Experts and authorities on Kava Kava
The most important quotes in one place!
We have collected the most important, interesting and inspiring statements about Kava Kava. Among the contributors, you will find experts from different disciplines and specialisations, such as neuroscience or psychology, but also botanists, travellers or ethnologists. The collection is of course not closed – if you would like to share a contribution that is missing here – feel free to contact us or comment below! Let’s build this collection together!
Kava: nervous system
I’m not aware of many compounds that [like Kava] simultaneously increase GABA and increase dopamine.
Kava: sleep
It’s a natural sedative and calmative and probably the most important anti-anxiety natural product out there, extremely useful and essentially no toxicity. […]
Sleep aids […] are dangerous drugs. First of all they don’t reproduce natural sleep, all of them suppress dreaming, which is essential component of good sleep, they distort sleep architecture, they are addictive and they interfere with cognitive function. […] But Kava has none of these ill effects.
Kava: calm
[Kava] does have some interesting biological activities. has fairly well-documented and known anxiolytic activity — the calming effect. […] It’s kind of like a natural Xanax if you will.
Kava: happiness
Kava kava is […] stimulating natural ‘happiness’ chemicals and suppressing anxiety. […] If Echinacea is the Lemsip of the herbal pharmacopia and St John’s Wort the Prozac,
kava kava is the valium. Stressed workers, insomniacs and the terminally anxious can’t get enough of it.
Kava: insomnia and anxiety
[…] kava has been shown to help people fall asleep faster and provide a higher quality of sleep. For instance, older research found that kava improved sleep in people with anxiety disorders.
PsychCentral, 2021
Kava: anxietY
Kava is an effective and safe treatment of anxiety. Many research studies confirm the anti-anxiety benefits of Kava. […] Kava compares favorably to benzodiazepines (e.g. lorazepam, clonazepam, alprazolam) and other prescription anti-anxiety medications. The findings of a small double-blind controlled trial suggest that generally anxious patients who gradually increase their daily dose of kava (up to 300mg/day of a standardized extract) while tapering off a benzodiazepine do not experience worsening anxiety or benzodiazepine withdrawal (Malsch 2001).
Kava: a drug?
By pharmacological standards, kava is not classified as a drug, as its consumption never leads to addiction or dependence. It has psychoactive properties but is neither an hallucinogenic nor a stupefacient.
Dr Vincent Lebot,
Kava (Piper methysticum Forst. f.): The Polynesian dispersal of an Oceanian plant. In: Cox PA and Banack SA (eds) Islands, Plants, and Polynesians: An Introduction to Polynesian Ethnobotany.
Kava: safety
When prepared properly […] it is “perfectly safe“.
Kava: generalised anxiety disorder
[…] kava can be an effective treatment for Generalised Anxiety Disorder, a condition that can be very disabling. It adds weight to a number of previous studies that had come to the same conclusion.
Dr Nick Haslam,
Professor of Psychology at University of Melbourne
– on study: Kava in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology
Kava: sleep and post traumatic stress disorder
Kava reduces anxiety and it promotes sleep, which are both critical to reducing PTSD.
Kava: pain-kill
Active compounds found in the kava root […] known as kavalactones or kavapyrones, are known to have pain-killing, anti-convulsant, and neuroprotective properties. In human and laboratory studies, these natural components have shown to have anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects
Kava and Queen Elizabeth II
… she was interested in a really big kava bowl and we actually spoke about the fact that she drank kava (a traditional Fijian drink) during a visit to Fiji.
Dr Karen Jacobs
Kava: best message!
One cup, one love, one people!
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