A drink with relaxing properties, also available as a food supplement, is associated with side effects ranging from nausea to serious liver damage, potentially fatal.
Very popular in the United States, especially in New York and in certain European countries, a drink, similar to an herbal tea, made from the root of a tropical plant (Kava Piper Methysticum) reduced to powder and mixed with water, would have virtues on anxiety, promoting relaxation and improving mood and the sleep. Her name is “kava” and its anxiolytic and anti-stress effects earned it its nickname “Natural Xanax“. Problem, kava would be associated with side effects ranging from nausea to severe liver damage which could lead to life-threatening fulminant hepatitis or liver failurealert the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the USA. It could be particularly dangerous in people who already have a liver problem, if consumed for a long time (from 8 weeks) or if taken with other medications or alcohol. It can be found on bar menus but also in food supplements. It is also in this second form that kava poses a particular problem because supplements are not as regulated as medications, and their exact dosage and composition are not always known.
Effects that can occur up to 2 years after taking
Already in 2002, the Food and Drug Administration – the US Food and Drug Administration – had issued a warning against the use of kava, reporting 25 cases of liver damage in the United States, Germany and Switzerland including 11 patients who had had to undergo a liver transplant. The Director General of the French Health Products Safety Agency reported in 2003 that 68 cases of liver damage reported internationally in people who have consumed kava products. “Such hepatic complications were observed several weeks after two years after taking kava-based food supplementsthe average duration being 4.5 months“explained Dr. Danielle Belardo, a cardiologist based in Los Angeles, in the media Insider. The products were used in doses ranging from 60 mg to 240 mg per day, specify the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So far, scientists have not found why kava is harmful to the liver. Research suggests this may have with compounds found in kava like pipermethystine or flavokavain B, but this remains to be proven.
Banned in France
In Francekava-based products, in all forms (with the exception of homeopathic medicines at dilutions equal to or greater than 5CH) are banned in Franceaccording to a decision of March 13, 2003 published in the Official Journal, “considering the negative benefit-risk ratio of kava highlighted by the European Pharmacovigilance Group (PhVWP) in November 2001 and taking into account the lack of proof of effectiveness in view of the seriousness of the liver damage caused“.