Kratom is not generally regarded as a sacred medicine, but we’re going to talk about it here because this medicine can be so important in helping people overcome opioid addiction. Many people who wish to work with a sacred medicine to overcome an addiction (any kind of addiction) or mood disorder find that they’re stuck in that it can be difficult to stop the addiction long enough to safely administer the sacred medicines like Ayahuasca or Iboga.
Like the so-called “gateway drugs” that lead people into addiction, kratom can act like a “gateway herb” to help people get out of addiction and negative pain-cycles. Kratom is not the last step in addiction recovery for most people, but rather, it can be used to step down and out of an addictive cycle. It can also be used to step away from antidepressant drugs. But in all cases, kratom is something that people should work with in a dieta-fashion. When you’re taking kratom, it is all that you’re taking. Don’t combine kratom with other drugs and do your research before combining it with other herbs or supplements. Don’t take kratom before you plan to do a sacred medicine ceremony with any of the sacred medicines like Ayahuasca, Sapito, or Iboga. Kratom interferes with the breakdown of certain medicinal substances in the body, strengthening their effects and their toxicity levels. So when you’re working with kratom, you should avoid most other supplements, herbs, and drugs unless you know that a given supplement or herb is safe to consume with kratom.
Mitragyna speciosa requires respect and it has its place in sacred medicine-work, but do your homework and make sure that you allow at least 40 hours between your last dose of kratom and a dose of Ayahuasca or Iboga or any other sacred medicine.
Kratom gives people who are in chronic pain, people who struggle with an addiction, and people with depression or anxiety, a sense of control over their lives. Often, before a person can submit to something like Ayahuasca or Iboga to release the trauma that may underlie their pain, they must experience a sense of control and dignity. Kratom provides this window opportunity. It can be a real miracle for those who are willing to give it the respect that it deserves.
Kratom for Pain: What You Need to Know
Despite a lot of negative propaganda about it, kratom, a legal herb with powerful and reliable pain-killing effects, is used regularly by up to 6.1% (or higher) of the population in the United States. In Southeast Asia, kratom is used culturally a bit like coffee in the western world. Kratom, after all, can kill pain more safely than NSAIDs, opiates, or steroids and it also provides a stimulant “lift” that’s similar to coffee. Coffee and kratom, after all, both belong to the same family of plants.
Though women tend to be diagnosed more commonly with chronic-pain syndromes, males are more likely to use kratom. Studies have shown that kratom use is most common among educated, middle-aged men, but women can benefit greatly from kratom as a medicine that provides some energy as well as pain-relief.
Post-partum pain often recruits women into the opioid epidemic, but kratom provides a simple, legal detour out of that conundrum. Kratom is often used to overcome opiate addiction as well as meth or alcohol addiction. It can be taken as a tea, in smoothies, in pill form, or the powdered or dried form can be “chewed”.
Adverse effects are usually digestive and they can be dealt with easily by eating food while consuming kratom or by avoiding food as some people fare better with a full stomach while others find that kratom is easier on an empty stomach. Adverse effects requiring medical attention are rare. Less than 1% of people who work with kratom have to consult a doctor for help in resolving side effects.
Less than 2.5% of the people who use kratom will become addicted to it. Many people who begin using kratom in order to overcome an opiate addiction are free of the addiction within a year or less. Studies have not been done to show the long-term effects of kratom on chronic pain, but the fact that people who are addicted to opiates are able to stop taking opiates and then later stop taking kratom without ill effects suggests that kratom may have a healing effect on pain.
Kratom, also known as Mitragyna speciosa, is one of the most important herbal remedies currently available for chronic pain. It is also an herb for chronic pain that has been demonized somewhat because of its ability to cure opioid addiction as well as stimulant addiction. About 2.4% of the people who use kratom become addicted to it on some level, but that being said, kratom is legal in most countries and certainly a 2.4% addiction rate is low in comparison with its sister plant, coffee. Kratom and coffee are, after all, in the same plant family and while many people would readily admit to a coffee addiction in our culture, kratom is not culturally sanctioned as an acceptable addiction to have in the west. On the other hand though, kratom is used daily by people in the east, particularly Southeast Asia where people are more likely to have access to kratom than to coffee. So, if you suffer from chronic pain and you’re searching for a way to overcome the pain legally…without opioids, be aware that kratom addiction can be similar to coffee addiction in the small percentage of people who do develop an addiction to it. The only real difference is that in the western world, kratom has not become a part of our culture in the same way that coffee has.
