First off...
Kava has been used for over 3,000 years in the South Pacific Islands as a core part of their culture. That’s a long time to be used regularly if it were toxic. So, it has surely passed the test of time. As scientists have explored it over the last almost 1,000 years, there has been just about no evidence of long-term negative effects on the body and the mind in its food-grade form. Actually, the opposite was realized; anywhere that kava was drunk as a prominent part of the Polynesian culture, there were higher mental and physical health/condition markings across a large criterion.
Also...
Another big concern we’ve been hearing is if kava is toxic to your liver. Does kava affect the liver similarly to the way alcohol does? The research to support this belief was based on studies done on synthetic kava. Kava is similar to coffee or coca leaf tea. People drink coffee daily, which is a food (drink). However, it is unsafe to consume straight caffeine powder (it is also not considered food-grade). The caffeine powder has been extracted and concentrated. It is the same as coca-leaf tea; it has been safely consumed for a long time versus cocaine. There was a pharmaceutical company that used poor extraction methods via solvents as well as using incorrect parts of the plant. Kava is made from the ground roots of the piper methysticum plant. This company was using the aerial part of the plant which has plant defense systems (AKA toxic stuff). It was a quality-control context issue to sum it up. The consumption of the synthetic kava resulted in liver damage.
Resulting in...
There are no studies revealing that real, quality kava mostly grown and extracted in the Pacific Islands, when consumed in moderation, leads to liver damage. But don’t forget, too much of anything good can be bad…
In conclusion...
Kava is a safe product to consume. And there are virtually no negative effects of kava seen in the last millenia. I can guarantee, as mentioned in other posts, we have high quality, properly extracted and processed kava here at Noble Tea Kava. Honesty is the best policy which is why we share our test results on our kava and are happy to answer any questions about our kava.
We hope you have a wonderful rest of your day!