Kratom has become very popular over the past few years due to his benefits, including the capability to relieve chronic pain, boost sexual energy, improve the immune system, and induce healthy sleep. The plant is also believed to help with addiction, ease anxiety, and prevent diabetes. Since people are just beginning to study the effects of Kratom, there are a lot of aspects that are still not well understood about the plant. For instance, many people still don’t know how the plant impacts the body and how long it can stay in a person’s system.
To help you learn more about Kratom, this post will highlight some of the most important factors that influence how long the plant stays in the system.
Kratom Half-Life
To establish how long a drug remains in your system, it vital to take into account its half-life. According to this study, the average half-life of Kratom is about 24 hours. This implies that after 24 hours of taking a Kratom dose, one-half of the dosage you took remains in your body. For instance, if you took 2g of the plant, there will be about 1g left in your system after 24 hours. And after another 24 hours, there will be 0.5g of the plant in your system and so on.
The half-life of Kratom in people who have used it for long tends to be shorter—about 3.5 hours. This shows that the half-life of the plant is influenced by other factors and may differ from one person to another.
Let’s dig deeper.
Age
Like most drugs, the age of a Kratom user may influence factors such as metabolism, half-life, disposition, and clearance. Kratom may exhibit longer elimination half-life among individuals over the age of 65 than younger adults. In most cases, this is due to poor renal and hepatic function as well as other age-related physiological functions.
Dietary Choices
It is believed that the amount and type of food you take before using Kratom may modify the speed of its absorption. In other words, taking the plant on an empty stomach could accelerate its absorption in the body as opposed to taking it with meals that have high-fat content.
Additionally, your body’s hydration also matters. How well your body is hydrated when taking Kratom could influence how long Kratom alkaloids remain in your body prior to renal excretion. Hydration also increases urinary flow rates, which can have an impact on the rate of Kratom elimination from the body.
Genetics
Although the exact kinetics of the Kratom hasn’t been fully studied, the plant is believed to be metabolized by the CYP2D6 isoenzyme, which is a highly polymorphic gene. A person may have alleles that facilitate the enhanced or poor function of the CYP2D6 isoenzyme. People with certain types of the CYP2D6 gene may have difficulties in metabolizing Kratom, making it stay longer in their systems.
Metabolic Rate
Your basal metabolic rate dictates the amount of energy that your body can burn at rest. The higher your BMR rate is, the faster you are likely to eliminate various drugs, including Kratom, in your body. So, it can be hypothesized that Kratom will stay longer in the systems of people with lower BMRs.
Hepatic functions
Individuals with severe hepatic impairment may experience abnormal plasma concentrations of mitragynine compared to those with normal hepatic functions. This deduction may be explained by the role that CYP2D6 isoenzyme plays in the metabolism of Kratom alkaloids. Put simply; Kratom may stay longer in people with hepatic impairments.
Other Factors
Other factors that are believed to impact the duration Kratom stays in your system include:
Amount of the drug used
Frequency of use
Your overall health
Drug interactions
Kratom strain consumed
Hopefully, now you understand the factors that may make you experience prolonged effects of Kratom in your body. However, if passing a drug test is your main motivation towards finding information on how long the drug remains in the human body, you should understand that the only definitive way to clear Kratom from your body and pass an upcoming drug test is to avoid using the drug altogether a few weeks before taking the test.