Expanded 2-paragraph summary at a 6th grade reading level:

This paper tells the story of a 37-year-old woman who got very sick after taking a supplement called kratom for a long time. Kratom is a plant that some people use to help with pain, mood, and other issues. But it can also cause serious problems.

The woman had problems with her liver, kidneys, and gut. Her liver was damaged, her kidneys stopped working properly, and she had a severe case of colitis (inflammation of the colon). The doctors could not find any other cause for these problems, so they believed the kratom was to blame. After many weeks in the hospital, she needed a liver transplant to survive. This case shows that kratom can be very dangerous and can hurt your whole body, not just your liver.

This study was done in the real world, with a patient who was having serious medical issues. It
involved a human, not animals.

Key takeaways:

• Kratom, an herbal supplement, can cause severe damage to multiple organs, including the liver, kidneys, and colon.
• The effects of kratom can be delayed, with this patient developing problems over a year of use.
• Kratom can lead to life-threatening conditions like liver failure, requiring transplantation.
• More research is needed to fully understand the dangers of kratom and how to prevent these kinds of serious problems.

For further reading:

Link: https://journals.lww.com/acgcr/pages/default.aspx

Full Citation:

Khan, M. Z., Saleh, M. A., Alkhayyat, M., Roberts, D. E., & Lindenmeyer, C. C. (2021). Multiorgan Dysfunction Related to Kratom Ingestion. ACG Case Reports Journal, 8.