Title : Kava for anxiety and celsius for energy: Student attempts at “healthy” alternative herbal therapies through beverages
Abstract:
This presentation explores student use of alternative herbal therapies in the United States, especially through beverages and supplements. Energy drinks and coffee shop preparations with added “herbal ingredients” listed or advertised serve as an entry to herbal medicine use and help students feel that they are moderating unhealthy diets or lifestyles. Kava (Piper methysticum), a relative of black pepper used traditionally throughout the South Pacific for anxiety, stress, pain, and muscular spasms or cramps is a particularly popular choice as an alternative remedy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and stress in the military veteran community on campuses and has spread to non-military students. Reasons for using these remedies are not just an attempt to offset unhealthy lifestyles or situations –herbal remedies in particular are chosen because students are dissatisfied with allopathic therapies on multiple levels while having positive associations with traditional medicines. For this presentation, I give a brief summary of the clinical findings and official status of Kava, Guarana, Ginseng, tea extracts, and other herbal ingredients added to energy drinks and teas before moving onto the reasons given for preferring these herbal supplements over allopathic medications. Data is from literature review and text analysis of online forum posts within student and veterans’ groups, discussion threads, and public testimonials as well as from interviews with self identified student users of herbal supplements. In summary, the supplement use shows the same pattern seen in many other cases when alternative and traditional remedies are chosen over prescription drugs. In short—when a society’s cultural systems (such as medical care) do not meet the needs of a significant portion of people, they seek alternative paradigms that do offer them what they need. Traditional medicine, ethnomedicine, and natural therapies have solidified their place in modern global society and in the United States, in particular, because they meet needs unfulfilled by Western allopathic medicine. Theme and qualitative analysis of modern information sources and popular ethnomedical therapies show that the same core reasons people choose these therapies remains the same. People are more likely to use herbal remedies for illnesses not satisfactorily treated by Western allopathic medicine. These failings could be comfort during treatment, balancing spiritual, cultural, or ethical beliefs during therapy, ideas of acceptable side effects, personal control, or a desire for inexpensive or easily accessible solutions. Energy drinks and adding herbal remedies to beverages is seen as an easy way to counterbalance the stresses of student life.
