Kratom warning

Hi Erika, I assume you are referring to substance abuse? When I worked in the hospital detox and residential treatment program, most of our patients were malnurished. That is where a nutritionist comes in. For people like me whose drug is food, they have many skills, options and strategies to help heal the addiction. A lot of obese people can be malnurished if they mostly have eaten junk food. For me, I lost 200# by eating only 700-800 calories per day for about 2.5 years which is impossible to get adequate nutrition from. Also, I only just learned that low calorie diets contribute to osteoporosis. I have "severe" osteoporosis and have broken some bones among which but not limited to 3 pelvic, one rib, etc. spontaneously. I also have taken daily Prednison for 23 years and a lot of IV and by mouth steroids before daily to manage lung disease and auto-immune inflammatory disease. So all of that contributed to my osteoporosis.

So patients can have many different types of health problems they don't even know about by eating a diet void of proper nutrition. The nutritionists work w/ the patient's PCP and can facilitate the right blood work to be done to help assess the areas the nutritionist can focus on and treat with diet.They are trained in some behavioral aka addition therapy.

Hope that helps? Take care Erika. Warmest regards, Sunny

@sunnyflower My training is in mental health and co-occurring (addiction), so I am particularly interested in this topic.

This discussion is on the drug Kratom but I've noticed that people detoxing off of any drug tend to eat a lot of junk food and gain weight quickly. There are a number of factors that contribute to the weight gain. In my experience, the rapid weight gain leads to poor body image. Moving forward I think I will advise patients to consult a nutritionist as part of their recovery plan.

Thank you for the perspective and information. It's important to treat the "whole" person and I feel a nutritionist is another tool a patient in recovery can utilize.

@lance1960

I see that this your first post on Mayo Clinic Connect. Welcome to our online patient support community! I appreciate the warning you have provided to others about the use of Kratom and I am so sorry to hear about the serious problems you have had with this drug.

It looks as if Mayo Clinic agrees with you on this. I checked their website and they have a similar warning. Here is the link to Mayo's article titled, "Kratom: Unsafe and Ineffective." https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/in-depth/kratom/art-20402171

Interestingly, the first side effect listed in this article is "Weight Loss."

I'm wondering what steps you are now taking to feel better. Are you currently consulting with a physician, therapist, or psychiatrist to try and find an answer to the health problems that resulted from the use of Kratom? Please share with Connect as you are comfortable doing so.

I look forward to hearing from you again.

Hello @lance1960, and those included in this message, I am Sunnyflower and worked in a hospital detox and recovery/Residential treatment unit for 10 years. I am happy to answer any questions I can.
I am sorry to hear about your journey/struggles. Yes, Ativan is used for withdrawal and is quite effective. Be sure to communicate with the staff frequently and adequately so they can titrate your dose to make sure you are comfortable as possible.

Malnutrition was common to most of our patients on the unit no matter what their addiction but Kratom sounds much worse than other drugs in regard to weight loss. In that regard, it sounds like they are giving you some good IV nutrition. If I were you I would ask if they are working with the nutritionist they're in the hospital. I feel that is a must.

In your current environment, there are usually multiple disciplines meaning, chemical dependency counselors, mental health workers such as psychiatrists, social workers if necessary, Etc.

They usually have Family Programs because addiction is a family disease usually. Yes no family then friends for certain.

Please be assured there is no judgement from the staff working with you. Clearly you are judging yourself severely for being addicted. This cannot serve your well-being and will work against your recovery so as the staff where I worked used to say, you have to get rid of the stinkin Thinkin!

Now being a bible-believing Christian, I have learned that I can not only do that but I must replace the stinkin Thinkin With truth and wallpaper my mind with it such as some great scripture verses. Pretty soon you'll become very good at it and stop the stinkin Thinkin thought before you complete it and can immediately replace it with whatever truth will help you have a much better view of yourself. Being that most recovery environments refer to God or your
higher power and believe me, God loves us and we are made in His image so we need to think of ourselves as whoever our higher power is, does.

I have learned that His love is unmerited, deep, vast and unfathomable! It is my relationship with my higher power Whi for me is the God of the Bible/Jesus Christ.

I believe you will have a successful and tolerable withdrawal but you must be patient with your body.

Staff works hard on aftercare and statistics show that belonging to 12-step meetings and attending as many as possible per week is the formula for success.

Has anyone talked to you about Gabapentin? It is now being used in hospitals for surgeries and Pain Management. You probably already know but it is an anti-seizure medicine and somehow dulls pain.

Some people have side effects from it and some people do not. They usually start you out at a very low dose such as 100 mg once or twice a day. If you tolerate the drug and it works for you, it should be taken 3 times a day because it has a short half-life. But your doctors will work that out with you. I do know quite a few people who were not taking it three times a day and when they began to take it three times a day they had much better pain management. All of this must be discussed with the Doctor Who prescribes it for you if that is something you are amenable to try.

Please know I will be praying for you and your withdrawal, recovery, and after care. Please feel free to ask questions at any time and know that I am aware of my limitations and will not answer if I do not know.

We here on the blog care very deeply about one another and I am confident you will find support, encouragement, inspiration, and a lot of information here!

Take good care of yourself, warmest regards, Sunnyflower 🙏😊

Hi, I practice Christian beliefs also. My walk with Christ has helped me immeasurably. I'm a senior and live with my 43 yr old daughter, a 14 yr old granddaughter, and my husband of 45 years. We are exploring multigenerational living and on month 6. Here's the issue, my daughter is into 3rd year of ending an abusive marriage. She developed typeone diabetes during the marriage and is managing with her meds. She takes something to treat her depression. She is working online teaching and is a responsible person. She keeps up on the maintenance of being tidy etc. The problem is she seems to have lost touch with her appearance. A year ago, she started putting on weight. When I asked her about it, she claimed that too much emphasis is put on women's body types. Maybe so, but she probably gained 50 lbs in a short amount of time. From my arm chair psychologist perspective, it seems she is trashing herself with desserts the way her husband trashed her. When I attempt to explain my concern, she gets enraged and claims I am obsessed with weight. (Granted I was a little heavy most my life, not much, but worked hard with programs to keep myself within a normal range. And have succeeded.) This is a miserable situation. She has seen psy and therapists, and has a real dislike of my Christian Faith. She rejects the things I know could help her, ie, Weight Watchers, prayer, exercise. She seems detemined to belittle herself.

I'd like to hear any similar stories or ideas from any of you. Thanks.

@healthytoday This sounds like a tough situation. The topic isn't about addiction and recovery. Do you think this topic would be better suited for healthy living, just want to talk, mental health, or another group?

Regarding your question, have you ever considered why you daughter was in a bad marriage and why she is using food as comfort? Do you think that these symptoms have the same origin?

I'm wondering if answering this question will give you insight on how to move forward with this topic?

Do you think your intentions of helping are pushing your daughter further away?

My concern is my daughters addiction to unhealthy eating, and psy problems. I'll check elsewhere.

My concern is my daughters addiction to unhealthy eating, and psy problems. I'll check elsewhere.