Daily Facts About Kratom
03/28/24
FACT: It’s against FDA regulations to add or mix kratom with anything that can directly increase its potency, but it is permissible to add potentiators (including citrus fruit, cinnamon, ginger, etc.) that can increase kratom’s bioavailability in the body.
03/27/24
FACT: Kratom that is properly harvested, dried, and packaged can be incredibly shelf stable. Especially when stored in a cool, dry place, kratom can last upwards of a year with minimal impact to freshness and up to two years before there’s a noticeable loss in efficacy.
03/26/24
FACT: Known as bioavailability, there is only a certain amount of mitragynine your body can absorb at one time, especially in terms of concentrated extracts. Most people can’t absorb more mitragynine than a 40-50% concentration, unless potentiators are added to the product.
03/25/24
FACT: While not as common as general dizziness, a small number of users have reported feeling vertigo while taking kratom, especially with higher serving sizes. This is probably not as scary as it sounds, however. The reports are rare and we haven’t come across any in which there was lasting side effects of health complications. Another substance that has been known to cause vertigo? Sugar. Eat too much sugar and the resulting increase in blood sugar and blood pressure can, paradoxically and temporarily, reduce the flow of blood and air to the brain. This, in turn, can lead to vertigo.
03/24/24
FACT: In some cases, kratom has been known to produce feelings of dizziness, especially when taken at higher serving sizes. It’s not yet clear how common or severe this dizziness might be. This may sound like a serious side effect–and in some cases it definitely can be–but many items that are generally regarded as safe can cause dizziness as well. Salt, for example, causes the body to retain water leading to dehydration that can increase pressure in the inner ear, leading to dizziness and outright vertigo.
03/23/24
FACT: Local kratom bans aren’t observed as universally as you might suppose. A recent study found that, in the city of San Diego, 46.2% of smoke and vape shops were selling kratom, despite it being banned there. It’s unclear if the city’s consideration of loosening the ban may also be signaling that the city is no longer interested in enforcing the ban.
03/22/24
FACT: Maybe you remember the urban legend that there are rats and cockroaches in everybody’s hot dogs? In fact, this is true for most foodstuffs. There can be 450 insect parts and nine rodent hairs in every 16oz box of spaghetti….Even the most stringent, highly respected kratom manufacturers tend to make products with trace amounts of certain contaminants. While these trace amounts are no real cause for concern, it does help explain why more manufacturers aren’t willing to openly provide their lab reports (Certificates of Analysis) to their customers or for general consumption.
03/21/24
FACT: About 86% percent of kava bars also sell kratom. In fact, it’s widely believed that the growth of the kava bar industry and the survival of many individual locations depend on kratom sales. For some establishments, kratom is the top-selling item on the menu.
03/20/24
FACT: The kratom industry has long associated kratom use with the traditions of Southeast Asian cultures. We think it’s fair to say that many of these cultures have a spiritual-like connection to nature in general. However, we’ve never come across any credible evidence to suggest that any of these cultures deified the tree in the same way that, for example, Ayahuasca has been for centuries in various South American and North American communities. While kratom is known by various common names (Thang, Kakuam, Thom, Ketum, Biak) that reflect an important cultural role in these societies, sometimes going back centuries, the Ayahuasca blend of botanicals has become largely deified and is commonly referred to as the Divine Feminine by those who benefit from its effects.
03/19/24
FACT: The psychoactive properties of kratom come from its indole alkaloids. The indole sub-classification is a critical distinction within the larger classification of stimulants and other drugs. Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid. Nicotine is a dinitrogen alkaloid. Caffeine is a purine alkaloid. Morphine is a morphinane alkaloid. Methamphetamine is a special kind of monoamine alkaloid in the phenethylamine family.
03/18/24
FACT: As an active ingredient that crosses the blood-brain barrier, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine are drugs as traditionally defined by the medical community–and which many Americans learn in their middle school health class. However, you can say this about many, many dietary supplements that do not belong on the Schedule of Controlled Substances, based on their low potential for abuse or acute toxicity.
03/17/24
FACT: While there is a clear consensus in the scientific community that caffeine is a drug, it is explicitly protected from being added to the federal Schedule of Controlled Substances by the Food Additives Amendment that was added to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act in 1958. It is widely believed that if coffee and caffeine were introduced to the market today, there is no chance it would make it through the FDA’s regulatory protocols for being generally regarded as safe.
03/16/24
FACT: 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) is one of the most important alkaloids in the kratom leaf. For better or worse, 7-OH is 10-13 times more potent than morphine in terms of its sedative and pain-relieving qualities, according to at least one study. Most kratom contains only a tiny amount of this alkaloid, though some manufacturers seek to increase the concentration of this alkaloid even if it means also increasing kratom’s potential for abuse. It may be discovered that 7-hydroxymitragynine has some legitimate medical uses, but it’s clear to those who study kratom’s pharmacology that high quantities of this compound should be tightly regulated or even banned until we more clearly understand its benefits and risks.
