Kava Kava, Tyrosine and SAMe?

I know alot of bluelighters swear by this shit. I've read alot about it and finally got some from a healthy living store today.

I got one formulation that has 'Kava Kava (piper methysticum) root and rhizome 2.4g' and another that has, amongst other things, SAMe 150mg and Tyrosine 12.5mg.

My questions are:

1) Should I take these at night or during the day? The guy in the store said that Kava Kava is meant for sleep and can make you tired. Is this accurate?

2) How much should I take of each one? Just what the bottles say? I find that some natural supplements often have several times as much content as others, so that it's probably not as rigid as it is with, say, psychiatric drugs.

3) Has anyone had positive/negative experiences with these drugs?

4) The guy in the store said that the other amino acids (L-Lysine and L-Glutamine) are for other things like coldsores and weightloss. Is this accurate? Or can they be used for anxiety/depression?

Um, this isn't really suitable for TDS, maybe BDD??

I posted here because it seems it's mainly people with depression/anxiety who use these herbs.

If this isn't the right place, can someone move it?

hi suessmayr, i seem to recall the folks over in Healthy Living discussing this at one point (they may have a mega thread for it)

I'm going to move it over there so more input is sent your way.

TDS ---> HL

kava kava is a sedative and can be used for relaxation a sleep aid or for anxiety as it does not reduce mental clarity, chewing the leaves also helps numb the area for a sore throat
Tyrosine is used mostly for colds but can be used when suffering from fatigue and emotional stress.
as for SAMe I am not sure as I have not seen nor heard of it so can not help at all with that.

I have used kava kava but only the roots and used it for relaxation only I would go by what it says on the bottle/tubs for usage

A friend of mine was on SAM-e, be careful what you take with it and make sure you can take Kava Kava with it.

I've had good experiences with SAM-e in the past. It gave me lots of energy, so try to avoid it at night. I think when I was on a stable dose, it was about 1600 mg a day. 800 in the morning, 800 at noon. You may find effects at lower dosages, but for me, the optimum effects was at 1600. However, this can get really expensive, which is actually the reason I stopped taking it.

But for a beginner, I would start off with at least 300 mg in the morning, and see how you feel. Don't take another dose in the afternoon, and titrate from there.

Kava will make you tired, absolutely. It takes a rather long time to take effect, though, about an hour -- so when I used to go to kava bars there'd always be someone who'd drink loads and "I'm not feeling it" and then bam! out on the couch.

Hey suess i know your having alottt of trouble with anxiety and kava really does help but you need to find a quality vendor online and get the powdered root or they also have a kava paste with a very large amount of kavalactones. Most, if not all of the pills found in supermarkets or even health stores are pretty much useless.