What is Kambo and how can it help you improve your health?
Finding alternative treatments can be a great idea especially if you’re looking to step away from modern, chemical-based products. Thankfully, there are many different natural treatments like Kambo that have incredible potential. In fact, Kambo is widely regarded as one of the most powerful treatments coming from Amazonian tribes. But is it also a very reliable and efficient one? Let’s find out!
What is Kambo?
Primarily, Kambo is known for being a healing ritual. It’s very popular in South America, more specifically between Amazonian tribes. What makes it very different when compared to any natural ritual is certainly its primary ingredient. The name Kambo comes from the giant monkey frog, whose poisonous secretion is used for this particular treatment.
Kambo frogs, also known as Phyllomedusa Bicolor will secrete a poisonous substance as a way to protect themselves from any attackers. They also use the substance as a way to kill their prey. Amazonian tribes interacted with Kambo frogs for a very long time, and eventually they ended up dealing with the frog’s secretions. They soon realized that applying this substance to the human body can provide some interesting health benefits.
What is the Kambo medicine used for?
Kambo healing has become very popular when more people started realizing the true benefits brought by this incredible treatment. What’s important to note is that indigenous people have been using Kambo for a very long time as a way to cleanse their body, but also bolster their natural defense. In fact, many people from Amazonian tribes still use Kambo as a way to boost their hunting skills and increase their stamina.
On top of that, shamans learn how to safely apply and use Kambo in order to remove toxins and tackle a multitude of health problems. Kambo healing can help people tackle vascular conditions, rheumatism, but also infertility, AIDS or HIV. Kambo also helps with general infections, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, addiction, anxiety, Alzheimer’s disease or even cancer in some cases.
Does the Kambo treatment work?
When you think about the Kambo medicine, one of the first things that come to mind is whether this works well or not. Research suggests that Kambo can have a positive effect on your body. It helps stimulate the brain cells, while dilating your blood vessels and inducing a sense of relaxation. Some think that Kambo might bring in a placebo effect, and that might be the reason why we feel a spiritual cleanse upon using this treatment.
However, we need to keep in mind the fact that Kambo sticks and Kambo in general is poisonous. That means it can be dangerous and there are situations when people experienced things like sweating, a rapid heart rate, maybe even vomiting in some situations. While it’s very unlikely, death is also possible, especially if the person that gets treated is very sensitive to poison.
The problem here is that our skin absorbs all the compounds applied on it, and that includes the Kambo poison. That can be problematic for a person that has sensitive skin, not to mention the poison enters our bloodstream when it’s applied topically. It’s very important to not overdo the amount of Kambo you apply directly on your skin. As you can see, it’s lethal in the wrong dosage, so the last thing you want is to encounter such a problem.
What’s the best way to harvest/collect Kambo?
In order to prepare the Kambo medicine, you first need to acquire poison from these frogs. One of the things we need to keep in mind is that giant monkey frogs are nocturnal creatures. That’s why harvesting Kambo can be very hard, since they are hard to spot. Shamans have a specific call that they use to identify frog nests.
Once you capture a giant monkey frog, you need to learn how to collect its secretions. Shamans have developed special harvesting tools that can help safely collect those waxy secretions. These are kept in the frog’s legs. You will need to scrape the secretion from a frog’s leg onto a wooden stick, and then you will leave the stick to dry off. After the shaman collects Kambo, they release the frog. It’s a sustainable way to acquire such medicine, while also ensuring that the animal is unharmed during the entire process.
How does the Kambo ritual take place?
Normally, Kambo is administered during a very comprehensive ritual. It all starts with a shaman burning holes into your skin’s top layers. In order to do that, the shaman will use Kambo sticks. These sticks have a very low amount of Kambo poison, and they are usually applied to the person’s shoulder. However, the location can differ, it might be applied to the feet, legs or back depending on the situation. In just a few minutes after Kambo is applied, the person receiving this treatment will start feeling its effects.
There are some unpleasant symptoms related to Kambo medicine, which can be muscle contractions, losing control over your bladder, vomiting, dizziness, sweating and many others. Some people even said they feel a burning sensation throughout the entire body, along with those aforementioned side effects. It can take a few minutes until those symptoms go away, which shows the true power of this treatment.
As the symptoms wear off, shamans will encourage the person undergoing this ritual to drink water. One of Kambo’s roles is to help flush toxins, and hydration has a major role during this ritual. As we said earlier, Kambo can be very dangerous, since you’re basically ingesting poison via your skin. That can be very problematic and it can lead to major side effects, including death.
Should you consider Kambo healing practices?
