Buddhacide
Kava Enthusiast
I posted this as a response to another post but nobody answered it. Ive always been skeptical about the concept of "reverse tolerance" with regards to kava. I readily admit I do not fully understand it, and may be wrong. However, I'd like to explore the idea and treat it with a bit of skepticism. I would appreciate any non-anecdotal information people could provide to help enable me to understand exactly what is going on when people refer to this. I have googled to no avail. I believe what may be going on is people actually taking greater quantities until an effect is reached, or people learning the subtleties of the experience to the point they actually know whats going on. Also, I appreciate the users experience may differ and some of you swear this exists, but thats not how I'm looking to be convinced. Majorities of people believe in all sorts of things I know to be false because there is better information out there. So no offense to anyone's personal belief or experience but I'd really like to understand the physiology and logic of whats happening. Below are my comments
"I honestly believe its a matter of amount and quality of the kava. I
personally am skeptical of reverse tolerance. I think most people just
dont take enough. I have given strong doses of nambawan and paradise awa
to several people that had never taken kava before and nobody ever
complained it didnt work. I never experienced it either, I just didnt
know what I was looking for until I did an isa that really kicked my
ass. at the time I just found the others crappy by comparison. Now I
have a more refined taste for it, and can appreciate a less intense
experience in its own right. But I dont think my neurochemistry had to
adapt in the way people assume with RT. Kava just didnt seem like it was
worth the effort until I found one that really bludgeoned me.
I
also dont know exactly how a "reverse tolerance" would work
physiologically. Tolerance is when your body stops producing, say a
neurotransmitter, as a ratelimiting factor based on the presence of
exogenous substances. Ie, your body sees there is a lot of extra
serotonin floating around and therefore stops creating its own.
Eventually the brain changes physiologically to accommodate the presence
of the drug (receptors re-regulate etc....) This has the effect of both
making you require the drug to be otherwise normal, and reducing the
amount of efficacy the drug has to attain added effects (the high). Its
been a while since I studied neuroscience, but I dont recall learning
anything that would describe "reverse tolerance".
Edit:
Even in this wiki article it refers to a process much different
(seemingly) than how users here refer to "RT" - the cessation of
unwanted side effects not the outright effects of the drug itself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_tolerance"
"I honestly believe its a matter of amount and quality of the kava. I
personally am skeptical of reverse tolerance. I think most people just
dont take enough. I have given strong doses of nambawan and paradise awa
to several people that had never taken kava before and nobody ever
complained it didnt work. I never experienced it either, I just didnt
know what I was looking for until I did an isa that really kicked my
ass. at the time I just found the others crappy by comparison. Now I
have a more refined taste for it, and can appreciate a less intense
experience in its own right. But I dont think my neurochemistry had to
adapt in the way people assume with RT. Kava just didnt seem like it was
worth the effort until I found one that really bludgeoned me.
I
also dont know exactly how a "reverse tolerance" would work
physiologically. Tolerance is when your body stops producing, say a
neurotransmitter, as a ratelimiting factor based on the presence of
exogenous substances. Ie, your body sees there is a lot of extra
serotonin floating around and therefore stops creating its own.
Eventually the brain changes physiologically to accommodate the presence
of the drug (receptors re-regulate etc....) This has the effect of both
making you require the drug to be otherwise normal, and reducing the
amount of efficacy the drug has to attain added effects (the high). Its
been a while since I studied neuroscience, but I dont recall learning
anything that would describe "reverse tolerance".
Edit:
Even in this wiki article it refers to a process much different
(seemingly) than how users here refer to "RT" - the cessation of
unwanted side effects not the outright effects of the drug itself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_tolerance"