Kava: The Natural Drug and Alcohol Alternative Set To Revolutionize The Functional Beverage Industry
“In my early twenties, I had a total collapse of my health. One of these neuroimmune autoimmune spectrum-related illnesses came from toxic mold, toxic exposures, and even pharmaceutical drugs. But at that point in my life, I gave up control of my health to a physician. I ended up in a psychiatrist's office where I was prescribed various drugs - Adderall and Benzodiazepines. I was very sick. I was prescribed heavy doses of benzodiazepine drugs, and of course, those drugs are extremely addictive, and they were increasing the problem and making it substantially worse,” Cameron George says.
Therefore Cameron was looking for a plant-based alternative that could prop up the same receptors in the brain that benzodiazepines were targeting but without addiction dependency and withdrawal symptoms. His situation was worsening rapidly. The only thing that Cameron wanted is to get his health back.
“Kava was the magic plant-based compound that helped me to get off benzos and allowed me even to tolerate any therapies. Because I was so hypersensitive and in this tremendous anxiety and depressive state with just a total mental collapse I was in,” Cameron shared his story.
Cameron George founded TRU KAVA, his main focus is to provide the safest, highest quality kava products available anywhere on the market. TRU KAVA is developing scalable, user-friendly products that deliver the full therapeutic action of the traditional kava beverage.
Kava is a plant-based stress-relieving nootropic drink. It’s prepared from the roots of a plant shrub called piper methysticum that grows in island chains in Polynesia, Vanuatu, and Fiji. “People use it virtually in every context that we use alcohol in their culture. It’s part of the social underpinning. They use it for weddings, funerals, spiritual ceremonies, social gatherings,” Cameron George mentioned.
The active constituents in kava rely very much on the entourage effect, the synergy between its active living compounds. It is easy to screw up. If you plug it into the classic western model and use a traditional solvent to extract it, it cuts out about 90% of the overall efficacy of the plant.
That is why we get something at the health food store that's about like chamomile tea. It's mildly sedating but as you're going to learn here, kava, in its traditional form, has a whole spectrum of therapeutic effects that far exceed just a little bit of sedation. That encapsulates some of the best parts of alcohol, coffee, CBD, bulletproof coffee, and kratom in a safe, non-addictive substance. That's legal and that almost anyone can tolerate.
How does kava work in the brain? Kave is mainly a nervous system tonic. It affects all of the main neurotransmission pathways related to pleasure and relaxation. It's most famous for its effects on GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid). GABA is the main break of the nervous system, and these are the same receptors that benzodiazepine drugs and alcohol bind.
It has a modulatory effect on those receptors that prevent dependency, withdrawal, and even tolerance. It affects dopamine in a non-addictive way, unique in plant pharmacology and pharmacology in general. Typically, things that powerfully affect dopamine can be addictive because they deplete the dopamine system, and you need more to get the same effect.
From an indigenous standpoint, kava has two main essence applications.
Kava is a protective substance for the first point. Its mechanisms are neuroprotective and tissue-protective, and that makes a lot of sense because kava plays a very protective role in the natural ecology. It protects many other different plants, substances, and organisms around in the natural environment. It develops a whole chemical sequence of protective catalytic actions and chemicals that stimulate adaptation against various forms of stress and trauma in the environment. Whenever you take kava, it transfers adaptability to the host.
From a traditional standpoint, the indigenous people have always seen it as the great protector, which is starting to become known in the ethnobotanical community because it hits on every single neuron tissue-protective pathway.
It means that when humans consume kava, it helps to protect the body from all forms of stress - physical, chemical, or emotional. It enables the body to process and rid stress from a psychological standpoint. That leads us to kava's second main sort of application or its essence. Kava is protective at helping the body shift into sleep and helping to relax the mind, but it also helps elevate the mind.
At the same time, kava is known as a subtle tolerable entheogen. Kava neither pulls you out of your sobriety nor pulls you into an altered state. It has more of a background effect on the psyche. This effect comes from increased communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain and other circuits. That brings out what we call systems thinking. When people utilize psychedelics, it puts people in more of an alpha state to reflect on their internal sort of circumstances and see the big picture.
People who consume kava over a long time typically tend to become more empathetic, reflective, and more complex in their thinking processes.
Kava is one of the most well-researched compound plants in the world outside of cannabis, ginseng, and reishi mushroom.
The applications that have been well studied from the scientific lens is:
- Cancer and Metabolic Disorders
- Neuroprotective Effects
- Anxiety
- Substance Abuse Disorders
- Insomnia
- Depression
- Processing Trauma
- Cognitive Dysfunction
- Depression
- Inflammatory Conditions
It is believed in the scientific community that kava is going to have huge applications just for PTSD as a practical substance that can be used during different forms of counseling.
What to look for in a kava product?
The kava products on the market are not created equal. The main components you want to look for are the overall effects profile. It means the effects that it has by strain, the potency of those effects, and purity.
Most of the kava products on the market are called kava kava, and they are not kava by definition. They are kava-like products.
Compared to kava products on the market, TRUE KAVA is a new form of full-spectrum traditional kava that stabilizes the traditional preparation methodology into a palatable form that anyone can tolerate. It is a third-party lab tested for quality and safety.
The choices you have on the market are to buy the root material and make that muddy water or go after companies that stabilize this in a more practical way for the mass market.
If you want to try TRUE KAVA to improve clarity, quality of sleep, get more energy, and reduce inflammation and pain, feel free to check it out at the section Top Biohacks on our website.
BiohackingCongress's Team is very grateful to Cameron George for joining the congress and giving an incredible lecture.
Watch Cameron's 40-minute lecture on Kava: The Natural Drug and Alcohol Alternative Set To Revolutionize The Functional Beverage Industry. As well as 50+ lectures, panel discussions, and performances from renowned biohackers with a BiohackingCongress year-long subscription. Get your access to a healthy future now! Follow this link.
Based on the lecture by Cameron George.
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