Kratom: Uses, Dosage, Side Effects, Warnings

Be sure to follow relevant directions on product labels and consult your pharmacist or physician or other healthcare professional before using. As a medicine, kratom is used for anxiety, cough, depression, diabetes, diarrhea, high blood pressure, pain, to improve sexual performance, and to lessen symptoms of opiate withdrawal. Before consuming Kratom or any other supplement, it is strongly advised that you consult with a qualified healthcare professional. Kratom is a potent substance and its use should be approached with caution. The individual effects can greatly vary based on a multitude of factors, including personal health, tolerance, and other individual differences. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it due to something you’ve read on this website.

Addressing Pain and Opioid Withdrawal

Contamination in herbal supplements like kratom includes excess traces of heavy metals and bacteria. The FDA has issued numerous warnings about kratom contamination, including on the risk of developing heavy metal toxicity and exposure to contamination from salmonella. Some research, including a recently completed FDA Single Ascending Dose trial, suggests that taking kratom in reasonable doses may do little harm in the short term, says McCurdy, whose team partnered on the research. But the research included only a single dose, and the possible consequences of long-term use aren’t well known. Although no randomized, controlled trials prove its merit for addiction treatment, White says many people argue that using kratom helps keep them from more dangerous illicit opioids. At high doses, it can make you sleepy or put you in a dreamlike state.

Prescription Drug Abuse: Know The Warning Signs

Kratom isn’t included in the United States federal list of controlled substances, although the DEA considers it a “drug of concern.” This means it’s on their watch list but not officially banned or regulated. If it becomes clear the herb is leading to issues with overdoses or addiction, they’ll likely step in to https://soberhome.net/alcohol-withdrawal-symptoms-dont-underestimate/ ban it nationwide. So far, we know that mitragynine — one of the active ingredients in kratom — demonstrates very little toxicity, even in large doses. Researchers have reported no lethal effects in rats administered very high doses (1000 mg/kg) of kratom leaf or 806 mg/kg of pure mitragynine (taken orally) [5].

How are withdrawal and substance use disorder symptoms related to kratom use treated?

Early studies suggest that doses below 5 grams of raw plant material may act as a stimulant, similar to caffeine. Higher doses between about 5 and 15 grams may have the opposite effect and may help relieve pain. They misuse it as a way to relax, calm anxiety, treat depression, or self-treat pain. Lenore Cangeloso is a board-certified acupuncturist and herbal medicine practitioner based in Oregon.

Some people use it to help ease the withdrawal symptoms of morphine and ethanol. Dosing was proximally motivated by wanting to feel good across clusters (especially in high-use cluster A), but rarely by wanting to feel high. Nonetheless, a frequent proximal motivation (especially in cluster A) was to avoid kratom withdrawal or stop kratom craving.

1. On the other hand, taking it in low doses (1-5 grams) may act as a stimulant, raising your heart rate, energy, alertness, and mood.
2. For many measures, the kratom-use clusters were similar to each other, with some clear exceptions (mostly in cluster E, who had the least frequent use) as discussed in the Results.
3. Thus, a fundamental limitation is that our intensive longitudinal design did not assess within-person change on the timescale of a traditional longitudinal design.
4. More than 20 alkaloids in kratom have been identified in the laboratory, including those responsible for the majority of the pain-relieving action, the indole alkaloid mitragynine, structurally related to yohimbine.
5. The complexity and consequences of opioid dependency have propelled individuals to seek less potent and potentially less addictive forms of relief.

However, the American Kratom Association has established a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Standards Program to self-regulate the industry for the safety of consumers. Media representation of kratom has often been sensationalized, sometimes focusing disproportionally on potential risks without acknowledging possible benefits. This can lead to misinformation and a stigmatized view of kratom use.

However, « the FDA continues to warn consumers not to use kratom because of the risk of serious adverse events, including liver toxicity, seizures, and substance use disorder, » the agency said. Kratom is an herbal supplement derived from the dried leaves of a tropical evergreen tree ecstasy mdma or molly in the coffee family. A chemical called mitragynine, found in kratom, tweaks some of the same brain receptors that respond to opioids. Despite efforts by organizations like the AKA, the lack of FDA oversight continues to raise concerns about the standardization of kratom products.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and NIDA support and conduct research to measure and better understand the short- and long-term safety risks of kratom use and inform policy around kratom regulation. The effects of injecting pure kratom alkaloids are rarely positive — often leading to severe side effects and discomfort, such as the kratom wobble. It’s technically possible to inject kratom, which is a common method of administering the herb to mice in medical research — however, it’s not practical in real-life applications. The European Kratom Alliance (EKA) — similar to the AKA — advocates for kratom legalization and regulation throughout Europe and promotes safe kratom use. Contact them if you’d like to be proactive in making positive changes. Different European countries have a big difference in opinion on the kratom plant.

It’s also a popular aphrodisiac — increasing sexual arousal and improving erectile function. Some people find kratom’s sexual effects begin to taper off with higher doses. Though kratom addiction isn’t as urgent as opioids, there have been cases where people addicted to kratom started showing psychosis symptoms such as hallucinations, delusion, and confusion. Participants reported darkened facial skin, dry mouth, frequent urination, weight loss, and frequent constipation. Kratom can make you feel “high” or euphoric, similar to the effects of opioids or THC in marijuana when taken in high doses.

Many of the problems linked to pain medicines happen when people take them at high doses or for a long time. Poison control centers in the United States received more than 3,400 reports about use of kratom from 2014 through 2019. Side effects reported included high blood pressure, confusion and seizures. But kratom hasn’t been shown to be safe or to treat any medical conditions. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned people not to use kratom because of possible harm it can cause. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration calls kratom a drug of concern.

The problem is that kratom interacts dangerously with some of these substances. It’s not safe to combine or replace your medication https://sober-house.net/antagonist-definition-usage-examples/ with kratom unless you talk to your doctor first. In the UK, kratom remains illegal under the Psychoactive Substances Act.