Kava

I now am hooked on kava. it's great for chilling out. personally can't do weed anymore especially edibles. My heart starts racing and I have extremely fast thoughts it ends up being misery because I get caught in loops. I do not understand how people find weed to be relaxing kava just feels really good it hits your GABA-A receptors just like alcohol and benzos also does sodium and calcium channel modulation like gabapentin. lastly mild dopamine reuptake personally, i like it more than alcohol because with alcohol you have nasty aldehyde effects it tastes like complete ass though and I've eaten ass

Assuming you had it in tea form OP. I suggest adding caramel creamer. I'd also as a precaution against renal effects take it with GlyNAC or silymarin (milk thistle extract). I never seemed to be effected by kava tea. I wonder why this is. I even outright ate the contents of the packet after brewing once and felt no different. Are some people just not effected by kava or is a lot of kava poor quality?

>>18426 if you're steeping the kava in hot water like tea, you didn't prepare it correctly you need to use warm not hot water, a strainer bag, and then you need to knead the kava for at least 10 minutes if you use hot water you'll destroy all the kava compounds. adding a little coconut milk helps too. some fat helps absorption.

Kava can be really good to just...nothing but a numb mouth. I used to brew it incorrectly with a metal strainer (don't do this lol) and had bomb ass effects but yeah it has a weird tolerance curve with me. Usually the first dose after a long break is the soykaf and can last hours. Also has maob inhibition which may explain the stim effects it can sometimes give me, I could talk your ear off after a good serving. Pure euphoria in the mind and body and o often don't feel it fully untill I lay down with covers over me I doubt it's all that bad for you if you are already healthy but yeah if you drink alcohol, take apap meds or have any kind of organ issue I wouldn't fuarrrk with it at all as it does mess with enzymes. I take nac on a weekly basis but do have a bag milk thistle stuff i bought years back. Question about milk thistle for the first poster, I hear it can potentiate certain substances so I always avoided it, but is there anything in particular it can seriously mess with? Like dxm or opiates for example

>>18425 been enjoying kava lately, several dif strains, looking for best prep recipe.

>>18439 Currently consuming kava, found out about it back in like 2012 so it's been a while. I've made chocolate with it, I've steeped an aqueous extract (tea) and added a bit of coconut oil / water, I've chewed the root, eaten the powder. All have different effects but quite honestly these days I just put the powder in my mouth, saliva, chew it for a while, eventually wash it down with water. I don't prep it. One thing I've done quite rarely is ethanolic extracts. If you just swallow the powder and don't strain it, it can cause something resembling constipation (loosely), after several days of this. Never gotten nausea etc though.

>>18429 what enzymes does it mess with? i been researching it a bit recently and heard that the liver issues with kava happen only when people used some extract which was not made properly and used areal parts of the plants which are known to be toxic. also have heard good things about milk thistle...maybe i should start taking that...

>>18445 >what enzymes does it mess with? it messes with enzymes that break down drugs like dph and apap my message was not to fret if you are already healthy but if you have *any* kind of issue be it kidneys, be it stomach to take a bit of caution.

>>18446 Reports of liver damage were probably overstated because kava could cut into the benzo and SSRI markets. >>18445 If I recall it's similar to grapefruit, inhibiting cytochrome p450. It's a mild MAOI, iirc diminishing MAO-B primarily. Kavalactones act on GABA and cannabinoid receptors, and due to an effect on dopamine turnover, will gradually increase norepinephrine in the frontal lobes. I feel like there's some vague overlap with the effects of phenibut, comparatively.

>>18467 alcohol use and kava was the study i remember seeing the liver damage scares about. still, anything is possible... but i never thought about kava giving pharms a run for their money really. i also thought Gaboxadol could out do a lot of sedatives but no one talks about it

>>18468 One of the best mixes to decrystalize the mind I ever experienced was a night of drinking potato vodka and kava. Set out when the sun came up and it was incredible. Liver compromise would probably only occur with heavy drinking, other drugs, or chronic heavy use.

ive been making my kava lately by shaking it up in a jar for a while and then straining it and wringing it out through a kava bag, but im starting to think that it seems like kava really needs to be suspended in the solution much more so than it is to be dissolved in it, regardless of using fats (ive tried using lechithin, olive oil, milk, and almond milk over the years). Thus the stated importance of kneeding the kava in a bowl to get the actual micronized root particles separated from the larger chunks. I have noticed that in 15 years of using kava on and off that the strongest times ive ever had it was definitely when it was unstained micronized or when i drank a massive amount of shells in a short period. Ive heard it said from a reliable source that a proper dose is 25-40g. Gonna make mix up 40g tonight and let it sit till tomorrow night, and then kneed it for a few minutes before i strain and drink it and will see how strong it is. 90% of all my kava experiences have been mild-medium but 10% of them have been powerful.

