After my horrid night last night, I've gone ahead and purchased a small quantity to see if it will help when I'm flaring.

I'm not one to like feeling "altered," so it will be interesting to see how I react.

Janie, I hope it helps you and think it likely will. For me anyway there's no altered/psychotropic drug feeling. Look forward to your reaction!

There were lots of strains to choose from, so after a bunch of reading, I selected one that seemed most often referenced for help with pain.

One of the concerns I have is what I'm reading that in small dosage, it acts as a stimulant. Do you find that to be the case? That would not be helpful.

Janie, they do say (whoever they are) that smaller doses are more stimulating and that might be true, but I haven't experimented in that way. I got myself a kitchen scale and after some experimenting found that a dose of 5 grams works just right for me. This is about a rounded teaspoon plus a bit more (dependent on the strain and therefore the density).

I began with a dose of a teaspoon leveled off. So you might begin that way and see how it affects you. So they say (them again!), the red strains are more sedating, the greens and whites more energetic. I'm not sure I find that to be the case though. For me it's mainly which vendors and strains are more potent.

My guess is you'll soon find your sweet spot. I hope you like this miracle substance as much as I do!

Thanks for all the feedback.

I will definitely have to play around with dosage, so thanks for the tips. I don't have a whole lot of experience with opioids, but have taken them after ortho surgeries. I seem to remember just sleeping a lot. That would be a desirable effect from this since I'm looking for help at night.

I did get a red strain Indonesian after some reading, and also just found this nice page:

http://ensobotanicals.com/kratom/


Strains for Pain

The primary reason kratom is so effective for pain are it’s two primary painkilling alkaloids: Mitragynine, and 7-OH-mitragynine. Which have agonist activity at mu and delta opiod receptors, effectively dampening the body’s perception of pain. As a result, those who are looking for pain relief from kratom have had best effects with strains high in these two alkaloids.

Leaf alkaloid content can vary from plant to plant, and from strain to strain, however, there are a few strains which seem to be the most effective for pain overall. The most popular strains for this purpose are:

Strains

Borneo
Indo
Maeng Da
Bali

Preferred Vein Color

Red

Dosage

Moderate/High

Well this might be a little disappointing but I'm sure you're used to that. Kratom and opioids in general are not very effective on nerve pain compared to say a muscular pain etc. It does help as an adjunct therapy however. Not much as a stand alone. Best of luck.

Totally used to disappointment, but it doesn't keep me from trying.

That's where I started and a year later I was up to 25g.

I'm using one level teaspoon, which based on what Balanchine said, is a probably in the neighborhood 4 - 4.5 grams or thereabouts. I tried it again last night as my feet and temples were burning worse than the night before, and I wanted to see its usefulness at that level of discomfort.

It took care of the burn beautifully, but when I got one of those nerve zingers, it was loud and proud. So as I think icelander mentioned, it might not help with nerve pain. Thankfully I don't get a lot of the zingers anymore.

If I remember right a level tsp. is about 3.5 grams at most. And isn't burning also nerve pain? Anyway be a little conservative with it. I got to where I was using 25 g. a pop. Even though I was addicted quitting was relatively easy. I was surprised. Now I save it for when nothing else is working and it's heavy pain.