statins and kratom (and other drugs)

[chippermonk]

So my doctor wants me to start taking statins (whether I need to or should is another matter). I read online that kratom is a strong inhibitor of CYP3A4, and that this can cause serum levels of lipitor to go up and can potentially increase the likelihood of side effects from the lipitor. I'm kinda assuming that if you keep either or both your lipitor and kratom dosages low, then you are less likely to have shitty side effects but I'm not sure how well I can follow that rule. I DON'T want lipitor side effects. This also raises the issue of what other drug interactions can happen, with either of them, due to CYP effects (I don't really understand CYP issues that well in general)
Thanks for any advice on this

 

[Direwolf131]

Kratom is a very crappy substance, it is contra-indicated with damn near every other medication one can be prescribed! Its a very poor choice for most over the age of 30-35, where blood pressure meds usually begin to be prescribed, it has negative interactions with damn near every needed medication people take, seriously, I will not even attempt listing them all, it suffices that most likely if you take a prescription med it cannot be taken with kratom in any form!

 

[Direwolf131]

One med it interacts with are the thiazides (water pills) prescribed for blood pressure, apparently due to kratom doing the exact opposite, provoking water retention! Take prinivil (lisinopril) and you can scratch that too! But one of the absolute worst and truly deal breaking interactions is with zofran, which is superb for nausea, total contra-indication between the two substances, the best anti-nausea med and a herb notorious for its vomit inducing emetic characteristics.

My advice is steer clear of kratom absent your MD telling you otherwise, kratom is largely harmless on its own, but many people have ended up in the ER, suffering very nasty med interactions, some of the fatal. Kratom is good for one thing to my mind, filling a missing dose of tramadol or two for no more than 10 days time! Thats not sucking it down by the gram, but very carefully replacing morning dose of 50mg tram with four caps (2-grams) of kratom, and never together, always allow 2-3 hours between it and the next tramadol dose!

I strongly caution you to run any, and all meds you currently take due to necessity, against kratom interactions, you will likely be shocked at how many are contra-indicated! Good luck mate...

 

[idontremember]

Just in general, if you have thyroid issues (not saying you do, general you) lots of 'herbal' drugs mess with your thyroid/thyroid meds. Sometimes that's not a bad thing, if you aren't medicated properly a lot of these are potentiators for synthroid etc, bit if you're hyperthyroidism, it can be really, really bad. One of the main problems with Kratom is that you're never really sure if it has anything else in it. A while ago people were dying in I think Sweden, because they were buying Kratos that unknowingly had tramadol in it and were having seizures. Just be very, very careful with certain meds/health conditions and Kratom and buy it from reputable vendors.

 

[chippermonk]

One med it interacts with are the thiazides (water pills) prescribed for blood pressure, apparently due to kratom doing the exact opposite, provoking water retention! Take prinivil (lisinopril) and you can scratch that too! But one of the absolute worst and truly deal breaking interactions is with zofran, which is superb for nausea, total contra-indication between the two substances, the best anti-nausea med and a herb notorious for its vomit inducing emetic characteristics.

My advice is steer clear of kratom absent your MD telling you otherwise, kratom is largely harmless on its own, but many people have ended up in the ER, suffering very nasty med interactions, some of the fatal. Kratom is good for one thing to my mind, filling a missing dose of tramadol or two for no more than 10 days time! Thats not sucking it down by the gram, but very carefully replacing morning dose of 50mg tram with four caps (2-grams) of kratom, and never together, always allow 2-3 hours between it and the next tramadol dose!

I strongly caution you to run any, and all meds you currently take due to necessity, against kratom interactions, you will likely be shocked at how many are contra-indicated! Good luck mate...

Thanks for the advice ( and thanks to others who replied) Fortunately I'm not taking blood pressure meds or much of anything else. Plus my statin dose is only 10 mg and I take only around 3-5 g of kratom, and not daily. So drug levels are low.
In an ideal world I would talk to my doctor but I know he would automatically tell me no without even giving it any thought as to whether it really matters or not. I appreciate any advice on this , and also if anyone knows a good source of unbiased info on it elsewhere that I could find, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks