Posted by bleauberry on June 1, 2008, at 20:16:16
In reply to Re: Kava Kava health concerns truth, posted by nolvas on June 1, 2008, at 7:52:12
I studied up on this topic about a year ago. I do not have at my fingertips everything I gathered. But generally the outcome was something like this:
Kava kava could not be directly blamed for liver toxicity in most of the cases. There were other confounding factors in most all of them.
The number of people who had problems compared to the number who use Kava regularly is a tiny fraction. Far higher percentages of people experience liver probs with common things like Cymbalta, Depakote, etc etc.
Native islanders who use kava regularly have a near zero history of any complications, other than the leopard skin thing with high dose chronic longterm use.
The very same beaurocrats that turn a blind eye to the complications of many FDA drugs are the same ones that go ballistic over just a hint of risk in some natural product.
With all the above in mind, I have no doubt that at least a handful of people in the entire world may indeed have gotten some liver thing from kava. Or aspirin. Or an antibiotic. Or st johns wort. Or oregano. Orjust about anything. You know, you can dramatically change the way the liver operates by drinking too much grapefruit juice. The numbers with FDA meds are probably multitudes higher. IMO.
poster:bleauberry
thread:832326
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20080326/msgs/832416.html