CULTURAL CLASH OVER MEDICINAL KAVA
Around 20 years ago, potent kava pills and extracts began to be prescribed for stress and anxiety - and soon took over the Western world.
But the boom collapsed in the early 2000s after a few reports of adverse reactions to products containing kava. Now, it’s back on the radar with potent extractions now available in New Zealand from medical herbalists.
At Oomph, a clinic in Auckland, naturopath and medical herbalist Lisa Fitzgibbon uses kava to treat her patients. The calming effects of kava come from active ingredients called kavalactones. They act as a mild sedative - the closest comparison is benzodiazepines like Xanax.
A consultation with Ms Fitzgibbon is very similar to a GP visit. The patient outlines their ailment and Fitzgibbon tries to find a solution.
But unlike traditional methods of drinking kava, her liquid is extracted using cold percolation.
It’s then placed in a base of 60 per cent-proof ethanol which allows the creation of a highly concentrated liquid.
A small amount is poured into a shot glass and downed in one go. The liquid’s effects are sudden - and evident almost straight away.
Perhaps surprisingly, the majority of people Ms Fitzgibbon treats are women.
“[They’re] definitely female. It’s kind of shifted recently, before I would have said mid20s to late-50s, but now we are seeing younger women,” she says.
And despite its role in the Pasifika community, Ms Fitzgibbon says that few of her clients are Pacific Islanders.
“Possibly that’s because, you know, most of my clientele are female and the fact that it’s still sort of taboo for Pacific Island women to imbibe kava,” she says.
But for many Pacific Islanders who practice the traditional ceremonial consumption of kava, its use in Western medicine neglects the central element of the healing process.
“I believe it’s the talanoa, or discussion which accompanies the kava, which is probably more therapeutic than the kava itself,” says Dr Apo Aporosa, research fellow at the University of Waikato. There may also be health differences between traditional kava and modern extractions.