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Kava kava ban to be lifted?
I read recently that the actress Jenny Seagrove was fronting a legal battle in the High Court to get the ban on kava kava lifted. Can you tell us what the controversy is all about and whether it is in fact safe to use this herb to lift your mood?
Kava Kava – or calm and calmer as it should have been known - is an anti-anxiety, mood-lifting herbal agent that was banned in this country in January 2003, following reports in Germany that it had been linked with 29 individual cases of liver toxicity.
What was not reported (other than in this column), at the time, was that in 28 of these 29 cases, users were taking other supplements or medication too. In other words, there was a high risk of interaction between everything they were taking, which is why members of the National Association of Health Stores (NAHS), who have brought this legal action, and other natural health groups, argue that it is not only unscientific, but untrue, to blame the kava kava solely for the liver damage.
Jenny Seagrove has championed the cause of this herb because she used it, successfully, to tackle insomnia. I completely agree that it seems bizarre that a popular Polynesian herb that has been widely and successfully used as a calming agent for hundreds of years around the world, should trigger an adverse (and as yet unproven) reaction only in German users, but since the herb has been banned here, until the High Court makes its ruling as to the legitimacy of the ban, you will have to use alternatives.
The alternative remedy I usually recommend is Lifetime’s Calm and Calmer Anti-Stress, which combines three different agents to help ward off anxiety, reduce stress, and promote, better sleep. Rhodiola is one of my favourite stress-busting herbs and in this formulation it is combined with Relora, an extract from the Magnolia tree, that has been shown in clinical trials to reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol, by 37% in just two weeks. The third agent is threonine, an amino acid, low levels of which have been linked with low mood. Lifetime’s Calm and Calmer costs £19.95 for 60 capsules and is available by mail order from Victoria Health (0800-413596).