Kratom is a tropical tree found in Southeast Asia. The word
"kratom" is often used to refer to the leaves of this tree, which are used for their medicinal and recreational properties. It can be consumed as a tea or in other forms, and it is known for its stimulating and pain-relieving effects. However, it's important to note that
kratom can also have negative side effects and can be addictive, so it should be used with caution.
Full definition
The FDA is ordering a mandatory recall
of kratom products after a firm refused to do it voluntarily.
But, acting on anecdotal reports of people becoming dependent
on kratom, six states, including Vermont and Indiana, have banned the sale and use of the herb.
One crucial issue that may have prompted the harsh FDA safety warning
about kratom has to do with the ongoing opioid epidemic, which is claiming tens of thousands of lives every year in America.
The recall involves powdered
kratom products that were manufactured, packed and processed by Triangle Pharmanaturals LLC...
You may have never heard of it, but two state lawmakers want to block the sale of a herbal substance
called kratom to minors.
The intriguing health improvements of
kratom leaves incorporate remarkable ability to alleviate pain, boost metabolic process, increase lovemaking energy, enhance the disease fighting capability, and prevent diabetic issues.
What's striking about the FDA's move is that the mandatory
kratom recall order is based on a power the agency gained under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, a major piece of reform legislation signed by former President Barack Obama in 2011.
Advocates
for kratom tend to argue that the FDA is protecting big pharmaceutical interests — or at the very least isn't keeping an open mind — by cracking down on the product.
Under kratom's current legal status, it can't be marketed for therapeutic reasons, and there are no FDA - approved uses for the herbal product.
The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday ordered a mandatory recall of a Las Vegas company's
powdered kratom products, because salmonella was found in the herbal supplement.
By confiscating
kratom as it is being imported, in utter disregard of our laws, the F.D.A. is willfully sabotaging the basic human right of the people to heal themselves through God's natural medicine and our right to trade legal goods.
Those are medically unproven claims that could prove deadly
considering kratom's promotion as an opioid addiction fighting tool in the midst of a painkiller overdose epidemic, the FDA says — and it's been linked to at least 36 deaths the agency knows of.
The
FDA kratom recall is aimed at a company called Triangle Pharmanaturals LLC after some products from the company were found to contain salmonella, according to the agency.
But this is far from the first time the FDA has taken direct aim
at kratom under Gottlieb's tenure.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continued to step up its aggressive stance
against kratom on Tuesday, employing — for the first time — a relatively new power to order mandatory recalls.
As
with kratom, though, there's a glut of anecdotal evidence suggesting marijuana's power to cure everything from pain to anxiety to ulcers — but not many controlled clinical trials to back up the assertions (SN Online: 1/12/17).
While kratom has its fans, its active compounds aren't very potent, says Majumdar.
Plus, the
way kratom is regulated — as a supplement — means that people buying it have no guarantee of what they're actually getting.
Can the
herb kratom help curb the nation's opioid epidemic or make it dramatically worse?
A great alternative to green tea that can also make quite an impact is
kratom tea.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb isn't mincing words
about kratom, the increasingly popular herbal substance that's been hawked as an alternative to painkillers and anti-depressants by companies promoting its ostensible curative properties (and supposedly innate safety as a «natural,» plant - based product).
The molecules could be more potent in actual brain tissue, so these findings may not fully capture the risks
of kratom, she says.
For recreational drug users looking for an opioidlike high without the legal problems of heroin, fentanyl, and oxycodone, the Southeast Asian plant
called kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) has provided an attractive alternative.
Majumdar hopes a DEA ban
on kratom won't happen; it would severely restrict access, making research much harder to do.
«I understand that there's a lot of interest in the possibility
for kratom to be used as a potential therapy for a range of disorders.
That's not to say there aren't any medicinal benefits to
kratom — it just hasn't gotten the scientific scrutiny required for regulatory clearance.
Gottlieb also pointed to the the 10-fold increase in calls to American poison control centers related to
kratom - containing substances between 2010 and 2015.
But despite the hype about
kratom's ability to treat anxiety, pain, and depression, there aren't any clinically validated studies to support those claims.
«We continue to have serious concerns about the safety of
any kratom - containing product and we are pursuing these concerns separately.»
The agency warned last fall that there's little evidence to support
kratom's use as a «natural» pain relief alternative, and in February, it issued a public health advisory saying that kratom compounds — ostensibly meant to replace addictive opioid products — are actually opioid products themselves.
For people who are going through anxiety and depression, one supplement they can take is
kratom.
Some people believe that non-harmful drugs (marijuana,
kratom, etc) are lobbied against by pharmaceutical companies.
A team of researchers shows for the first time that
kratom's primary constituent, mitragynine, and four related alkaloids bind to and partially activate human µ - opioid receptors (MORs), the primary targets of strong opioids in the brain, spinal cord, and gastrointestinal tract.
Further experiments on
the kratom alkaloids showed that when they activate MORs, the receptors turn on pathways independent of a protein called β - arrestin.
Mitragynine can amount to almost two - thirds of the alkaloid extract from
a kratom leaf, adds Andrew C. Kruegel of Columbia, who is the paper's first author.
But just like some of the new opioids that scientists are developing,
kratom's active ingredients appear — anecdotally, at least — to deliver pain relief with fewer problems and less risk of tolerance.
In August 2016, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced that it was cracking down on a supplement called
kratom.
Some chronic opioid users switch to
kratom to wean themselves off of pain pills and ease withdrawal symptoms, says Oliver Grundmann, a medicinal chemist at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
The safety and efficacy of
kratom is still up for debate.
Often used to help people with opioid addiction,
kratom (which can be bought online or in a vending machine) has caused at least 36 deaths because the product is unregulated and being used without instruction.
While health care professionals are interested and hopeful that
kratom can be a productive herbal supplement for those struggling with addiction, they need to know more about it before making any formal recommendations.
All the wellness news you need to know today, including Barbies wearing a hijab, an FDA warning about
kratom, and a new tea bar in NYC.
On November 7th of 2014, the F.D.A. issued an import alert on
kratom, which effectively means that the F.D.A is attempting to seize all of the kratom that enters into the U.S.A. Kratom is not illegal at the federal level, nor is it illegal in the vast majority of states.
When it issued its import alert, the F.D.A. claimed that
kratom is a hallucinogen, which was a lie.