5th Sep 2023

What Is Kava and What Are the Benefits?

Many people first hear about kava when a kava bar opens up near them or they speak with a friend who is excited about it. However, did you know that people have been using kava to create a relaxing tea for literally thousands of years?

Once you find out about all of the different benefits that kava may be able to provide, it will make more sense why it has been such a staple among some people for so many years. At the same time, it might make you wonder why you haven't heard about kava even sooner.

So what is kava, and what kind of benefits might it be able to provide for you? Read on to learn all about the most crucial things to understand about kava and why trying it might be a great way to help you improve your health and well-being!

What Are Kava Products?

Kava is a drink made from the piper methysticum plant. This plant is native to the South Pacific and many people enjoy it in places like Hawaii. Although you can create extracts and other products out of kava, most people enjoy it as a calming tea.

However, trying out some of this tea at a kava bar may be able to do much more for you than help you relax. Because people have used kava for health reasons for so long, scientists have become excited about discovering what it is about kava that creates such positive effects.

Different scientists have studied the possibility of using kava for a wide variety of health problems. Although more studies need to be done, many of the initial results from these studies are promising. It appears that kava may be a powerful tool for helping us cultivate general well-being and improve our health in an incredible variety of ways.

At the same time, it is worth noting that some people might want to avoid consuming kava. Because kava has powerful relaxing qualities, it can interact poorly with antidepressants. On top of that, it is a good idea to avoid kava if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

Besides that, almost every healthy adult is a candidate for enjoying the amazing benefits that kava can provide. If you are lucky, you might be able to find a kava bar in your area. Consider searching for "kava shop near me" on a search engine to see how quickly you might be able to try out some kava for yourself.

Using Kava May Help Fight Cancer

Let's start with one of the most exciting potential benefits of kava. There are some indications that kava might be able to help fight cancer.

Scientists first became interested in studying this application of kava because they noticed how low the cancer rates were among South Pacific island populations.

This observation seemed surprising because many of these populations had unusually high smoking rates. So why didn't they develop cancer as often as other populations that smoke frequently?

Although we do not know the answer for sure, it is possible that kava has anti-cancer properties. In the years to come, it might be worth following the research done on using kava to fight cancer. In 10 years, it might be a common recommendation from doctors for those who are in the middle of a struggle with cancer.

Kava Benefits May Include Lower Blood Pressure

Heart disease continues to be one of the most deadly conditions in the modern world. The good news is that the relaxing qualities of kava may also allow it to lower blood pressure. That may mean that it can also slow down or even prevent blood clotting.

Anything that can help us manage heart disease might be able to save many thousands of lives around the world. However, the effects of kava on the blood may mean that you should avoid using it for a couple of weeks before you go into surgery.

Try Managing Cholesterol With Kava

Another big contributor to heart health problems is high cholesterol levels. Some researchers have noticed that people who use kava sometimes experience decreases in skinfold thickness and body fat.

These kinds of metrics are associated with lower cholesterol levels. But does that mean that kava helps lower cholesterol itself? More research still needs to be done to know for sure.

Enjoy Better Exercise Results With Kava

One of the best-known benefits of kava is that it helps relax the muscles. This can make it a great choice for people who are trying to recover from an intense workout. A calming cup of kava tea might be the perfect way to help your recently trained muscles to relax and allow plentiful blood flow to start to heal any damage done to them.

After all, it is not while using our muscles that they grow larger. Instead, it is when we relax and recover that the natural healing processes of the body help build back our taxed muscles stronger and bigger than ever.

Use Kava to Manage Your Cough

Many people report that kava tea is a great choice when they are trying to get over a cold, flu, or anything else that can cause a cough. Coughing is often the result of a buildup of tension somewhere in the respiratory tract. The relaxing effects of kava tea might help calm down an inflamed and irritated respiratory tract, helping to stop a stubborn cough.

Fight Addiction With Kava

Many people are excited about the potential of using kava tea to help people overcome addictions. Perhaps the most difficult part of leaving an addiction behind is dealing with the cravings that result as you go through withdrawal.

However, kava tea is a perfect tool for helping people experiencing cravings to relax and even feel less intense urges to abuse substances. Some people report that drinking kava tea helps them manage the symptoms of opiate withdrawal as well. As we are in the middle of an opioid epidemic, that may make this the most important benefit of drinking kava tea for many people.

