Kava man: athletes are discovering a root for all stress relief

Men's Fitness, March, 1999 by Marilyn DeMartini

It's midnight on Monday, the end of the first day of what promises to be a particularly stressful week, and you've been staring at the ceiling above your bed for the past 30 minutes. Your evening workout, which usually clears your mind and exhausts your body, seems to have done neither. Another hour passes. You have to be up at 5:30, and you're getting desperate. You wonder if you should take something: a glass of warm milk? A shot of tequila? The Vicodin left over from your wisdom-teeth removal?

If you'd prefer something non-dairy, non-fattening and non-addictive with which to greet stressful times, consider kava, an extract from the root of the Piper methysticum pepper plant. Unlike prescription drugs that can leave you sluggish and sedated, kava calms without slowing down your mental faculties. A study published in Phytomedicine detailed a placebo-controlled double-blind trial that administered kava to 29 patients three times a week. The study concluded that kava is effective in reducing states of anxiety, tension and "excitedness of a non-mental origin." Doctors and nutritionists have also recommended kava for treatment of depression, insomnia, caffeine withdrawal and chronic pain.

Kava run

If your schedule limits you to working out in the evenings, kava can be the perfect cool-down after a tough session on the road or in the gym. Though clinical studies have focused mainly on its antidepressant properties, kava has been substituted for common anti-inflammatories such as aspirin and ibuprofen, and it can be especially beneficial for muscular tension. Some runners use the herb before a workout to help loosen up and get into a more relaxed and even breathing pattern.

Athletes are surprisingly susceptible to sleep disorders. While mild exercise is generally not disruptive to sleep, researchers at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa confirmed that the stress generated by intense training can result in increased wakefulness and decreased REM sleep. According to Michael Tierra, author of The Way of Herbs, kava can help produce "deep, restful sleep with clear, epic-length dreams." Mark Blumenthal, executive director of the American Botanical Council, reports that when a hectic schedule cuts into his sleep time, he takes a small amount of a kava tincture that helps him feel rested after only four or five hours of sleep.

Kava can also play a positive role in injury rehab. James Hutton, ND, a naturopathic physician in Sedona, Arizona, recommended kava to an accident victim whose chronic pain hadn't let her sleep for more than two hours at a time for more than three years. After several doses, in conjunction with manipulation therapy, she slept through an entire night and within a week reported feeling relaxed and without pain.

Krakatoa, east of kava

Kava has long been an integral part of religious, social and political traditions in the South Pacific. Ceremony surrounds the process of scraping and grinding the root, mixing the pulp into water, and straining it into a cup to be offered to dignitaries, tribal chiefs and friends as a ritualistic welcome. Queen Elizabeth II, Hillary Rodham Clinton and even Pope John Paul II have imbibed the brew during visits to Hawaii, Fiji and other islands.

Kava is an approved herbal medicine in England; in Germany, it's sold over the counter as a stress reliever. In the United States,kava is considered a dietary supplement, not a drug. Since it is not regulated by the FDA, manufacturers cannot make medical claims about its benefits. While the global consensus is favorable after 3,000 years of benevolent use, the lack of standardization makes it a little tricky to decipher labels.

The strength of kava is relative to the percentage of kavalactones, the active ingredient, and the volume of extract included in the product. "The milligrams of standardized extract or kavalactones are important - 150 to 250 milligrams is recommended," says Yadhu N. Singh, PhD, a faculty member at the College of Pharmacy at South Dakota State University.

Herbal happy hour

Singh, who grew up in Fiji, regularly prepared kava for his father. "Ceremony is important as part of the psychological factor," he says. Singh prefers drinking freshly prepared kava with pieces of the ground root left in a loosely strained brew.

Kava is more conveniently available in capsule, liquid extract or tincture form, but you can still create an enjoyable ritual. Southern California herbalist Carl Rothenberg suggests making a tea of one of the capsules or a dropper of the extract, mixed with one teaspoon of vegetable lecithin, which activates kava's chemical composites. "It'll make your mouth numb like Novocain, and you'll feel very nice," he explains. There's another benefit to this herbal happy hour: no calories, no hangover and no embarrassing behavior to live down the next day.

Still, as with any herb or supplement, there are precautions to heed. More kava is not necessarily better kava, and a person's size, weight and diet affect recommended dosages. It should not be taken consistently for more than three months, except under a doctor's care. Exceeding 1,500 to 3,000 milligrams of the root per day could result in red eyes, skin discoloration and balance problems. (Such symptoms disappear when dosage stops.) Kava should not be mixed with alcohol or any benzodiazepine drugs, such as Xanax or Valium. While it is not a sedative, driving or operating heavy machinery after taking any amount of Kava is discouraged.