I said what I needed to say in order to inform members, should they be considering using kava as a daily anxiolitic, that it's not a magic bullet, and not without risks.
I thought that I made it clear that this was the medical and scientific opinion shared almost wholesale by that community (including Freud, among others) well over a hundred years ago.
To summarize my point of view:
- There are at least 2 double-blind human studies investigating the potential of the active psychoactive compounds (kavalactones) present in kava to induce tolerance/dependence. No such risk was found. These findings must be taken in account when reviewing the effects of non-extract use of kava.
- There is animal evidence of kava having a reverse-tolerance effect on GABA. This evidence is not strong by itself, but when taken in account when looking at all the evidence, it further supports the notion of a low risk of tolerance.
- Kava have been used for thousands of years in the South Pacific, and even though it maybe historically was mainly used occasionally, it have of course been used daily by many people during these years, and the anecdotal evidence is unanimous; no tolerance or dependence have been observed.
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