Does 7-OH Actually Work for Pain?
/By Crystal Lindell
I have some bad news for pain patients: 7-OH is the new pain reliever we’ve been searching for.
It’s about as effective at treating pain as a mild opioid pain reliever, with almost no risk of an overdose if used wisely. And best of all, you can buy it the same way you buy alcohol and tobacco: Over-the-counter. No doctor or prescription required.
So why is this bad news? Well, multiple government agencies are working on making 7-OH illegal, including the FDA. Some states, like Florida, have already banned it, while in California, they’re taking it off store shelves.
While those efforts would be benign if 7-OH was just another snake oil treatment, they quickly turn dire when we’re talking about a substance that actually helps pain patients, many of whom have lost access to prescription opioids.
For those unfamiliar, 7-OH is short for 7-hydroxymitragynine, an alkaloid that occurs naturally in kratom in trace amounts. Some kratom vendors now sell concentrated versions of 7-OH to boost its potency as a pain reliever and mood enhancer.
One of my relatives credits 7-OH with giving him back the ability to play with his daughter. 7-OH has done for him what Advil never could: it helped his back pain so much that it allowed him to be a better father.
Another one of my friends credits 7-OH with allowing him to stay off street fentanyl. Seriously. It’s that effective at treating his pain and alleviating long-term opioid withdrawal symptoms.
Another friend of mine who has been living in constant fear of losing access to her prescription hydrocodone says 7-OH has eased those fears. Because she now knows that if the unthinkable happens, she will still have access to pain relief. 7-OH works really well at treating her pain and lifting her mood.
While opioid pain relievers can cause drowsiness, many people report that 7-OH actually gives them a small burst of energy – just as kratom does.
My friends have told me that a small dose of 7-OH works about as good as 5 mg of hydrocodone, while larger doses rival the effectiveness of oxycodone.
When taken alone, 7-OH also doesn’t cause the same respiratory depression that large doses of opioids can, which means it doesn’t carry the same risk of overdose. Most deaths attributed to 7-OH actually involve other substances, such as alcohol or street drugs.
There are definitely downsides to 7-OH though.
One is that it does cause physical dependence pretty rapidly, especially if you take 7-OH on a regular basis. So, if you try to stop taking it abruptly, you may feel more irritable, have trouble sleeping, and you may have other symptoms like a restless leg. The best way to deal with that is to slowly taper off it if you want to stop using it.
Second, a lack of regulations around 7-OH also means that you may have to trial and error your way into finding a reliable brand you can trust. For example, some brands put additives in the tablets that cause bad headaches, and some brands don’t put as much 7-OH into their tablets as they claim, making them ineffective.
The third major downside to 7-OH is that it’s expensive. Smoke shops and online retailers sell a 5-pack of chewable 7-OH tablets for at least $50, while one tablet sells for about $10. Insurance won’t pay for it.
Each chewable tablet is made to be broken into sections, and the packaging usually says that either a fourth or half a tablet can be considered one dose.
However, how much you take depends greatly on your personal tolerance levels. Some people I know take a half tablet as a dose. But others I know take far less – about 1/16th of a tablet – because that’s more than enough to relieve their pain.
Unfortunately, one dose only lasts about four to six hours, which means you may need multiple tablets if you need to use it all day. You can see how fast that can add up financially when each tablet is $10.
Part of me wishes that pharmaceutical companies would work on developing pain relievers that use 7-OH, and their advancements would help address safety issues by making doses more uniform. But my fear is that they would also make the 7-OH medication available only by prescription, thereby killing one of its best features: accessibility.
If you are a chronic pain patient who’s looking for something over-the-counter to treat your pain, it might be worth giving 7-OH a try.
And if you’re a government official trying to ban it, well, all I can say is, please don’t. Pain patients get relief from 7-OH – and one day, you may need it too.
