The Tribal History and Science of Kambo
An Amazonian frog making headway in the scientific community
The Tribal Legend of Kambo
The most prevalent legend of the origins of Kambo comes from the Kaxinawa tribe in Brazil. The people of the forest had fallen ill and their shaman, a man known as Kampum, took sacred plant medicine to enter a trance and communicate with the spirits of the forest. He was contacted by a feminine spirit who presented him with a frog, the Giant Monkey Tree Frog. She taught him how to use its medicine to heal his village. When he came back to his earthly body he knew how to heal his people with this frog. When Kampum died years later his spirit passed into the spirit of the Giant Monkey Tree Frog, which became known as Kambo. Kambo has been used by the tribes to cleanse and heal the body by strengthening its natural defenses and warding off bad luck. For thousands of years the practice of kambo stayed in the forest, it was not until the 1990’s that the use of Kambo medicine began to spread, since then, the use of kambo has slowly spread all over the world, gaining massive momentum in the past ten years. In fact,
Kambo has gained so much momentum that it is being studied by scientists for its fantastic chemical cocktail with potential medical applications.
How Kambo Heals the Body
The peptides contained in Kambo are short chain amino acids that make up proteins in our body. Currently, there are more than 70 Kambo patents lodged, mainly in the USA, although none of them can match up to the real thing. Some of the peptides in Kambo are neuropeptides, meaning that they specifically affect the brain and body by communicating with neurons. Other peptides contained in Kambo are bioactive, they are made up of a specific chain of amino acids which perform a function that the body views as beneficial. The body opens up to Kambo on a cellular level, allowing Kambo to clean out deposits left in the cells by foreign substances with no stress to the cells. Kambo can powerfully reach and treat disease because of the amazing cocktail of peptides that it contains. These peptides act as a key that unlock the body allowing Kambo to cross the blood-brain barrier rather than being filtered out by the body’s defense system.
Some of these peptides include:
Demorphin: Demorphin is a hepta-peptide known to be 30- 40 times stronger than morphine. This peptide affects the opioid receptors of the brain and offers a painkilling effect that is comparable to opioids. Demorphin being a peptide, it gives the pain killing effect without the same results as opiates. According to an article by the National Library of Medicine, “Experiments in rats and mice chronically exposed to dermorphins have shown that not only do they have higher antinociceptive efficacy and potency than morphine, but they are also less likely than morphine to produce tolerance, dependency and opiate side effects.”
Phyllomedusin: A neuropeptide that has a powerful effect on intestines and bowels, contributed to the purgative effect when under the effects of Kambo.
Phyllokinin: This neuropeptide can cause a long lasting reduction in blood pressure.
Phyllocaerulein: Another potent painkiller (but also a peptide so much different than an opiate) that reduces blood pressure and effects thermoregulation.
Adenoregulin: A 33 Amino acid peptide that works with the adenosine receptor. This antibiotic peptide can have harm reducing effects against a myriad of bacteria, fungi and protozoa, including cancer cells.
Tryptophylins: Highly potent against the yeast candida, may have potential in cardiovascular, inflammatory and anticancer therapy.
Personally Witnessed Healings
The healing potential of Kambo is vast and miraculous. I share this information to provide a better understanding of the healing it may provide. But it’s important to remember that everyone is different; no healing is guaranteed. I would like to share some personal stories of healing I have witnessed from my experience of serving Kambo. All names have been changed as I provide confidentiality to my clients.
A few years ago I served a man named Marcus. Marcus had a job cleaning heavy metals out of old air filters. They spray the filters with water in order to remove the heavy metals that have built up on them over time. During the Kambo experience, his eyes began to water and burn. When Marcus looked up at me there was black gunk being pushed out of his eyes. Marcus and I both believe that this was Kambo pushing heavy metals out of his eyes during the process! Heavy metal build up in the body is toxic and can even lead to various forms of mental illness. Kambo removing this from his body was necessary for his health and well-being.
A woman named Chelsea came to me with severe anxiety. Her anxiety had become so intense that she was on disability and was unable to go to work because of it.
“I wake up everyday with a heaviness on my chest”, she explained to me.
I placed the Kambo medicine on the small burn gates I had made on her skin and within minutes she had a smile on her face.
“The heaviness is gone”, she told me while smiling.
She purged from a deep place within her. I’ve noticed the different ways that clients purge. Some of the purging being light and sometimes being intense and deep. In my opinion, when the purging seems deep and intense, that is the client purging trauma and emotions held within the body for a long amount of time.
Following the Kambo, her anxiety continued to be at bay. She explained to me that the heaviness in her chest was no longer there. And how crazy this was because it was something that had been a constant in her life.
Kambo became the catalyst to heal my friend Joanne’s addiction to heroin. After thirteen different treatment centers and ten overdoses she had come to believe that nothing could help. “Maybe she was doomed to be addicted to heroin forever”, was a thought she had. Upon hearing about Kambo she decided to give it a shot. Joanne sat with Kambo for three days in a row. It's been three years and she hasn't touched heroin since.
Taking Tribal Wisdom Seriously
Kambo is making waves in western society for its miraculous healing potential. In a society plagued by pharmaceutical drugs, depression and anxiety, Kambo is proving that we can heal naturally. The peptides contained within Kambo are being isolated and studied by scientists around the world. This further proves the wisdom held within tribal societies. Often shrugged off by western medicine, it's important to begin to take tribal wisdom and medicine seriously. The west can learn a lot from the healing medicines being used by tribal peoples for decades.
Resources:
1.
Melchiorri P, Negri L. (1996, October 27). The Dermorphin Peptide Family. National Library of Medicine.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8981054/
