Rare side effects could be from adulterated kratom, says scientist

Darshan Singh from the University of Science in Malaysia has been studying kratom for several years.

A social scientist, Dr. Singh has found kratom to increase social functioning, lower withdrawal symptoms, and lower risk behaviors among opaite addicts in Malaysia.

While Dr. Singh says kratom can cause an addiction similar to that of coffee, many of the rare reports of liver problems, hair loss, mental issues, and severe addiction have been unique to the United States.

The reason could be that kratom grows naturally in Malaysia, and consumers are drinking tea from local kratom leaves. Most US consumers buy kratom shipped from Indonesia, which can sometimes be adulterated along the supply chain.

“When it goes into America, people are actually adulterating kratom products [with] all kind of funny, funny substances. Harmful substances,” Dr. Singh told Kratom Science. “And then when you start using it…for the first one month you find, ‘Oh it is good! It is really helping me!’ But after one month you start developing all kind of medical problems. And then you go to the hospital in America to the emergency room, and the doctor there says ‘This is interesting. Let’s report about kratom. Kratom can cause liver problems. Kratom can cause psychosis. Kratom can cause mental health problems.’ It’s ridiculous! We don’t get to see all this happening in Malaysia.”

“I was a bit skeptical, so therefore I decided to actually do a blood test. And I found that kratom does not impact liver parameters,” said Dr. Singh. “I am a bit surprised why Americans who use kratom develop all kind of bizarre liver-related disorders.”

Hair loss has also been very rarely reported by kratom consumers as a side effect. Some have found biotin, omega-3 fatty acids, fish oil, iron, and multivitamins have helped them curb this problem. It’s not known why this occurs in rare cases, or if it’s caused by kratom at all. Dr. Singh comments: “I’ve been working with kratom users who have been using kratom for 40 years, 50 years. I see they have a lot of hair on their head. I’ve not seen people who said ‘My hair is falling from kratom’. No such thing. But the reason for the hair loss could be the adulterated kratom products.”

Since kratom is not yet regulated in the US, seasoned kratom consumers know that they have to search to find a good vendor selling pure kratom.

“That is why the American Kratom Association is actually coming up with this proper kratom act, so people get to use high quality or genuine kratom products,” Dr. Singh said of the Kratom Consumer Protection Act. If passed, this measure championed by the AKA would require all US vendors to test and label kratom products.

7 thoughts on “Rare side effects could be from adulterated kratom, says scientist”

  1. I have been taking high doses of Kratom daily for several years. I am a 70 year old female with scoliosis and severe arthritis in my spine. Kratom works better than the pain pills I am prescribed. I had thick beautiful hair but started noticing it falling out in larger and larger amounts. I have noticed receding in front as well as the long strands all over my head. Time to stop using this miracle cure for pain. Saddens me.

    1. I am going through the same thing. Kratom has helped me in so many ways but my hair is getting so thin. I know it’s because of the adulteration from one of the vendors. I get it from 2 places. 1 I believe to be pure. The other has additives. I can tell the difference by the way it makes me feel, the taste, the consistency….it’s obvious now! But the damage has been done.
      I talk to my friend about this a lot: I wish there was some kind of regulation on kratom so it wouldn’t get a bad rep and people could see the value in it to some people and give it support. Because it’s the additives that are the problem. It’s the non regulation of it that is causing the negative effects.

  2. The reason you see bad reports on Kratom:

    Paid bloggers of the pharmaceutical companies write these articles & misinformation to public – they don’t want to lose their high dollar prescription med profits, & you now have to pay top dollar to even get a decent pain med for pain, that they nothing about all side effects (or don’t care), unless they go through what we feel! I learned in nursing training, “Everyone has the right to be pain free!”

    Try asking people like me that have had a Level 3 Spinal Fushion! On a scale of 1 to 10, our pain is, on most days, a 7 or 8, or worse.

    At first I went to see a pain doctor. They gave me OxyContin which eventually made my teeth start to decay rapidly! After I stopped the erroneous use of this toxic pain pill, my teeth were healthy again!

    Shame on the “drug” lords of this land – the pharmaceutical industry.

    Kratom, after finding it & using for 2 years causes no such problem! Of course, there is bad Kratom, but if you do your research, you will find a Kratom product that will greatly reduce your pain!

  3. I’ve been using Kratom from a smoke shop lately and it doesn’t feel the same as when I used to buy it in quantity on line.. I’m dizzy cry all the time nausea what do ppl cut Kratom with I’m concerned

    1. Same here! I get the same brand “Blue Magic Maeng Da” for 2 years now and just last week I got a new bag and I’ve been sick each time I take my usual dose. I feel shaky, dizzy, nauseous and sweaty. Why does this happen? Did the vendor add something? It’s absolutely ruined my $100 bag.

  4. The real reason why: “many of the rare reports of liver problems, hair loss, mental issues, and severe addiction have been unique to the United States” Is because Kratom is a huge threat to Big Pharma in the USA. They have teams assembled to counteract and smear the Kratom movement that is sweeping America. Not so much in other countries. They do this with fake testimonies, skewed search results via logarithms from search engines, misleading news reports that are heavily biased against kratom. Just to name a few. Those of us who take kratom are baffled! We know better! They have been very effective so far, they have even carried there campaign against kratom to the Indonesian government. The truth will eventually prevail but we must fight for it! They can no longer spread lies of mis-information about marijuana because the science proves otherwise. The same can hold true for kratom eventually.

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