Kratom Tolerance: What It Is, When It Could Happen, And How To Lower It

Kratom tolerance, like any drug tolerance, is pretty straightforward. The more you get used to something, the more your body needs to reproduce the same level of effects. Over time this can get chronic, and completely negate the experience.

For some people, kratom tolerance is never an issue. But for others, it can build up quite rapidly and they never quite get the experience that they had initially.

There are a couple of strategies for dealing with this problem, and so you’re going to learn everything you need to know in the next five minutes, including how to lower kratom tolerance if it’s built up.

What Is Kratom Tolerance Exactly?

So what we’re talking about is the doses of kratom you are taking building up tolerance in your body incrementally.

For some people, this can happen in weeks, while in other people, it never happens.

But the basic premise is that the more frequently you take kratom, and the higher the dose, the more that tolerance can build up.

Your body gets used to it, and you keep needing more to create the same agonist effects on the opiate receptors that kratom interacts with. This is in addition to just getting used to being under the effects of kratom. A bit like when you drink alcohol, the more, and more regularly, that you drink, the more you can tolerate before you fall over.

Many people report these as the phases of using kratom:

  • The honeymoon period where you get an amazing experience from moderate doses
  • The experimental phase where you get good experiences from increasing doses
  • The sweet spot where you find the best experience from a very small dosage range
  • The slippery slide downwards when your doses start to increase to maintain the experience

kratom powder

How Likely Are You To Suffer From Kratom Tolerance?

Thankfully, most people don’t really suffer from kratom tolerance, and if they do, it’s so minor that they don’t even really notice it.

But I’ve seen enough evidence on sites like Reddit to suggest that some people try kratom a few times and it’s wonderful, and then they basically start chasing those initial feelings with higher doses.

I’m not saying the chances are high, but if you start to notice that the initial 3 g dose you are taking is becoming 4 g, then 5 g, then 6 g to get the same feeling over a few months, then you are already in the grips of kratom tolerance.

The key point here is to notice the effects it has with the dose you are taking. Also think about the frequency of when you are using kratom. If nothing is changing with those things, and you are buying and using the same kratom from the same supplier, then an incremental increase in dose over weeks and months could point to tolerance building. Self-awareness in kratom use to head this problem off before it gets acute is key.

Ways To Avoid Kratom Tolerance

When it comes to trying to avoid kratom tolerance, these are the things you can do:

  1. Try and keep kratom to an occasional thing. Two or three times a week should be fine. But the more you take it, the more tolerance can build. If you’re taking kratom daily, or even multiple times per day, then you’re at high risk of developing an increasing kratom tolerance.
  2. Make sure the kratom you are using is really high-quality. The less physical kratom you take in, the more concentrated it will be, and the easier it will be to get the effects you want rapidly. If it’s poor quality kratom, then you have to take more powder, more doses, and the effects will be patchy, which can itself lead to an ever-increasing dosage range.
  3. You should try different ways to potentiate the kratom as well. Mix it with lemon juice and then freeze it. This breaks down the kratom and allows the alkaloids out more readily. Potentiating kratom means you’ll get a more concentrated hit, that is absorbed more rapidly. That means you’ll take smaller doses, and it helps to offset the potential for kratom tolerance.

how to make kratom stronger

How To Lower Kratom Tolerance

But let’s say that you know you have developed a tolerance to kratom. Your doses are increasing, the frequency is increasing, and you’re pretty sure you’re taking kratom that is rich in alkaloids. So it’s looking like you’re developing a kratom tolerance.

In that situation, these are the things you can do in order to start learning how to lower your kratom tolerance:

  1. You could take a complete kratom tolerance break. So you abstain from kratom for a few weeks. A couple of weeks is enough for a lot of people, but it could require a month if you have built up a significant tolerance. This allows your body to reset itself and for your opioid receptors to get used to being triggered naturally. You should then find that a low dose like you took the first time you had kratom, should feel significantly more potent to you. This simple kratom tolerance reset can really help most people.
  2. The second thing you can do is to taper down. Start taking lower doses, and more infrequently. You’re not doing a tolerance break, but you are giving your body more time to calm down and react naturally. Many people find that this can help. Although you are getting lower effects, you’re also lowering your tolerance, which means that when you go back to a lower dose, you feel significantly more of the positive kratom effects.
  3. Mix up the types of kratom you take. A lot of people have found that by taking different strains of kratom, which have different alkaloid profiles, you can get similar effects but without building up a tolerance. If you are hitting yourself with 5 g of Green Borneo five times a week, you are hitting yourself in exactly the same way. If you use a couple of different types of green, maybe some white, maybe some red, and maybe even create a blend of white and green to use once a week as well, then although it’s all kratom, it’s carrying different alkaloid profiles, which means you’re not triggering the different opioid receptors, in the same way, every time.
  4. Some people swear that magnesium acts as a kratom potentiator. On top of that, it’s been shown that people low in magnesium tend to need high doses of kratom. Magnesium helps to absorb and process many different types of things in the body, so by taking a small magnesium supplement, you could require lower doses, and lengthen the odds of you requiring a kratom tolerance break.