen effects the function and performance of medications, I’m wondering if I wasn’t just drinking a shitload of a cheap tea with ultimately unknown ingredients, and then potentiating it at depth over and over, and when I suddenly stopped drinking it my system revolted. At this point I’ve spoken to several people who had withdrawal from Kava, and it comes up now and then here and on Reddit, but people are usually told it’s something else. There’s a good shot it isn’t, and there’s something happening with certain people physiologically. I also think it’s probably rare like in my case, that someone takes nothing else- no other medications, no drugs, no alcohol, nothing else to point the finger at.
Regardless, this is a thing that happened, who knows why, I’ll probably never really know. But I really appreciate the responses you guys gave me, thanks for your time and consideration, it was really helpful.

 

[Slipperwood]

I don't think anybody here is trying to definitively say that kava cannot be a cause, we just agree with you that it's pretty unlikely, especially given that you don't have liver failure (which is not the same as liver damage or even milder inflammation which may not necessarily raise any red flags).

From what is currently known about any possible evidence of users developing kava dependence, it doesn't sound like you have withdrawal symptoms but instead some kind of bad reaction to something in Yogi's herbal mixture, whether that be the kava or not. However, since you informed us that you were drinking so much cinnamon and licorice while also diving frequently, I don't think temporary bouts of exercise-induced hypoglycemia as well as dealing with exercise recovery during chronic hypokalemia are out of the question <and they can cause psychological symptoms too, some quite distressing to be sure>, even if your blood sugar and potassium levels happened to recover enough in time for your blood tests [not to mention the constantly changing differences between blood sugar and interstitial fluid sugar levels, as well as intracellular and extracellular potassium levels which a blood test may not be able to properly account for].

Either way, if you don't feel like it's getting worse just keep on occasionally monitoring with your physicians and stay away from Yogi's entire line for a while. I should warn you that if you don't feel like you're getting better soon enough, many spices and herbs as well as much of fresh produce can also have varying amounts of coumarin and eugenol, and while they shouldn't impact your health too much that could explain why you might not feel immediate improvement from any pre-existing toxicities even after cessation of the Yogi tea. Just give it time, aloha

 

[xTIANRUIx]

I just went through alcohol withdrawal for 16 months, it most definitely sounds like withdrawal symptoms. Give your mind and body time to heal. I was having the same issues with food as well when I got sober from alcohol. Everything in moderation my friend. I hope you get better.