In order to understand why kratom is not embraced in the same way as coffee, despite its spectacular pain-relieving effects, you have to understand the politics and the profitability of opioids to Big Pharma. Kratom is a medicine that threatens a very big industry that includes not only the prescribing of opioids as a very addictive type of medicine as well as opioid addiction rehab that often unsuccessfully treats the opioid addiction that occurs after doctors make their prescriptions. If you’ve considered working with kratom for pain, but you’re shying away from it because it can be addictive, reconsider. What if kratom addiction is on par with a coffee addiction? And what if the only reason you feel scared of it is because Big Pharma has distributed propaganda about it to protect its own interests? Would you still avoid this important pain-relieving herb?
Kratom has been used in the United States and other countries for pain for many years without legal surveillance. It is a herb that allows people with chronic pain to self-manage and not have to rely on doctors or other service providers. Kratom can give people their lives back. It is highly effective and it provides reliable pain management without the same addictive capacity as opioids.
Studies have shown that kratom dose doesn’t tend to vary much in those with chronic pain who use it daily. In other words, people don’t feel like they need to increase their dose in order to treat their chronic pain. Developing a tolerance to kratom can happen, but it’s not as common as the propaganda would have us think. At the same time, people who suffer from chronic pain as well as fatigue will find that kratom helps with both of these conditions.
Kratom Medicinal Effects
Kratom has other medicinal effects too, besides its ability to provide pain-relief. Kratom is used to treat the following:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Opiate addiction
- Fatigue / Exhaustion
- Headache
- Toothache
- Cough
- Diarrhea
- Fever
- Stroke symptoms
- Sleeplessness (used at higher doses for opioid-like effects)
headaches, toothaches, diarrhea, cough, fever, stroke symptoms, sleeplessness, typhoid, cholesterol issues, pain, cough, hypertension, diabetes, anxiety, and as a orexigenic, wound poultice, and deworming agent
Kratom Medicinal Substances
A large number of alkaloids in the Mitragyna speciosa plant have medicinal properties including:
- Mitragynine (comprises about 2% of the dry weight of kratom leaves)
- 7-Hydroxymitragynine (comprises less than 0.02% of the dry weight of kratom leaves)
- Paynantheine
- Speciogynine
- Speciociliatine
These alkaloids seem to produce pain-relieving effects through the opioid, serotonin, and adrenergic systems of the body, but scientific funding has not been allocated to study this miraculous pain-relieving herb for reasons that we’ve already discussed. Nonetheless, there is a wealth of anecdotal information about kratom for pain relief, how to use it, and how to avoid addiction (for readers who are concerned about addiction because of the propaganda that’s been disseminated about this plant).
Kratom for Herbal Pain Relief and More…
Kratom is mostly consumed medicinally by people throughout the world to relieve pain, but in some cultures, kratom functions a lot like coffee in the western world. In Southeast Asia, people chew kratom for increased energy, focus, and productivity, for example. Some people also use kratom to get rid of an opiate addiction, but it is also used to overcome meth addiction and alcohol addiction too.
Kratom contains alkaloids that interact with opioid receptors though the alkaloids are not themselves opioids. Alkaloids activate the μu-opioid receptors (MOR), triggering the release of serotonin as part of its pain-relieving effect. The pain-relieving effects of kratom is similar to that of morphine except that it produces a longer-lasting analgesic effect. One important difference between kratom and opiates like morphine though, in scientific studies, is that kratom produces far less withdrawal symptoms than morphine.
Kratom increases serotonin levels while reducing dopamine. Scientists believe that in the rare instances when people develop a dependence on kratom, that temporary changes serotonin levels produced by kratom is the most likely cause of the addiction. We recommend that people who are concerned about kratom addiction do the Mucuna pruriens protocol while they are working with kratom to make the body more resistant to addiction.
Our experience with kratom for pain relief is that it is a miraculous pain-reliever for fibromyalgia or rheumatic body-pains. It can also be very helpful for headaches as long as the headaches are not originating in the digestive system.
