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Kava's High Safety Record

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Queen Elizabeth II enjoying a ceremonial Kava beverage.


“Kavazen delivers highly selected Kava in a uniquely balanced drink with a fast-acting function to body-relax and mind-focus, quickly washing away stress and promoting peaceful awareness. A functional drink that facilitates integration of an increasingly complex and fragmented reality, by promoting calm and a peaceful mind-body-set.” Pedro Coelho, KavaZen® Founder

“Kava, an herb used ceremonially for centuries in the islands of the South Pacific, has the remarkable ability to promote relaxation without affecting mental sharpness, making it the perfect natural supplement for today's frantic stress-filed lifestyle. Easing anxiety by creating a sense of peacefulness and oneness. Safe, free of side effects, and non-addictive, kava is not only calming, but has been shown to actually enhance perception, awareness, and clarity of thought. Kava works socially as well as individually [..] Throughout the islands of the South Pacific, kava's long history of communal use has served to foster connection, communication and conflict resolution. Clinical experience has shown that it promotes similar effects in modern settings. Kava can also facilitate the paradigm shift from a work ethic and social model of conflict and domination, fear-based and scarcity-driven, to an ethic of shared responsibility and cooperation, based on trust and respect for universal moral values.” Kyla Cass MD and Terrence McNally, in Kava: Nature's Answer to Stress.
 

Kava's High Safety Record


 

Kava Safety Facts (PDF)  PDF Reader  December 2008 Version, with references. 

Using Science to Dispel Herbal Safety Myths, Misconceptions  April 2010

The European Union Lifts Ban On Kava [enacted in 2002]  November 2008

Supplement Industry Review Concludes Kava Is Safe  February 2002

More scholarly references of interest:

Schmidt M. “Is kava really hepatotoxic?” 2007; p. 151. Accessed March 2010: http://www.uni-muenster.de/imperia/md/content/pharmazeutische_biologie/_v/review.pdf.

Schmidt M et al. “Kava: A risk benefit assessment.” In: The Essential Guide to Herbal Safety. 2005; p 115-203. Elsevier, St. Louis, MO.

Gurley BJ et al. “In vivo effects of goldenseal, kava kava, black cohosh, and valerian on human cytochrome P450 1A2, 2D6, 2E1, and 3A4/5 phenotypes.” Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2005;77(5):415-26.

Gurley BJ et al. “Effect of goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) and kava kava (Piper methysticum) supplementation on digoxin pharmacokinetics in humans.” Drug Metab Dispos. 2007;35(2):240-5.

Gurley BJ et al. “Clinical assessment of CYP2D6-mediated herb-drug interactions in humans: Effects of milk thistle, black cohosh, goldenseal, kava kava, St. John's wort, and Echinacea.” Molec Nutr Food Res. 2008;52(7):755.

Sood A et al. “Potential for interactions between dietary supplements and prescription medications.” Am J Med. 2008;121(3):207-211.

Brinker F. “Herb Contraindications and Drug Interactions.” 2001. Eclectic Medical Publications, Sandy, OR.
 

Stress Kills - Wash Away Stress with KavaZen®


Relative Risks of Death Injury in USA by :

For a more complete analysis see the Risk Relative To Legal Dietary Supplements (PDF file)  (click here to get a PDF Reader for your browser), the analysis is by Ron Law, executive director of the New Zealand National Nutritional Foods Association.
 

Letter from New Zealand about Kava Prohibition in UK

From: Ron Law, Beyond Alternative Solutions. 
Director of the New Zealand National Nutritional Foods Association

December 21, 2002 

Subject: Announcement on the prohibition of Kava-Kava in the UK

As an observer from the other side of the planet, the action to ban Kava is an action that will only serve to legitimately outrage proponents of the safe and effective use of complementary healthcare & therapeutic products. 

