Kratom For Anxiety

Many Americans suffer from anxiety these days; some estimates suggest as much as 10% of the US population, or 30 million Americans, struggle with anxiety in some form. What most of those people don’t know is that using the herbal dietary supplement kratom for anxiety may offer relief for many of its worst symptoms.

Medically distinguished from ordinary stress and worry, anxiety is a medical condition characterized by persistent feelings of panic and stress that severly impact everyday life. The condition is often triggered by everyday stress, especially when this stress is chronic, but is defined separately from it. Anxiety usually manifests both as mental and physical symptoms: Physical symptoms can include muscle spasms, dizziness, blusing, feelings of burning in the skin, tightness in the chest, throbbing in muscles, and excessive sweating. Mental anxiety symptoms include fear—especially of dying, losing control, insanity, etc.—and brain fog, obsession, circular thoughts, mental chatter or distraction, difficulty thinking clearly, nightmares, memory impairment, abrupt or unexplained sadness, and emotional detachment.

Unfortunately, the current conventional treatments for anxiety can cause side effects that may be on par with the condition they’re trying to alleviate: doctors usually prescribe synthetic tranquilizers such as Valium to treat anxiety, which can have unpleasant side effects, not offer full symptom relief for all users, and are often habit-forming. So where is the anxiety sufferer who doesn’t want to expose themselves to heavy duty and potentially habit-forming synthetic drugs supposed to go? Wouldn’t it be so much better if there were a safe, effective, and healthy alternative for treating anxiety?

Using Kratom for Anxiety: Although many users in the US habve long extolled kratom’s benefits as a pain reliever, stimulant, and relaxant(l), kratom to treaty anxiety has pretty much been a neglected possibility. However, the relaxing properties of kratom’s active alkaloids actually have a lot of potential in terms of anxiety relief!

Let’s break it down: kratom leaf (Mitragyna speciosa) contains over 40 identified alkaloids, 25 of which are active in the human body. Depending on the strain used and dose taken (see below for best anxiety strain (add anchor?), kratom produces both physical and mental relaxation in users. Among the benefits of kratom for anxiety sufferers are its ability to induce muscle relaxation, calm elevated breathing and heart rate, regulate daytime energy levels, and promote natural sleeping patterns. On the mental plane, kratom leaf can cause feelings of relaxation and tranquility and make life’s everyday stresses seem more manageable.

Though scientists don’t know the exact mechanism by which it works, kratom may exert its effects on the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for triggering the body’s fight-or-flight response. When we’re in danger, our sympathetic nervous systems amp up our breathing and heart rate by releasing adrenaline, priming us to flee or defend ourselves from the threat. But in someone with anxiety, this survival response may be easily triggered or operating semi-constantly—even when the person isn’t in danger. The resulting chronic physical and emotional stress can be very damaging to the health. Kratom may act to break this cycle by damping down the sympathetic nervous system’s overactive response.

Unlike conventional anxiolytics, kratom is generally not habit-forming when used appropriately and typically has no side effects. In larger amounts it may produce mild side effects such as nausea and drowsiness, which can be mitigated by keeping hydrated, getting adequate sleep, and reducing your dosage of kratom.

The Best Kratom for Anxiety? Those of you who’ve read this far are sure to be interested in the answer to this question! While everyone differs in their personal tolerances and needs, there are generally two points to keep in mind when using kratom for anxiety:

Dose: Kratom produces what’s called a bi-phasic effect depending on the dosage used—in smaller doses it produces stimulation not unlike coffee, and in larger doses it produces sedation. If you want to use kratom for anxiety, then, we recommend erring on the higher side of kratom’s therapeutic dose range (3-5 grams of plain leaf for newcomers)(l), since a lower stimulating dose can actually increase anxiety.

Strain: Another way to ensure notable anxiolytic effects with kratom is to choose a strain that tends to be more relaxing in the first place. Kratom is classed into three braiod strains based on central leaf vein color (l): White Vein, Red Vein, and Green Vein. Generally speaking, Red Vein kratom varieties tend to be more relaxing due to their specific balance of alkaloids. Some “classic” Red Vein varieties that tend to be easy for beginners to work with are Thai Red Vein and Bali Red Vein kratom.