Kava is a plant or better a crop that grows in the western Pacific. It is very oftenly also called kava-kava and ‘awa (Hawai‘i), 'ava (Samoa), yaqona (Fiji), and sakau (Pohnpei). It's latin name is Piper methysticum. What this plant is famous for is the drink that is made out of it's roots. This drink is a mild sedative and is very popular in Polynesia, Melanesia and other islands. It is in fact part of their cultuer. If you are a visitor there you will soon be offered a cup of cava which is very polite not to turn down. Even though it doesn't taste that great.
What is cool about kava is that is relaxes you without disrupting mental clarity. One of the main health issues that it can help you with is social anxiety.
Bet there are some possible side effects resulting liver damage. As the research has shown this can only occur if kava is not ade the original way - only for the roots of the plant but also from stems and leaves. If you drink kava really heavily then there can be some other problems like malnutrition, weight loss, liver damage, renal dysfunction, rashes, pulmonary hypertension, macrocytosis of red cells etc...
Because of its benefits when fighting anxiety kava kava extract is often used. Using kava kava extract you can avoid the not so good taste and some other problems when it comes to taking kava. But still make sure that you talk to your doctor and that you only use kava kava extract that is made solely out of kava root without any other parts of the plant.
Maybe a little bit more on kava some other time. Or check the site in the link or wikipedia if you want to learn more.
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