>>18469 i have heard of polynesians drinking loads of booze and kava at the same time, they must be made for it. i could imagine a good efect if done carefully or done in good meaning but i wouldnt. i mean you wouldnt feel any "damage" but i cant help but think its unnecessary.

>>18477 kneeding the regular grind through a nylon stocking/pantyhose is the best method ive tried so far, feel the effects at much lower dosages that way.

>>18480 It's not a big deal. I've eaten ounce after ounce of kava for prolonged periods, at one time this was while drinking as well. Tons of cacao, kava, caffeine of various sorts, and vodka. My skin never became jaundiced or discolored, no other indications of metabolic disruption or liver damage. It's way overhyped. People drink and down benzos left and right but OH NO, KAVA WILL KILL YOUR LIVER.... maybe.... kinda.... in one media report.... a few papers suggest, in some cases.... maybe... ... ... It's always the same soykaf. Your mindset is entirely correct though imo, drugs should be used for a purpose, for some sort of overarching intention, and the functional augmentation they induce should be ina ccordance with the will. Not mindless consumption.

Just got a new bag of the last strain from my vendor I still have not tried. threw in a fresh kava bag (my other one is 10 years old and has a small home in it) and a traditional coconut shell to drink it out of. Probably gonna try a medium dose of it for tonight before I jar up the rest. I like to keep all my plants in jars instead of bags when I can since some of them sit around for quite a long time prior to use. BULA

The best is a combination of kava and cacao blended together in some sort of oat/nut milk. Have yet to find a better recipe.

>>18809 Sounds like a good way to go but why non dairy milk?

>>18813 Just a personal choice. You can use dairy milk too. Just had a nice dose of the above recipe myself.

Just got a new bag of Samoan kava and had 7g of some blended with cacao in a heavy splash of vanilla oat milk. After wasting a ton of money I really feel like filtering it is a huge waste of money. Either get micronized or blend up the regular kind and chug it down whole. Also ive been noticing that kava kinda like kratom is not really the greatest to do in high doses, low to medium dosages are ultimately better I think. I have also found it barely works if not taken on an empty stomach but on an empty stomach always works and it hits pretty quick.

>>18955 Yea. To begin with any kava except a few really kicked my ass like drinking a beer fast and a bong hit. Now it need to really squeeze everything out. How much water is *really* important to use? I normally got better results with using less and less each knead. And how much milk ? Thinking of using iced coffee

>>18957 Keep using water till you can not wash out any more particles to not waste as much. When you use the water kneeding method you do not add in any milk. I really think the kneeding method is only good for super potent and or fresh kava, cause its only about half as strong as making it unfiltered, if even that.

Anyone have good information on kava addiction/withdrawal? A lot of people say it does not cause addiction or withdrawal but a lot of people say it does when used regularly. I got hooked on kratom well over a decade ago cause at the time most people were saying it was not addictive and did not cause withdrawal. Been using kava in 1-4 servings a day recently and want to be careful.

>>18959 I can't use kava everyday. It doesn't have any effect. I have to wait about a week.

Been continuing to research and experiment with kava pretty extensively recently, and in the course of this have determined a few important things: 1. Kava plants are being harvested earlier than ever recently due to it becoming more popular, and thus potency of kava in circulation is at an all time low. I have been using kava on and off for 17 years and 10 or more years ago it was common to get strains that were 8-12% kavalactones, now it seems its very difficult to find any strains above 7%. 2. Straining the root from a brew is extremely wasteful, it is much better to blend the kava up with your liquid of choice (I find oat milk to be preferable as kava is fat soluble and the flavor of oat milk works well with it). 3. To really notice the effect the kava must be taken on a completely empty stomach. It seems it needs to come into direct contact with all the insides of your digestive tract to the maximum degree in order to really work. 4. Keep the amount of liquid you use to blend the kava to an absolute minimum. 5. Base your dosage on the amount of kavalactone content in the kava, not on the amount of grams/spoons of the root. You need at least .5-1g total kavalactones to really get a proper effect. 6. Drink the drink down all in one shot. Just had 12g of 6.2% fijian waka blended with 5 cacao and a packet of stevia. BULA!