I was a member of the New Zealand Ministry of Health Sentinel Event working group that advised on the reporting and management of medical injury within the health system. I have also worked for the dietary supplement industry for nearly five years. I'm a clinical biochemist with a masters degree in international business management. I'm a member of the Royal Society of New Zealand and the New Zealand Society for Risk Management. 

I recently presented a paper at the New Zealand Society for Risk Management conference in Wellington New Zealand. Based on a thorough analysis of over 44 government, quasi government, NGO and a few overseas papers and reports (see attached PDF; Get PDF Reader), it is easy to demonstrate using well established evidence that Natural healthcare and therapeutic products, including Kava-Kava, are less risky than being struck by lightning, but slightly riskier than being killed by an errant meteorite. They are some 4-5 orders of magnitude safer than properly regulated pharmaceutical drugs.

The MCA's decision to ban Kava Kava will create a moral hazard by forcing people who use Kava as a relaxant/mild anti depressant to go to their GP with the likelihood that they will be prescribed benzodiazepines. 

This decision, right on the Christmas break, is not rational, not based on a fair and transparent decision-making process, is not evidence based, is not proportionate to risk, and is at odds with the MCA's conclusion that the 7,000+ adverse reaction reports relating to Zyban were only "suspected" [MCA emphasis] and that the 100 or so deaths reported around the world were "unproven" [MCA emphasis.] 

With all due respect, this decision is not commensurate with Good Regulatory Practice, is a scientific anomaly, defies the principle of proportionality and will only add to the rapidly increasing consumer outrage around the globe at the regulatory creep resulting in traditionally safe products been regulated by the same mindset as regulates unsafe pharmaceutical products, yet regulated by much harsher methods. 

The inability of regulators to apply commonsense gives rise to the perception that regulatory agencies are captured more by the interests of large corporate manufacturers than the interests of public health. 

I sincerely hope that there are no empty seats at your Christmas dinner table due to dangerous, freely available, drugs such as Aspirin, Paracetamol, Benzodiazepines, Prozac, Paroxetine and the like. In New Zealand and Australia, over 40,000 deaths have been attributed to properly regulated, properly prescribed, properly labeled and properly used pharmaceutical drugs over the passed decade -- there have been zero deaths attributed to natural healthcare & therapeutic products in New Zealand during that time, and only one death attributed to a natural healthcare & therapeutic product with any degree of certainty in Australia. 

Are you aware that the alleged death associated with Kava use in Australia followed the use of a product that contained a prohibited herb that is known to cause liver failure? Despite Australia's internationally-famous-in-Australia GMP, the manufacturer made a mistake and substituted the herb for another approved herb. TGA have not released the details so that the reporting doctor can have his moment of glory in the medical literature. 

The risks associated with natural healthcare & therapeutic products are about 1/42nd of the accepted de minimis risk of getting a cancer from foods -- and natural healthcare & therapeutic product consumption is a voluntary action; MRL levels of cancer causing food additives are not noted on ingredient labeling therefore consumers have no choice regarding consumption of permitted carcinogens. 

As noted, the MCA decision is a farce, and will only antagonize legitimate consumers and small businesses around the world to ensure that such regulatory nonsense is not only exposed, but eradicated from current regulatory practice. Such decisions in themselves are major public health hazards and are untenable in the modern era. 

The MCA can be assured that those who desperately want to access Kava will -- either via the Internet, or even by growing their own. I'm already aware of interested parties investigating the marketing of micro-extraction packages to enable consumers to steep their own herbs and to concentrate the extract via evaporation under vacuum. As a risk analyst, it seems that the MCA has not considered either the political or the public health ramifications of this ill informed decision. It is another chapter confirming in the minds of many the inappropriateness of regulating proven safe and effective herbal products with a pharmaceutical mindset. 

Please pass this message on to the decision-makers. 

Yours ,  Ron Law ,  
Beyond Alternative Solutions,  
Middle Earth aka New Zealand

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KavaZen is a dietary supplement drink. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. .

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