Why Do Kava Do More Harm Than Good

Kava: Does Drinking Kava do more Harm than Good?
MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsychINFO, Australasian Medical Index, ATSIHealth, EBM Reviews and EMBase.
Lucie Rychetnik and Christine M. Madronio, who are professors at the University of Sydney, conducted a review on all published empirical studies on the health and social effects of kava consumption via water-based infusion. The results of this review poses great evidence that consumption of kava does more harm than good. The leading author, Lucie Rychetnik, is an expert in the health field having earned her BSc(Hons), PGDip Dietetics, MPH, and PhD degrees, this adds to her credibility in a big way. The method they used was to use the word ‘kava’ as a keyword to find studies published from 1987-2008. The

The leading authors of this article, Dr. Jerome Sarris and Dr. Andrew Scholey are experts in their respective fields having, collectively, over 200 published scholarly journal articles. The main purpose of this experiment was to test neurocognitive, anxiolytic, and thymoleptic effects of a medicinal dose of kava compared to a benzodiazepine such as oxazepam. In this experiment, 22 adults that were diagnosed “moderately anxious” and ranged between ages 18-65 were randomly chosen to receive either an acute dose of kava, oxazepam, or placebo in 1-week intervals in a crossover design trial. The results revealed that in terms of reduction in anxiety, those who took oxazepam experienced a significant reduction in anxiety and also experienced a certain level of calmness, those who took the acute dose of kava experienced no change in anxiety level, and finally those who took the placebo actually experienced heightened levels of anxiety. In terms of cognitive functionality, those who took oxazepam experienced a reduction in alertness whereas those who took the acute dose of kava experienced no such thing. Dr. Sarris and Dr. Scholey aswell as the rest of the team concluded that acute “medicinal level” doses of the kava that was tested on the subjects provided no anxiolytic properties; however, it appears to have no negative effects on cognition. This

Johnson and Steven Foster and backed up by experts such Tieraona Low Dog, M.D. and David Kiefer, M.D. This book was published by National Geographic, it is a book on medicinal herbs. Kava is covered in chapter 1, page 31-33. It is basically an overview of what kava is, its history, some of its health effects, good and bad, and how it is consumed. It is a very good overview, especially for those who are thinking about trying some kava or just want some general knowledge. It good for those who want to find out about kava, but don’t want to go through tens to hundreds of pages of jargon just get an idea of what kava is, as it is written layman’s terms and accompanied by visual aids. It gives some new information on health benefits of drinking kava that is not covered in my previous sources stating that kava helps with restlessness and also with women going through menopause. The book gives information on how to properly and safely consume the kava, as well as giving precaution of potential consequences if the safety protocols are not met. Overall it is a good book for those starting research on kava for academic or personal