I could endure the pain. To answer your question specifically, yes. I think that kava is going to be a replacement for many, not all, of the people who have been using valium-like drugs to deal with mild to moderate anxiety. Already in Europe, this is common medical practice. Berlin, Germany - here kava is a registered medicine.
Patients take their prescriptions to their local pharmacy.
If you actually look at the work that they've done, if you actually look at the data and you are skeptical andcareful, you should not be convinced by it. One problem, according to Dr Hyman, is the trials were too short to prove long-term effectiveness or to eliminate questions about side effects. That proof could come from clinical trials in this country, and Dr Hyman is the man who decides whether to spend the federal research dollars to prove kava's worth as an effective medicine. My job is to be a professional skeptic and to make sure that if we say that something works, that the American people know that something works and that something is safe. I think there is some interesting evidence about kava, and I think we owe to it the American people to take it seriously.