Exclusive use of Kratom

[Jumpey]

Hello everyone. Wanting some advice about kratom use. I have quite successfully been rotating it monthly with codeine and tramadol for some time. However ,sadly, the opioids have stopped working. And I am wondering if anyone has been using kratom successfully long term on it's own? x

[Ureshi17]

Hi Jumpey,

Yes, I've been using it exclusively for about five years. I have built up some tolerance and do get symptoms earlier during the evening.

I think several other people on this board are using it exclusively too.

[Jumpey in reply to Ureshi17]

Thanks so much for your reply. I am glad it is working for you. How much do you take after 5 years?x

[march1044]

I have been using only kratom for a little over 5 years. When I started just a very little bit--3 or 4 grams spread over 24 hours--was enough. Now I use usually between 10-15 grams. I've developed some tolerance and the RLS has gotten a bit worse. But the kratom is still enough on its own. I've never taken an opioid or a dopamine drug. I'm not sure if that changes what works.

Good luck. I hope you find something that works.

[Parminter]

All the substances you mention work in similar ways, on the opioid receptors in the brain.

Opioids are delivered in known dosages, whereas Kratom, being a natural substance, is rather a hit-or-miss solution.

Assuming you can find the right kratom, in the right dose, from a reliable supplier, you could use it alone in the same way you could use an opioid alone, as they work in much the same way.

Codeine is a weak opioid, and Tramadol is known to cause augmentation, so neither are reliable for all RLS sufferers. A stronger opioid may work better than kratom, but it is certainly worth trying the latter. However, a very regular 'holiday' seems essential with kratom, so what do you take during these times?

[Jumpey]

Hi. Yes I'm aware they are all of the same drug "family". I have been rotating the three substances, codeine, tramadol and kratom, monthly.

[fuzzzy]

I have been off opiates and take only kratom for restless legs. It is the only thing that has worked for me. I have been using kratom for 2 years now and no restless legs! You must rotate strains of kratom so you don't build up a tolerance. It also helps to take just the stem and vein kind for a couple of weeks a year.

[Jumpey in reply to fuzzzy]

That's really encouraging Fuzzy. Can you tell me which strains you use? x

[fuzzzy in reply to Jumpey]

The green and red veined, slow to moderate varieties work best for me. I have sciatica also and kratom helps with the pain better than opiates also. Hope this helps

[Hidden]

I know tolerance is much less an issue with Kratom than the other opioids I have used (Codeine, Tramadol and Oxycontin), but I would assume, even rotating strains that it would occur.

I was told the same about cannabis but no matter how many strains I've swapped between (up to 6 once - lucky me), after short term use tolerance always occurs. As our bodies always work for Homoeostasis I'd assume all drugs working on the opioid receptors would breed tolerance.

[Jumpey in reply to Hidden]

Thanks Raffs.Not what I want to hear but I appreciate your response.x

[Hidden in reply to Jumpey]

I could always be wrong...but I doubt it!

[TheDoDahMan]

Hi, Jumpy,

I always read what Raffs has to say regarding kratom, as his experience with it usually mirrors mine, plus his writing style bespeaks that he's a pretty bright person. At any rate, I'm glad to offer you my thoughts on this topic.

For about two years, I've been using Kratom alone as my palliative for RLS, which is as long as I've suffered from this malady. RLS has never caused me pain, but its ability to prevent me from sleeping much more than a couple hours per 24-hour period had turned my life upside down and brought my quality of life to near nil. Since this occurred during my retirement years, at least I've not had to deal with the havoc that interference with a work schedule would bring.

As others have said, Kratom's usefulness for me has been greatly affected by my developing a gradual tolerance to it. I began by using a single dose of about 4 grams per day. At the end of roughly 2 years, I was taking a dose of 8 grams every 6 hours, and eventually even that was not enough to bring me the amount of sleep that would allow me to live a normal life. In kratom's defense, even at my heaviest use, I never experienced even the slightest untoward side effects.

Through extensive reading about RLS, much of it on this forum, I came to believe that a prescription of some sort of opioid would be necessary for me to regain any semblance of a quality of life. However, living in the United States, I quickly began to understand that the current opioid panic in this country was preventing me from obtaining such a prescription: my "personal care physician" point blank refused to even discuss it. Eventually, I discovered an RLS specialist several hundred miles away that was accepting patients from out-of-state.

A good friend offered to drive me there for a personal office visit, and, after putting me through a 2-month regime of dopamine agonists and gabapentin (to no good effect), the specialist wrote me a prescription for methadone (2 X 5mg per day). The horror of my life immediately reversed course.

Mind you, it has only been 2 weeks since I've begun the methadone, but I'm now sleeping 8 hours a day, my depression has lifted, and I feel I've been given a new lease on life. The bad news is, my original pharmacy refused to fill that methadone prescription, no questions asked; and after switching pharmacies, the new one is grumbling and saying that they may not allow me any refills. I hope you live in a more enlightened country. (It appears that it is our DEA that is pressuring the pharmacies to not honor even a specialist's prescription.)

I no longer require kratom, but it was a godsend for the many months that it was efficacious. I was rotating the kratom strains, but was not in any sense running "blind" clinical trials, and have no sense whether doing that would help delay the development of tolerance. For what it's worth, I have many years experience using cannabis, and can testify that I believe that rotating cannabis strains is very worthwhile. However, unlike SOME others, I have not found cannabis useful for eliminating RLS symptoms.

[Jumpey]

Ho Dodahman. Thanks so much for sharing your story.I appreciate it. Good luck with the methadone. I hope it helps long term. What kratom strains did you use?x

[Hidden]

Hello Jumpey.

I saw lots of positive posts regarding Kratom, so I gave it a try. Took a Mixed Maeng Da capsule from shopcbdkratom.com/collectio... before bed for 2 nights in a row. Never felt any different. No euphoria. No nothing. And it did nothing for my Restless Legs. Bummed, because I was really hoping for some relief.