Ive heard other tryptamine based compounds are amazing for curing certain headaches, lsd even at well below psychedelicly active levels, and that egrotamine based substances are actually being tested for the treatment of migraines. sorry no links.

I've read the same thing somewhere... I can't remember tho. But yeah it was something along the lines of using some psychoactive alkaloids to treats persons with reoccuring migraines

migraine medicine's have been around since the 40' or 50's. Ergotime Tartrate is a precursor to these migraine medicine amongst other things. You can credit that to Albert Hoffman i believe or at least his worked definately contributed to these because Sandoz developed them.(from what i read this is true but im not 100%-dqm)

I think ayahusca owes it's health benefits mostly to the caapi vine. The harmala alkaloïds are said to be anti-oxidants and have anti-depressive, anti cancer and anti-parkinson properties. Besides this they have been used against malaria and other parasites.
I have never heard of DMT itself having similar health benefits. I think that if this would be so,at least some DMT derivates wich are very close to DMT should have similar health benefits. But of shrooms, yopo, vilca, etc. there are no health benefits reported as far as i know.

The harmala alkaloids have been studied far longer than DMT or any of its relatives have. As more scientific studies are done, I'm sure we'll find that DMT and its relatives do have health benefits.

All of those are very useful in preventing cluster headaches.

Look here: http://www.miqel.com/clu...uster-head-mushroom.html
Also here: http://www.psychonaut.co...f313caad37a7&lang=nl
Also here: http://www.ouch-us.org/m...tions/psilocybin_lsd.htm
Also here: http://www.clusterbusters.com/lsa.htm

Yopo/vilca are also effective against ED according to several first hand reports from friends.

The lack of scientific evidence for positive effects does not mean they do not exist. As with LSD, despite popular belief, it has been found to have many health benefits.

LSD is very useful in treating certain severe forms of psoriasis. Ling and Buckman detail the clinical use of LSD for cases of anxiety, frigidity, migraine, psoriasis, etc., based on their treatment of over 350 patients at Marlborough Day Hospital (in London).

LSD and LSA (found in HBWR and morning glory seeds) are believed by some to extend the life span of human beings.

The inventor of LSD, Albert Hofmann, died at age 102 and he ingested LSD and related chemicals many times. Was it just a coincidence? Maybe, or maybe LSD really does extend human life span. Those theories about it existed long before Hofmann died.

SWIM used LSD over 1000 times in his life before it stopped being available. SWIM looks far younger than he is. Everyone always tells him that. His skin is very smooth, his face looks 10 years younger than his peers. Is that also just a coincidence?

SWIM also used to suffer from migraine headaches regularly. But when he started using LSD, they cleared up. He never gets them anymore.

I've heard those stories about LSD. Some psychedelic lysergics are still being used against migaine in not-psychedelic amounts. If LSD has these benefits, then it's probaby dependant on the dosage. If too much is used and you pass the peak of the 'LSD-healthbenefit-curve', you probably reach the opposite, just like with many of the other ergot- substances.

Yeah of course.

Anything in excess is bad. Too much oxygen can kill you. Too much water can kill you. Too much salt can kill you. Too much typing at these furums could probably kill you too...it you didn't stop to eat every once in a while

With psychedelics such as LSD and DMT i think at least they're safe cncerning physical effects. There are these stories about LSD causing DNA-damage, but they are all untrue.
I believe that most health effects are related to psychological effects these substances have. I've seen people getting quite messed up becausse of their excessive use of psychedelics and at the same time my experiences with psychedelics are very positive and i think they have contributed to my life in many ways, just as with some other people i know. So i think that it's the nature of the experience you have with them that causses it to contribute to your health or to do damage. Cortisol levels rise on most psychedelics and we know this can causse oxidative stress and at the same time it is the intensity of the experiences that contributes to a feeling of being 'reborn', afterwards. Psychologic stress can damage some peoples health and at the same time can be beneficial to other peoples health.
A few years ago i went skydiving a few times (once on 4 grams of mushrooms even) and i noticed that all these skydivers looked so healthy, they seemed to posses a sort of vitality and they always looked as if they really enjoyed life very much.
I think the experience of 'flying' did something to them that was just plainly visible to everyone. So things that can causse stress, severe stress even, as long as you experience it positively can contribute to your health i think. But when you get really stressed- out the opposite happens and you turn into a zombie.

SWIM had a bad throat for a few days now.. he had lost his voice (dont know how you call it in english, but when you get that funny ´failing´ voice).. SWIM was in the process of getting better, but right now SWIM smoked some dmt and had a huge improvement! After smoking, SWIM was spitting phlegm (too many details? sorry haha) and really felt so much better with the throat, the voice too!

maybe the dmt vapour helps loosening the stuck phlegm in the throat? dont know.. but was interesting somehow haha

I don't think it's that good for your lungs. I think the vapor just numbed your lungs and windpipe defence-system for a while.
Ayahuasca is probably the healthiest way of taking spice.

yeah I didnt mean to imply its good for the lungs.. my problem was in the throat specifically, accumulation of phlegm.. maybe the dmt vapours helped releasing them because later I was spitting it all out..

but for sure I think ayahuasca is the healthiest way.. also because as has been said already, a lot of the benefits are in the caapi and beta carbolines.

I'm mostly concerned about the effects on the lungs I also feel alot of pain when I smoke later i'll feel alot of "junk" in my lungs but i'll cough it up and they'll feel cleaner then before until I smoke another cigarette.



"I don't think it's that good for your lungs. I think the vapor just numbed your lungs and windpipe defence-system for a while."

would that cause an illusion of them being clean or make it easier too cough it out? im confused.

I know it can completely distract you from any pain. At the same time you can 'hallucinate' that you have a pain somewhere.

