Americans have a long history of falling for elixirs that claim to be benign but in fact are packed with addictive substances. In the 1830s, for example, McMunn's Elixir of Opium was touted for "nervous irritability," as well as rabies and tetanus, and Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup, a morphine and alcohol concoction, was touted for fussy kids.
Today we have kratom, a plant with two active compounds, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, that affect the same opioid brain receptors as morphine and cause sedation, pleasure and decreased pain when taken in large enough doses. Hence, it's potentially addictive.
The Food and Drug Administration says it's illegal to sell as a medical remedy for pain, cancer or whatever else occurs to the vendor. They also caution that many of the kratom-associated deaths (44 to date) seem to happen when it's combined with illicit drugs, opioids, benzodiazepines, alcohol, gabapentin and over-the-counter medications, such as cough syrup, or when it is contaminated with undeclared (and lethal) ingredients. Plus, the heavy metals lead and nickel have been found in kratom, and there was a 2018 alert for a multistate outbreak of salmonella infections from contaminated kratom products.
So if you're trying to manage chronic pain, see a pain management specialist, take up a stress management technique such as deep breathing or guided imagery, and explore physical therapy and an anti-inflammatory diet. If you think this weed will whack some other disorder you have, think again. It can dull you to your symptoms, and then you'll end up with a more advanced, and untreated, medical problem.
(c) 2019 Michael Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet Oz, M.D.