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There has been a concerted
effort on the part of pharmaceutical companies to lead
the public to believe that the consumption of kava
may lead to liver damage. But, it has backfired on
them, as a record number of scientists came to Kava's
defense and proved those claims to be false.
See our article called "Kava
in a Nutshell" for a broad overview of the
curious and tragic story of Kava around the world.
Anyway, this claim led to many
countries banning kava, or even in Germany, where the
false study was conducted, which resulted in Kava being
outright outlawed.
This study frustrated us to no end, but we did not idly
by; we, with the herbal supplement industry, launched
our own counterattack on the kava liver damage claims.
We are happy to report that Germany is repealed its ban
in July of 2006. There was immense pressure to have them
retract the reports about liver damage, especially since
numerous counter studies have been released that
directly conflicts with their position. Canada, as
well, although they have not lifted their ban on Kava
completely, have lifted any restrictions on the
importation of Kava into Canada for any private
individuals. (In other words, any person can order
Kava, as long as they are doing it for personal
consumption and not to re-sell in a store or Kava Bar.
It is important to note that the study was sponsored by
a pharmaceutical company, and that the study was
conducted using extraordinarily large amounts of kava.
Furthermore, the kava that was used, was kava from the
entire plant, and not just the root, which is the only
part of the plant that is traditionally consumed.
Finally, the people involved in the study were heavy
drinkers, and it is far more likely that the alcohol was
responsible for the liver damage rather than the kava.
Kava has been used safely for thousands of years in
Hawaii, yet somehow a single study was conducted using
parts of the plants our people never use, with patients
who had long histories of alcohol abuse. Kava was
prescribed in Germany instead of
Prozac, and we
speculate that it was cutting into the profits of the
pharmaceutical companies, so they decided to get a lot
of bad press for this plant. |
