Kratom has been a very popular tree native to the South East Asian region. Opioids are nothing but a class of drugs that have depressant qualities on the human body. These act by stimulating the central nervous system affecting the heart rate and other body functions. Opioids are capable of causing a sensation of immense mental euphoria in the body for endorphin is released when these are ingested. One of the most common examples of opioids has been heroin and morphine. The mechanism of these is to mainly fuse with the receptors in the body cells to create the psychoactive effects. But the risks of damaging the bodily functions due to the use of opiates are high. They make you dependent and addictive and when they are taken away generally people experience immense withdrawal symptoms that are hard to tolerate. Now the question arises is Red Maeng Da Kratom also an opioid or is just similar to it in mechanism?

This will become clearer once we study how it works.  Kratom is generally known to contain a number of active compounds called alkaloids with Mitragynine being the major one. These alkaloids are actually opioid agonists which mean they have the affinity for opioid receptors present in your brain. Once the leaves are ingested the active compound Mitragynine binds to these receptors influencing your mood and giving a feeling euphoria just like the opioids. But the difference lies in the type of the opioid receptors they bind to. Research shows that kratom has more affinity towards the delta opioid receptors while the actual opioids like heroin have affinity towards the mu opioid receptors. Also, kratom is known to react with a small set of opioid receptors unlike others by acting like endorphin and do not damage the body in the long run. Another key difference is that unlike opioids they bring relief to the body without being addictive hence you do not experience withdrawal symptoms. In fact kratom has been widely used to quit opiate addiction as these help you fight the withdrawal symptoms.