A Kambo cleansing also known as a Kambo circle or Kambo ceremony, Kambo, vacina-do-sapo, or sapo (from Portuguese “sapo,” lit. “frog” in Portuguese and “toad” in Spanish), is a purge using skin secretions of the kambô, a species of frog.
A healing ritual used mainly in South America. It’s named after the poisonous secretions of the giant monkey frog, or Phyllomedusa bicolor. To collect the secretions for the ceremony, a frog is caught, then tied tightly to four sticks placed in the ground, and its limbs stretched between the sticks. This causes the frog to become stressed enough to activate its defence mechanism, and secrete a substance containing peptides from its skin
Steps in The Kambo Cleansing
The first part of the process involves drinking about a liter of water or cassava soup.
Next, a practitioner uses a burning stick to create a number of small burns into the top layers of the skin using the end of a burning stick. They then apply a small amount of kambo to each burn. The shoulder is the typical location for kambo administration, but the practitioner may also apply it to the back, legs, or feet. resulting in blisters. The blistered skin is then scraped off, and the kambo is applied to the wounds.
From the wound, the kambo enters the lymphatic system and bloodstream, where it’s said to race around the body scanning for problems. This usually results in some immediate side effects, especially vomiting.
Once these effects begin to fade, the person is given water or tea to help flush out the toxins and rehydrate.
Symptoms Experienced Post Kambo Clensing
Within minutes of applying the kambo, people tend to experience immediate and generally unpleasant symptoms, such as:
- sweating
- tachycardia, or a rapid heart rate
- dizziness
- nausea
- vomiting
- loss of bladder control
- muscle contractions
- Many people report feeling a burning sensation throughout their bodies. Dizziness, nausea, and violent vomiting, which can last for several minutes, quickly follow the burning sensation.
Kambo Cleansing Use for Health Issues
Users and practitioners of kambo claim that the alternative medicine helps with a wide variety of issues and conditions. These claims include treating addiction, depression, and chronic pain, reducing fevers, increasing fertility,boosting energy and physical strength, and improving mental clarity.It is also claimed that kambo removes negative energy and cleanses the soul and body.
There is currently no scientific basis to these claims. There is no solid medical evidence on how the frog toxins work, whether they are useful for treating anything, and whether they can be used safely: no clinical trials have tested them on humans, as of November 2019.
Kambo is legal but not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration or any other health organization. This means there’s no oversight on quality or contaminants in the product.