Learn More About Kratom
What is kratom?
So what is Kratom? Kratom is a safe herbal supplement used by millions of Americans to manage pain, or as an alternative to coffee to help their mood and focus.
Natural kratom comes from a tropical tree in the coffee family native to Southeast Asia and has been used for centuries in traditional medicines. Kratom has been safely used for decades here in the United States, and is becoming increasingly popular because of what it is, and what it isn’t.
Kratom is not a drug, not an opiate, and not a synthetic substance. Natural Kratom is a safe herbal supplement that is used by millions for pain management or an energy boost. Despite coming under attack by the FDA because it’s not a prescription drug, many Americans are turning to kratom to help them eliminate chronic pain, a drug dependency, or as an energy boost. They say kratom gives them relief from constant pain, and many say it saved their lives. That’s why more and more Americans are benefiting from it daily. See if kratom could help you or someone you know.
How has kratom been unfairly
criticized?
The FDA has unfairly demonized kratom since 2009, and filled the information pipeline with inaccurate, distorted, and, in some cases, completely false information.
The FDA claims kratom is an opioid with the same opioid effects. That is completely untrue. Kratom’s alkaloids are what are known as partial agonists, which means they do hit the same mu-opioid receptors in the brain as actual opioids, but kratom does not suppress the respiratory system which is the primary cause of overdoses. The pharmacology of kratom’s alkaloids is vastly different than opioids.
The FDA claims kratom is highly addictive. That is not accurate. While some may develop a dependency, the gold standard for assessing the addiction liability of any substance are animal studies. When NIDA saw the inaccurate death data promoted by the FDA, they conducted to independent animal studies to see if kratom had the requisite addiction liability to support a scheduling recommendation to the Drug Enforcement Administration under the Controlled Substances Act. Both studies concluded there was no significant addiction liability. Of significant interest, both studies also observed the test animals showed a reduction in cravings for the reference drug used in the study, which in this case was heroin.
That explains why NIDA has now funded nearly $15 million in studies on kratom as a potential non-addictive pain option to opioids.