As potentially one of the biggest kratom advocates on this forum, I'm definitely taking these reports more and more seriously. For the sake of the balance of data, I will add my experience:
I have been using kratom daily for several years, occasionally alternating sources, and I have never, ever, ever experienced anything that even comes into the realm of an indication of a health issue. As many others have reported, kratom has actually improved my health in many areas. I have been wanting to get my liver tested for a while now and I will gladly share my results when I do.
I'm very curious if there is a pattern here. Strains, preparation, substance combinations, diet, how other drugs/opioids affect you, etc.. I'd like to know more data about the people who are actually being diagnosed with lever toxicity, and what the rest of their lifestyle is. Just because you didn't actually combine another substance with kratom doesn't mean it didn't cause something to happen to your liver that kratom simply exposed or made worse. As a very loose analogy, if you swallow a razor blade and it slices a hole in your stomach, and then you drink coffee and the coffee leaks straight out into your organs and you die from it, and the toxicology report shows you had traces of caffeine all over your body, that doesn't mean the coffee is actually what killed you, it was the razor. It could be compared to people who are on MAOI meds and decide to take MDMA one day, and they die from a heart attack. That doesn't particularly mean that MDMA = heart attack. Perhaps certain people lack an enzyme naturally? There are millions of possibilities in a situation like this.
Something I notice is that occasionally, especially if I have more than usual, I can see a small amount of little granules in my stool that look like kratom. Doesn't seem that concerning, but it makes me wonder if the body has a hard time breaking down the kratom fiber and might be working extra hard if you aren't properly preparing your kratom. Dry powder is probably really tough on your insides, whereas properly saturated and steeped might be easier to digest. Just a thought.
As for the OP, I think it's clear that the 'roids played a significant role, but that doesn't free kratom of any potential blame.
Man, it's going to be a real hard day if we find out that kratom is actually not quite as benign as we've all been thinking. I really don't think so though. With the amount of usage I have behind me, the amount of friends that I've shared with and subsequently have involved into their routines, the amount of times my lady has had it, the drugs I've combined it with, and most importantly, the way I FEEL is really, really making it hard for me to believe it's going to be an issue
for me. Obviously, we're all built differently.
Short backstory: I was hospitalized a few years ago with gastritis and out-of-control acid reflux. At my worst, for about a 2 week period, I was exploding pure stomach acid/bile (fluorescent yellow) and literally couldn't eat anything, which then evolved into similar continuous exploding out the other end. I had basically torn my GI system to shreds with extremely poor diet choices. I finally came around and started improving (relatively), improved my diet a bit, and also began experimenting with kratom, eventually developing a daily habit about a year later. I must say that since then, my GI system has not shown a single sign of being less than normal. I get some acid reflux flare-ups from time to time but honestly those are usually a result of not eating enough, not drinking enough water, too much coffee, etc.. I should also point out that I used to get sick regularly like most people (typical winter cold/flu stuff) and I had a habit of getting strep throat every couple of years. Ever since I started kratom,
I have not gotten sick once. Not a single cold, no flu, no strep, absolutely nothing!! The WORST that has happened was a couple months ago when a bug was terrorizing my office that was taking people down for days at a time, and then almost reliably making them sick again a week later, I fought this off for a long time and then finally decided not to go into work ONE day because I just felt crappy, not even full blown sick. Ironically, that morning, when I got up and had kratom, I felt so much better I almost decided fuck it I'll go to work.
Case in point, kratom has done nothing but good
for me so far. That's not to say it isn't slowly killing me.
