News Flash archive—Kava Controversy

September 2002

Dear patients and readers:

About two or three weeks ago on my radio show “Letters to my Patients” I alerted you to the fact that Kava has been banned from the German market and that England was thinking about doing the same thing because of some apparent liver problems which had possibly been the result of consumption of Kava. I also stated on that show that I had reservations about the accuracy of the claims against Kava because of the fact that so many millions of people have used it over a several hundred year period and only now, when it has become one of the leading products used for anxiety in Europe and the U.S. have these “discoveries” been made public. I expressed an opinion at that time that it is entirely possible that Kava was taking away too much of the market from the prescription medications used for the same purpose and that it would not be out of the realm of possibility that some of the moneyed interests might be trying to discredit Kava’s safety for financial reasons. I also thought, in these cases of liver damage, it was possible that other drugs were being taken at the same time and that Kava might not have been the culprit, but only the scapegoat to get the blame.

I contacted several of my sources for independent information and the following article is what I have so far come up with. I will report more at a later date if and when I can discover further information on this subject.

Dr. Wright

Is Kava safe?--from the Health Sciences Institute