Why Experts Are Sounding the Alarm on Kratom, Bodybuilding's Viral 'Natural' Booster
Anyone browsing the bodybuilding corner of social media will eventually stumble upon kratom, a legal herb consumed for its ability to boost energy, elevate focus, and enhance pain tolerance. On YouTube, for example, Australian bodybuilding legend Lee Priest says he takes kratom before workouts to improve focus and support pain-relief during training.
Priest doesn’t think the botanical is addictive. If anything, he says, “you could probably get addicted to that focused feeling.”
Scroll a few videos down, and you might click on a podcast excerpt from professional bodybuilder and fitness influencer Nyle Nayga opening up about how using kratom led to an addiction—and why bodybuilders should be aware of its side effects.
This contrast in opinion exemplifies a growing divide within the online bodybuilding community. For every video testimonial about the safety and effectiveness of kratom for stamina, another shares a news story about deaths from “gas station heroin.” To help bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts feel more informed about this popular supplement, here’s a look at both sides of the kratom controversy—and where regulation currently stands.
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What Is Kratom?
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Kratom has been used as a medicinal plant across Southeast Asia for centuries. Now that the botanical is widely available at convenience stores, vape shops, and e-commerce platforms in the U.S., the substance has gained popularity among bodybuilders, who believe it helps them achieve greater results without side effects like pain and fatigue.
“Its main compounds, like mitragynine, act as mild stimulants at lower doses, giving users a sense of drive and endurance that helps them push through intense workouts,” says psychiatrist Sam Zand, D.O.
People have anecdotally reported increased alertness, improved physical energy, and more social behavior after taking kratom, but further research is needed to fully understand its stimulant effects in humans.
The pain-relief effects of kratom are better documented. One study showed that compared to a placebo, whole-leaf kratom significantly increased pain tolerance. Participants included 26 men who considered themselves long-term daily kratom users, and after ingesting a kratom drink, researchers measured how long they could withstand having their hand in an ice bath.
These effects explain kratom’s draw for bodybuilders who want to train harder, and more often—without the extra recovery time.
“In a culture that prizes performance optimization, kratom’s image as a plant-based enhancer fits well with the mindset of those always looking for the next edge,” Zand adds.
Some bodybuilders are so passionate about the results they’ve experienced that they’re determined to share them with the masses. Professional powerlifter Mark “Smelly” Bell started his own kratom brand, Mind Bullet, which he promotes on his social media platforms.
In another example, entrepreneur Ali Garawi and his brother founded Dialed Moods—a company that sells kratom in the form of energy drinks, gummies, and powders—after finding that kratom enhanced their performance, recovery, and overall success in sports like MMA and bodybuilding.
Kratom Effects: Health Drawbacks, Addiction, and Overdose Risk
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The greatest controversy with kratom regards derivatives such as 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH). Although small amounts of 7-OH exist naturally in the kratom plant, manufacturers have created synthetic products that can be up to 50 times more potent than whole kratom.
Consumers are drawn to products containing 7-OH because it offers more intense pain-relief qualities than whole-leaf kratom; however, 7-OH binds to the same brain receptors as opioids like heroin and oxycodone, increasing the potential of dependency and addiction. 7-OH has similar respiratory depression properties to opioids, meaning that in high amounts it could stop a person’s breathing—a risk that’s elevated when taken with alcohol or other central nervous system depressants, as seen in a string of recent deaths in Los Angeles. Like opioids, an overdose of 7-OH can be reversed with the opioid agonist naloxone, commonly known as Narcan.
Addiction detox programs, substance use disorder rehabilitation centers, and state poison control agencies all report a rise in kratom dependency. According to the Washington Poison Center, calls in the state involving kratom increased significantly during the second half of 2025, and about one-third of those cases involved 7-OH. A similar trend has been seen in Pennsylvania. However, data on the negative effects of 7-OH are likely underreported, since poison center cases are voluntary and most statistics often don’t yet differentiate between whole-leaf and 7-OH products.
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Is Kratom Legal?
Kratom is legal on a federal level because the Drug Enforcement Administration hasn’t classified it under the Controlled Substances Act, the framework by which potentially harmful drugs are assigned a schedule of I through V. This means someone can’t be prosecuted for possession of kratom, unless they’re in a state where kratom is banned outright. However, kratom isn’t approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a drug, supplement, or food additive, so companies cannot legally claim that their kratom serves a medical purpose like pain relief.
In July 2025, the FDA recommended that 7-OH be classified as a controlled substance. This kicked off a lengthy evaluation process that could ultimately result in the substance becoming illegal—a move championed by some whole-leaf kratom companies, whose products don’t fall under this ban.
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“We support banning this synthetic compound in hopes that it will help protect consumers and educate them on what real kratom is,” Garawi says.
Garawi joins other kratom manufacturers in describing their products with terms like “natural” and “real” to distance themselves from 7-OH—and the competitor companies who sell it.
How to Know Whether Kratom Is Right for You
Like many performance-enhancing supplements that aren’t FDA-approved, kratom products, and those containing 7-OH, can vary greatly in ingredient labeling, dosing recommendation, and chemical intensity.
In addition to creating confusion for consumers, this poses dangers around how kratom interacts with common drugs. Some research suggests that kratom can increase the risk of serotonin syndrome, a potentially life-threatening condition where the body is flooded with too much serotonin. In one report, this negative interaction occurred when Kratom was combined with the antidepressant medications bupropion and sertraline (Zoloft); in another case, serotonin syndrome occurred when the antipsychotic quetiapine and the antidepressant Venlafaxine were combined with kratom, though both patients survived because they received medical attention.
Lack of regulation and understanding around kratom also means that bodybuilders with large online audiences are at full liberty to create content emphasizing the benefits they’ve experienced from kratom, while also minimizing its dangers.
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For instance, a bodybuilding and addiction recovery coach, who goes by the name Coach HardgainZ, runs the YouTube channel Healing2gether. Here, you can find a playlist dedicated to more than 90 informational kratom videos. With more than 23,000 views, this playlist includes videos about his favorite pre-workout kratom product and how kratom can help people curb addiction. Yet Coach HardgainZ uses such videos to simultaneously promote Kingdom Kratom, a company with which he has a paid partnership.
This not only brings his claims into question—but it also raises concern about the morality of promoting potentially addictive substances to an audience of people with substance use disorder.
“This creates a powerful form of peer influence where followers, especially young men in bodybuilding communities, try kratom because someone they admire promotes it,” Dr. Zand says. “As a result, kratom’s popularity has grown less through scientific support and more through social proof and marketing hype, despite rising medical concern about its addictive potential and long-term health risks.”
Until kratom and its synthetic counterparts have been extensively researched, there may not be enough impartial information out there to draw a line in the sand. Instead, bodybuilders should take a discerning approach to kratom. This includes investigating whether influencers stand to gain financially from promoting kratom products, and leaning on science and advice from medical professionals to decide whether kratom is right for their bodybuilding goals.