Kambo can be very helpful and it does a good job at helping you flush out toxins. It can also be dangerous, because you never know how your body will react to it. Since this is poison from an Amazonian frog, the side effects you might encounter are hard to know beforehand. Which is why Kambo does come with its fair share of warnings, as it’s not a treatment for everyone. It might help, but it’s also dangerous, so you need to talk with a medical expert before attempting anything like that.
Why is it important to drink water during the Kambo treatment?
The thing you have to realize about Kambo is that it will end up flushing the toxins with much better results. If you are not properly hydrated, then you might feel the side effects of Kambo more than you might expect. That’s the reason why the amount of water you drink does matter, and in this case you will need to prepare beforehand.
It’s recommended to drink up to 1 liter of water before taking Kambo, and then you will need to drink around 1.5 liters after the fact. There is a thing to note here, if you drink too much water, that won’t be ok either. It might lead to complications, so you are better off sticking with these amounts unless the practitioner recommends otherwise.
Dosage is also extremely important when it comes to Kambo. There were people that died due to complications pertaining to Kambo treatments, since they had a very high dosage. Ideally, you want to start with a very low dosage and then slowly increase the amount, as needed. A lot of people have sensitive skin and their body might not also be prepared to deal with the toxins found withinKambo. So even if you might feel strong enough, it makes a lot of sense to always stick with a lower dose.
Another problem is that if you go for a higher dosage, that might also increase the length and intensity of any side effects. A lower dosage will limit the impact of those side effects, or maybe they might not appear at all. You always want to ensure that you stick with the Kambo health treatment guidelines and don’t change the dosage too much. If you do, that might have a negative impact on your health and wellbeing.
Is it possible to combine Kambo with other substances or treatments?
Kambo has its own ceremony and it’s known for being administered without any other substances. It’s very powerful to begin with, and the potential side effects that can arise from combining it with other substances can make it extremely dangerous.
You can try separate ayahuasca sessions, jurema or even secretions from the Colorado River toad if you want. However, you should never combine these with Kambo, as it’s a very dangerous idea and it might have long-lasting effects when it comes to your health and wellbeing.
It’s possible to find commercial Kambo medicine online or in some physical stores. It’s a good idea to only buy this type of medicine from a reputable source. The truth is that you don’t know the true dosage or intensity of the treatment. And, as we saw, it can be very dangerous to randomly use Kambo without knowing the dosage. That can lead to life-threatening problems, something you certainly want to avoid.
A Kambo cleanse can be very helpful since it does allow you to flush toxins and naturally improve your health. But as we said, if you try Kambo healing practices, you are also opening yourself up to various side effects. That’s the reason why you always want to know the Kambo side effects, and also how prone you are to encounter those kinds of problems.
Can you self-administer Kambo medicine?
It’s very important for anyone new to Kambo to not do this on your own. Instead, you want to work with an experienced practitioner that knows how to safely apply Kambo. That will help lower the occurrence of any side effects, while keeping you safe. Talking with a doctor beforehand will also help you identify any possible complications. It’s crucial to not go into Kambo if you have problems like heart issues or any complex diseases. Kambo can worsen your current health if you’re already dealing with some heart problems, so addressing that properly can make a huge difference.
Even if Kambo is very dangerous, a lot of people try it because there are proven results. Those that used this treatment were very happy with the outcome. If you stick with a very small dosage, that will limit the damage that such poison can do to your body. As we said, having a practitioner near you will help, since they know how to administer and use Kambo properly, while also keeping you safe. They won’t combine it with other substances either, which helps boost your overall safety and wellbeing.
What happens after the Kambo ceremony?
Afterwards, the Kambo dots are removed, and the gates end up dressed with natural tree sap. There’s a reason for that, since you will get to stay free of any infections. Normally, it will take most people around an hour or a bit more to recover. However, some people will need a lot more than that, so you need to take it all into consideration.
Your skin type and color will also influence the markings you end up with after the Kambo ceremony. Burn marks will stay there for a while, but depending on the skin type and color, they will fade quickly or can take a long time to recover.
Conclusion
Kambo is a very interesting treatment that brings in a much-needed cleanse for the human body. While it certainly has some side effects, many people still try the Kambo medicine or enter a Kambo ceremony because it has positive effects on their health and wellbeing. It’s recommended to talk with a medical professional before using any Kambo medicine, as it will help ensure everything is ok. Also, stick with a low dosage, that will limit any issues, while keeping you safe in the long run. There are still ongoing studies regarding Kambo, so you should only choose to work with a vetted practitioner that knows how to safely use and apply Kambo!