03/15/24
FACT: In 2019, Utah became the first state to pass a Kratom Consumer Protection Act. For those who know the state’s political history, this comes as no big surprise. Former Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) championed the DSHEA Act. Passed in 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act essentially the regulatory framework for dietary supplements that we know today. This act also protected supplements currently on the market in 1994 from undue FDA interference. Because no documentation exists of kratom being sold commercially before 1994, kratom is not protected by the DSHEA Act and requiring a nationwide push to pass separate Kratom Consumer Protection legislation on the state and federal level.
03/14/24
FACT: The FDA tried to classify kratom as a Schedule 1 substance under the Controlled Substances Act, the most restrictive category for drugs with no medical benefit and a high potential for abuse. The agency was only one signature away from enacting the ban, but that federal official reviewed the FDA’s supporting documents and found serious gaps in the science and a general lack of evidence to support scheduling kratom.
03/13/24
FACT: While there is no known documentation of kratom use in the U.S. before the 1990s, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence and firsthand accounts of kratom first coming to the U.S. from soldiers returning from the Vietnam War. The earliest documented cases of people using kratom to self-treat for pain relief and opioid withdrawal didn’t occur until 2007.
03/12/24
FACT: While some manufacturers have discovered an extraction method that creates water-soluble kratom, natural forms of raw leaf kratom as well as most extracts are not water-soluble. This means that the kratom in your shots and other liquid products will naturally separate over time. These products are still safe and effective to use, though you’ll typically get a more pleasant experience if you remember to shake well before consuming.
03/11/24
FACT: Maeng Da is known as a particularly potent form of kratom that’s attached to a legend of 19th century Thai laborers who realized that some kratom trees were better than others at relieving the aches and pains of their daily labors. Many cultivators have tried to identify these trees and/or selectively breed their trees for this purpose. However, there are no regulations on this type of product marketing and no industry consensus on exactly what should and should not count as Maeng Da kratom today.
03/10/24
FACT: Kratom is in the Mitragyna Korth genus, which currently contains 10 widely accepted species. While kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) is indigenous to certain regions in Southeast Asia, other species in the genus grow as far east as Papua New Guinea, as far west as the west African coast, and as far north as India and mainland China.
03/09/24
FACT: Kratom use in Southeast Asia dates back to at least the early 1800s, but did appear in the United States in any significant way until the early-mid 2000s. It did not become widespread until the mid-2010s.
03/08/24
FACT: As of this date, kratom is legal in 45 states, although several cities and counties have their own kratom bans. Of the 45 states that do not ban kratom, 11 states have passed kratom consumer protection laws that formalize the sale and consumption of kratom, as well as creating regulatory standards that enhance product quality and consumer safety.
03/07/24
FACT: Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) and coffee (Coffea) are in the same botanical family. This family, Rubiaceae, is commonly known as the madder family, or sometimes the bedstraw family. Most of the plants in this family have red roots, which is also where the name comes from. Kratom and coffee share certain characteristics including human use as a stimulant with mood-enhancing effects.
03/06/24
FACT: There is a wide range of estimates of the number of Americans who use kratom. One study published in 2021 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found only 0.7% of Americans (about 2 million residents) had used kratom in the past year. Research by the American Kratom Association pegged the number closer to 10-15 million Americans.
03/05/24
FACT: Kratom was first formally described by the Dutch botanist Pieter Willem Korthals who gave it the name, Stephegyne speciosa. Kratom was renamed and reclassified a few times before the British naturalist, George Darby Haviland, used the official name, Mitragyna speciosa, in 1859. Nobody knows for sure where the inspiration for the name came from. Some legends suggest the shape of the kratom leaf reminded Haviland of a mitre, the traditional headgear worn by a Catholic bishop. A different legend suggests the name came from Mithraism, a Roman religious sect.”
03/04/24
FACT: Despite the practice of labeling kratom strains as coming from different countries and regions throughout Southeast Asia, it’s believed that 90 percent or more of the world’s kratom supply comes from Indonesia and the Kalimantan province in particular.
03/03/24
FACT: The sale, manufacture, purchase, and consumption of kratom has never been banned by the federal government of the United States. However, because the Food and Drug Administration has not approved kratom as a medical drug, dietary supplement, or food additive, it is considered to be a new dietary ingredient, despite having minimal nutritional content.
03/02/24
FACT: The commercial kratom industry plays a pivotal role in protecting the local ecosystems of Southeast Asia. Monetizing this indigenous tree helps prevent deforestation for other cash crops, especially palm oil. The FDA recently banned kratom imports from Indonesia. However, since the end of last year, the U.S. and Indonesia governments have been working on a resolution.
03/01/24
FACT: The scientific community continues to find more alkaloids in the leaves of the kratom tree. Some sources say more than 27 alkaloids from an interview Chris Bell gave on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast and which was already outdated at the time. Most online articles say kratom has more than 40 alkaloids, but the latest posts now claim more than 50 alkaloids. The exact number of alkaloids is something of a moving target as it can be difficult to discern, even with very powerful microscopes, whether a molecule has a chemical structure that is truly distinct from previously known alkaloids.