Yes. Kambo is used by worldwide by a growing number of people and is very safe, provided you are not contraindicated and are working with a certified practitioner. The tiny number of recorded incidents have been due to a combination of contraindication, negligence, and malpractice. There is no overdose potential; our cells simply stop accepting the kambo. I have seen 80 year olds take kambo like a champ and giggle about it afterwards.

Yes, but while everybody’s skin is different, these fade within a few months to a year. Most people wear their kambo marks with pride and they can be arranged in patterns of your choosing.

Kambo frogs are absolutely different from your mental image of ‘poison dart frogs’. For the frog, it’s a type of anti-bacterial shell, a concoction of AMPs (anti-microbial peptides). For us, our bodies do not treat it like a poison – on the contrary, our bodies recognize and co-operate with the peptides, performing their various functions. The unpleasant aspects of the process – such as vomiting – are not due to any adverse reaction or due to our bodies attempting to expel the secretion – they are natural results of certain peptides such as phyllomedusin and phyllocaerulein causing smooth muscle contractions. This becomes clear when understanding the roles of the various peptides in kambo, and a 2018 paper noted that “the combinaton of…high concentraton bioactive peptides, and the high potency of the peptides…are sometimes interpreted as results of an intoxicaton or a massive allergic reaction, which clearly they are not”. Without this understanding, it’s easy to just look at the effects on YouTube and conclude it is ‘poison’, but this is not the case – if that was the case, there would be a large number of emergencies stemming from it’s global daily use. Unless contraindicated (like with any kind of medicine) kambo is totally safe when practised responsibly.

If you were told that you could have vigor and optimum health for a period of time, in exchange for doing a weird shamanic practise that might result in a short bout of purging, would you do it? Kambo is done on an empty stomach, so if you do vomit it will only be water and fat-soluble toxins from your liver, making it much smoother and easier than what you may be used to after a night of drinking or a dodgy butter chicken. Additionally, you will often feel a blissful relief afterwards thanks to the morphine-like qualities of the dermorphin and deltorphin peptides in kambo. If it’s any consolation, the effects such as nausea are not due to “being poisoned”, or due to an allergic reaction, or due to the body trying to expel the substance. They are actually direct pharmacological results of some of the peptides in Kambo, causing smooth muscle contractions, bile secretion, etcetera. I won’t lie, it’s not particularly pleasant in the initial stages, but there is a reason: it is worth it.

It isn’t. You do not ‘trip’ or hallucinate. Kambo is often confused with Bufo Alvarius, otherwise known as the Sonoran Desert Toad, which is completely different.

The frogs are not killed or harmed when collecting the secretion. In the jungle, kambo frogs are treated with care and an almost deity-like reverence so as not to ‘anger the frog spirit’, after which they are returned to the trees and not touched again for several months. They cannot produce the secretion in captivity so all collection takes place in the wild. They are very abundant in number and have no natural predators; they are calm and docile and show no stress in handling. You may have seen images of the frogs tied up during collection – while it appears as if their legs are stretched too far, this is not the case, they have naturally long legs when elongated.

Kambo is not restricted and is legal worldwide save for some IP restrictions in Brazil. Practitioners are certified through very rigorous training with the IAKP.

You may be exhausted after your process or you may feel invigorated. Taking it easy for the day is recommended, but you will be able to drive and function normally once you have had something to eat and recovered.

Absolutely not. Kambo is for almost everyone, and thousands of people from all walks of life – young and old, skeptical and open-minded, businesspeople and athletes – use kambo globally, and all can benefit from its power.