In terms of what I felt when I took this plant, my experience supports the observations of others who note that it might act like a much gentler form of disulfiram or Antabuse. Even a tiny amount of alcohol can cause violent illness while on these drugs. By contrast, kudzu creates a mild flushed feeling at most and leaves the drinker craving alcohol a bit less. I will discuss how it works, my experience with using powdered kudzu root for alcoholism, and recommendations. Ultimately, a comprehensive approach to health and well-being, including evidence-based treatments, remains paramount. Kudzu, also known as Pueraria Montana, is a climbing vine that belongs to the pea family.
Kudzu Root Dosage for Alcoholism
Stores typically sell it as a powdered drink mix, an oral capsule or tablet, liquid drops, or as a food-grade starch to use in cooking. For instance, it may reduce the effectiveness of birth control due to its estrogenic effects (8, 17). While kudzu root may offer a few specific benefits, there are also some potential downsides to consider. Some health companies sell the kudzu root species Pueraria mirifica as a supplement for menopausal and postmenopausal women. AlcoholAwareness.org provides a platform where you can access various free resources, including articles, self-assessment tools, and information about local support groups and treatment centers.
Health and Supplement Topics
This article https://ecosoberhouse.com/ examines the benefits, uses, and potential side effects of kudzu root. Your doctor can evaluate your medical history, current health, and the severity of your alcoholism to provide personalized recommendations. They will consider potential interactions between kudzu and any medications you might be taking, ensuring your safety throughout the process. Alcoholism is a complex condition, and its treatment should not be taken lightly.
- The ActiWatch has a small button and digital LED faceplate and participants wore the device 24 hours a day for the entire 8-week study and were asked to record all drug and alcohol use by pressing the button to enter the proper code.
- When recovering from alcohol addiction, fixing these nutrient deficiencies for your overall health is important.
- It’s mentally defeating to try and curb excessive drinking, and you may find that you face a lot of regret after alcohol consumption, binge drinking or excessive drinking.
- This may be due to the isoflavones in kudzu, which can help regulate hormone levels.
- Persons of Asian descent were excluded because of their known increased flushing reaction to alcohol.
Nutritional Deficiencies Caused by Alcohol
The kudzu root may interact with certain medications or pose other health risks for certain people. Therefore, it’s always best to consult your healthcare provider before taking it. Because those who struggle with alcohol often have nutritional deficiencies, a zinc deficiency is possible, and supplementation can be helpful. Zinc may also help reset some of the glutamate brain pathways that are overly active during alcohol withdrawal, thus possibly helping alcohol withdrawal symptoms. It can be used to reduce fatigue, stress and anxiety, which may occur during alcohol withdrawal.
Tangerine Peel delivers several novel flavonoids that all offer numerous health advantages including enhancing metabolism, promoting detoxification, and protecting cells from free radical damage. Most importantly extracts of Tangerine Peel have been shown to enhance learning and memory. Kawahata et al. 25 recently reported kudzu to stop drinking on the enhancement properties of Tangerine Peel extracts to facilitate potently-mediated transcription linked to the upstream cAMP/PKA/ERK/CREB pathway in hippocampal neurons. This may have important anti-alcohol relapse benefits based on dopaminergic genetics and its relationship to executive function and good decision making necessary for appropriate relapse prevention 26,27. While the literature seems to support an effect of Kudzu and especially isoflavonoid constituents to suppress ethanol intake in animal models, in contrast, Shebek and Rindone 9,10 were unable to reproduce this effect in humans.
If the kudzu extract helps alcohol get to your brain’s reward centre faster, then you will feel the effects sooner, which hopefully means you won’t drink as much. Abstaining from alcohol can be a difficult decision as it requires significant lifestyle changes. This process can be made even more difficult bysymptoms of withdrawaland alcohol cravings. Fortunately, there are several medications that can aid in alleviating alcohol cravings. Several of these medications are approved by the FDA and are available by prescription only. A few supplements are also available over-the-counter (OTC), described as agents thatcan help curb alcohol cravings.
- When our volunteers partied after having had a placebo they drank an average of seven units per person.
- For professional medical information on natural medicines, see Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database Professional Version.
- In our most recent study (Penetar et al., 2011) we provided evidence that kudzu extract may alter blood ethanol levels after an acute drinking episode.
- Something has to create a massive increase in sense of well-being to fit into this category.
- Magnesium may also aid in resetting some of the overly active glutamate-based brain pathways that cause alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
- Tangerine Peel delivers several novel flavonoids that all offer numerous health advantages including enhancing metabolism, promoting detoxification, and protecting cells from free radical damage.
The lack of side effects after four weeks of treatment with both placebo and kudzu extract is likely one of the major reasons for the high rate of medication adherence. Vital signs, measures of blood chemistry, liver function tests and urinalysis assessments were all normal. One animal study in particular demonstrated that kudzu extract and its major components are very safe, even after relatively large doses (2 g/day) over a 3-month treatment period (Keyler et al., (2002).