Keep Down Chronic Pain With Kava

If you have ever dealt with chronic pain before, you can appreciate how desperate many people are to find anything that will relieve it. In fact, this is a major contributor to the addictions that many people develop to opiates and other pain relievers.

However, kava tea might be a far better way of dealing with chronic pain. In fact, many people who enjoy kava report that the first thing they do when they experience a spike in chronic pain is enjoy a cup of calming kava tea.

The fact that kava can help with both cravings and pain might make it an ideal choice for people who are trying to find a way to get over an addiction to a pain-relieving substance of one kind or another. After all, it can be even more difficult to leave an addiction behind if your pain goes up the longer you progress in your addiction recovery journey.

However, it is worth noting that kava may be more effective for some kinds of pain than others. Although it seems to have positive effects for all pain, it may be even more effective for muscle pain. Because kava tea can help muscles relax, it can help resolve the source of muscle pain while also calming down the experience of pain.

Consider Kava Use for Erectile Dysfunction

You might be surprised to hear that kava can be an effective way to help people dealing with erectile dysfunction. However, the causes of erectile dysfunction sometimes come down to things like excited nerves and excess levels of stress.

Tight muscles in the body can also interfere with the flow of blood into and out of the sexual organs. Because kava tea can help people relax their muscles and reduce their stress, it may help them enjoy improved sexual function as well.

That may go double for instances of sexual dysfunction that result from psychological issues. Helping people relax their bodies and reduce psychological pain can make it much easier for them to perform at their best. Some people even report that they use kava tea to help with their premature ejaculation.

Enjoy Better Sleep Quality With Kava

One of the most powerful ways to improve general health is to improve sleep quality. Using kava tea in the right way might help you improve your sleep hygiene, improving almost every other aspect of your health at the same time.

One of the biggest problems with a lot of sleep aid options is that they tend to interfere with REM sleep. It is much easier to help people fall asleep than to improve the quality of sleep they enjoy. However, kava tea can be the perfect way to help people relax and drift off to a restful night of sleep complete with rejuvenating REM cycles.

Try Out Kava on a Toothache

If you have ever had to receive emergency treatment for a toothache, you can understand why people are so motivated to find relief while dealing with this intense pain. The good news is that kava tea may be able to help with toothaches in several different ways.

First, toothaches often provoke a lot of inflammation in the mouth. This inflammation can increase pain and make it more difficult for fresh blood to reach your damaged tooth. By helping reduce inflammation, kava tea can improve the efficacy of your body's natural healing processes.

However, kava tea also has antiseptic properties. Many toothaches are exacerbated by bacteria in the mouth. Using kava can kill mouth bacteria, giving your mouth a healthier environment to heal in.

Last of all, kava tea has pain-relieving properties as we have discussed. For some people, that can be the most important benefit when dealing with a painful toothache. However, the other effects of kava tea will also target the sources of toothache pain.

Many people who use kava for toothaches do more than just drink kava tea. Some apply kava root oil to their hurting tooth. Others chew on a piece of dried kava root.

Kava Might Facilitate Hair Health

A lot of people have proposed a lot of potential cures for hair loss. Although nothing seems to cure it completely, some people report that using kava can slow down their rate of hair loss.

It is possible that using kava helps relax tight muscles around the head. This can increase blood flow to the scalp, helping increase general hair health. That might not be enough to restore your lost hair, but it might help you hold on to your remaining hair longer.

On top of that, it can be good for your hair even if you are not losing it. The more relaxed your scalp is and the more blood it can get, the easier it will be for your body to produce strong and beautiful strands of hair.

Potential Side Effects of Kava

As incredible as the benefits of kava can be, it is also important to know about kava side effects. Taken in large quantities, kava can be hard on the liver.

It is often a good idea to avoid using kava for longer than 3 months at a time. On top of that, you might want to avoid it completely if you have liver problems.

It is also a bad idea to mix kava with anything else that causes similar effects. For example, using kava before receiving anesthesia can magnify the effects of the anesthesia. Other people report that the relaxing and calming effects of kava can actually make their depression worse and give them less energy.

Enjoy the Amazing Benefits of Kava

The more you know about kava and the incredible benefits it might be able to provide, the more excited you might feel about trying it out for yourself. Kava can be a powerful way to help you improve your health in a wide variety of ways at the same time. Trying it out for yourself can be the simplest way to decide if it can help you improve your quality of life.

To learn more about where you can find a great kava bar near you, contact us here at any time!