Ayahuasca, a warning statement for tourists eager to try this Shamanic bushABC Foreign Correspondent last night highlighted the way Australians traveled to South America to seek out the mystical experiences and healing properties of the ayahuasca plant.
Ayahuasca has two main ingredients, both of which are necessary for the drug to have its psychoactive effects
One is a plant containing dimethyltryptamine (DMT), the same compound found in many plants, including the national floral emblem of Australia, bitumen. Usually, if you eat or drink dimethyltryptamine, an enzyme in your stomach called monoamine oxidase rapidly metabolizes it into non-psychoactive chemicals. So, alone, dimethyltryptamine has virtually no psychoactive effect.
But among the millions of plants in the Amazon, the shaman realized that mixing two plants could create a mixture to provide a mystical experience and powerful visions. This second plant contains chemicals known as reversible monoamine oxidase inhibitors, which "neutralize" monoamine oxidase. Thus, dimethyltryptamine is free to be absorbed into the body, unchanged.
Dimethyltryptamine activates the same receptors in the brain activated by psychedelic drugs such as LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) and psilocybin (found in some fungi).
HEALTH COACH -
Comments
Post a Comment