Safety · Supplement
Kava: side effects, safety & interactions
Liver-toxicity risk (rare) — avoid with alcohol, hepatotoxic drugs, or existing liver disease; additive with sedatives.
- Overall grade
- Grade B
- Last revised
- 0
- graded outcomes
- 0
- references listed
Assembled by the app from other entries in this library. It adds no evidence of its own — follow the links to the entries it draws on.
The evidence in words
Safety profile
Liver-toxicity risk (rare) — avoid with alcohol, hepatotoxic drugs, or existing liver disease; additive with sedatives.
Interactions to respect
Alcohol — Additive sedation and compounded liver stress. · Benzodiazepines — Additive sedation — a coma case is reported.
What Kava is
Kava (Piper methysticum) is a Pacific-island root whose kavalactones produce calm and mild sedation, used for anxiety.
The honest bottom line
A genuinely effective short-term anxiety herb with a serious liver caveat. Use water-based noble kava, never with alcohol or sedatives, and not long-term.
Related reading
Entries that share this one's tags or conditions.
- Kava for AnxietyEvidence grade B — Meta-analytic vs placeboEvidence grade B
- Lemon Balm: side effects, safety & interactionsVery safe; mild additive sedation; may affect thyroid at high doses theoretically.Evidence grade C
- Holy Basil (Tulsi): side effects, safety & interactionsWell tolerated; theoretical additive glucose lowering and mild antiplatelet/anti-fertility signals at high doses.Evidence grade C
- KavaOne of the few genuinely effective anxiety botanicals — shadowed by a real (if debated) liver-safety history.Evidence grade B
Sources
This entry lists no references of its own — it is assembled from the entries it links to, whose sources are on their pages.
Last revised . A grade is this entry's reading of the evidence, not medical advice.