Kratom and Cold-Pain Tolerance
One study conducted in Malaysia used the pain caused by cold exposure to measure kratom’s pain-reliving effects. Kratom, in this context, worked very well to increase cold tolerance and pain associated with cold exposure.
Kratom for Pain and Depression
Mitragyna speciosa / kratom is often used to treat both pain and depression in cultures where it is administered traditionally. Lower doses of kratom (less than 5-6 grams per dose) had better antidepressant effects than higher doses, but both lower and higher doses have pain-relieving effects.
Kratom Adverse Effects
In middle aged individuals who are taking kratom to treat pain, no cardiovascular adverse effects have been reported. However, in older individuals, kratom may increase heart rate. Though some people have reported getting headaches as a result of taking kratom, kratom can also be used to treat severe headaches naturally.
Digestive upset can happen when taking kratom. Some people experience constipation or diarrhea or even nausea and vomiting as a result of taking kratom.
Kratom Interactions to Avoid
Though serious adverse effects associated with kratom are rare, there are certain herb-drug interactions to avoid while taking kratom. Kratom interferes with the metabolization of certain drugs that require cytochrome P450 to be broken down in the body. Any drug that interacts with cytochrome P450 in the body could build up to toxic levels in the body while simultaneously taking kratom. In other words, there are certain drugs that you should avoid while taking kratom, including:
- Methamphetamines and other amphetamines like Adderall, Ritalin, etc.
- Alcohol
- Benzodiazepines
- Dextroamphetamines
- Phenylethylamine
- Antihistamines such as allergy medicines and some sleep medications
- Mescaline (Peyote and San Pedro)
- MAOIs and SSRIs might be problematic. Don’t mix kratom with antidepressants, Ayahuasca, etc.
How to Use Kratom for Chronic Pain
Kratom is typically chewed or brewed into tea. It is most widely used to treat chronic pain, fatigue, depression, and opioid addiction. Kratom tends to take effect within 30 to 60 minutes after administration and its effects last longer than opiates.
Kratom Dose:
In Southeast Asia, where kratom is consumed daily like coffee, the average daily dose of mitragynine (not the whole plant) is 434 mg daily. The average concentration of mitragynine in dried leaf or powder is between 12 to 21 milligrams per gram. In other words, people in Southeast Asia consume about 20 grams of kratom throughout the day for energy, focus, and pain-relief.
Most people who are using kratom as a pain-relieving herb in western cultures take between 1 to 8 grams daily.
We do not recommend that people vape kratom because of the negative effects of vaping on lung health.
How to Avoid Kratom Addiction:
One strategy that people use to avoid addiction to kratom is switching between different “veins” of kratom daily. For example, people will often switch from a green to a white to a red vein from one day to the next. But another strategy is to mix vein-colors into differing combinations daily such that your body does not get used to one particular vein-color or vein-combination from one day to the next.
Resources:
Mun, C. J. et al. (2025). Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) use for self-management of pain: Insights from cross-sectional and ecological momentary assessment data. Retrieved July 22, 2025 from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1526590024007041
Striley, C. W. et al. (2022). Health Effects Associated with Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) and Polysubstance Use: A Narrative Review. Retrieved July 22, 2025 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9130800/
Heywood, J. et al. (2024). Beneficial and adverse health effects of kratom (Mitragyna speciosa): A critical review of the literature. Retrieved July 22, 2025 from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278691524004794
Buckhalter, S. et al. (2021). The Antidepressant-Like and Analgesic Effects of Kratom Alkaloids are accompanied by changes in low frequency oscillations but not delta-FOS-B accumulation. Retrieved July 22, 2025 from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34413776/
Indriani, D. W. et al. (2025). Serotonin release mediates analgesia via opioidergic system and withdrawal symptoms in chronic kratom extract-treated mice. Retrieved July 22, 2025 from https://bmccomplementmedtherapies.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12906-025-04947-2
Idid, S. Z. et al. (1998). Evaluation of analgesia induced by mitragynine, morphine, and paracetamol on mice. Retrieved July 22, 2025 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237217107_Evaluation_of_analgesia_induced_by_mitragynine_morphine_and_paracetamol_on_mice