A friend of a friend told me to tell you this:

I was hoping to leave it a bit longer to post this here, to see how things go in the long run, but I just can't stop myself from posting this. I am certain that DMT has changed me, for the better.

A few years ago, I got very ill for no apparent reason. While no diagnosis was able to be given at the time as tests all came up normal, I was later told by my psychologist that I had probably had chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME). The illness came on when I had been veggie for 6 months, and gave up oral antibiotics (for acne) after a period of over a decade, and the only other possible factors could be that I caught a nasty food-poisoning type virus off my girlfriend and her friends, and possibly was under stress though no more so than at other periods in my life. Whatever the cause, I got abnormally skinny and pale, constantly fatigued, stomach pains etc, needed abnormal amounts of sleep but never felt refreshed, felt mentally slow and eventually got to a point where I was having dizzy spells and felt like my soul was being ripped from my body to an inch to the right during a nauseous period I would have at the same time every afternoon. At this point I felt I must make the choice between eating meat again, or suicide. I opted for meat, and whether coincidence or not, my health gradually improved over the next 6 months. However, I never got back to the same level of energy that I had before falling ill and this made me understandably sad and lacklustre, which is why I started seeing a psychologist. Psychology was helpful, but in all honesty it only helped me to 'accept my fate', because I never regained the energy and enthusiasm for life that I once felt.

We're nearly getting to the DMT bit. I needed to stop binge drinking, which I had been doing since the age of 13 at least once a week, a few years before 3 times a week. Alcohol was definitely enjoyable escapism, as well as being used to counteract shyness when young. My hangovers now took two or three days, and on the first day I would do ABSOLUTELY nothing, not even get out of bed. Discovering Peruvian Torch helped me curb my drinking, because by taking 5g when I went out, I lost that hunger to continue pouring booze down my throat. This was my first step towards healing. Buying the book 'Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy' was my second and somehow helped me far more than the psychologist did.

I then heard about ayahuasca and tried hostilis with rue. I had an amazing visionary first time that left me walking on air for the rest of the week. However, the next time I got a real mental pounding from the rue, and couldn't get enough of the light down, and had a horrible horrible experience that was in no way helpful whatsoever- I was already aware of the problems that surfaced and felt depressed for days afterwards. Without the light, the purge was a really nasty experience too. I suspected that it was the power (MAOI) that I didn't need, just the light, so I decided to try smoking DMT instead. I was spot on. It's as if DMT and I were made for each other. After 3 years, I feel energy and enthusiasm again, I'm so happy, and I have decided that I shall be smoking DMT weekly for the rest of my life. As well as these physical/psychological effects (depending on what's actually happened in my brain), when I'm out I have no desire whatsoever to get drunk any more, in fact I actually specifically don't want to drink too much. DMT also satisfies my spiritual curiosity as if it were filling the 'hole' left inside me by my atheism. I feel loved, if that makes any sense, I almost feel like I'm in love, it's a similar feeling. Don't worry, I don't feel in any danger of being addicted, if such a thing is possible.

Not much is known about CFS/ME. It's a syndrome that seems to have emerged with my generation (I'm 30). It was originally called ME because they thought it was caused by brain swelling. That theory is no longer in favour, and its name changed to CFS, but they call it CFS/ME still because sufferers are keen to keep the physical connotations of the 'ME' label in defence of unsympathetic people who think sufferers are 'just lazy'. A recent theory is that a virus is caught which causes mild brain damage in the relevant areas of the brain... such that while the patient has recovered entirely from the virus, the brain still believes and acts as if the patient is still ill, hence the fatigue, inactivity and excess sleep. Extreme sufferers even feel debilitating pain and muscle aches, but fortunately I didn't suffer that badly.

So I think it's interesting that you talk about it both curing headaches and distracting from pain. For me, I feel like it has lifted the 'trick' that my brain (physically damaged or not) was playing on me. I will let you know if my current situation changes, but I don't feel like it will. I feel... right again. Hope this tale is of value.

Hmm, i'm a vegetarian for a very long time now and i feel absolutely fine. But my sister when she wanted to stop eating meat, had the same symptoms you describe.And i know of some other people who had this same thing as well and i know someone who even had to be hospitalized after not eating meat for a few years. Suddenly changing your diet can be a shock to the body.
DMT, makes the brain to release the nerve growth hormone as well as the stress hormone cortisol of wich it is known that it can damage nerve cells. I think that whether DMT is good for you, or whether it will damage you, depends on the balance between these factors. When you stay on the right side, your life will improve greatly but when you use DMT excessively, it will hurt you. You're the one to determine where this line is drawn.

do you have any sources for these claims?

I don't remember where excactly i've read this. The cortisol thing, i've read more often.
I will look it up. Both claims are not that strange, though. The cortisol speaks for itself, almost. And the nerve growth factor is also known (again, don't have the sources with me right now) to be released when you have sex or other sorts of physical activity and for instance when you,ve had an accident and the brain thinks it's got to repair or regrow some cells. So if with DMT, the brain thinks its having a near-death-experience, it completely makes sense.

that may explain why dmt makes you smarter

makes more connections in your brain so you can understand more complex patterns

because after that first breakthrough...spice isnt as much of a....OH MY GOD!!!! type experience...its more like...whoaa..that one was crazzzy

There are no indications about dmt releasing nerve growth factor (NGF). Strassman's papers however indicate that dmt causes increased cortisol concentration in the blood.

Cortisol has been demonstrated to be neurotoxic. It is indeed a stress hormone. But whether dmt-associated release of cortisol is also associated with nerve cell death is still a mystery.

Cortisol levels are high in people with neurodegenerative diseases and cortisol at sufficiently high levels has neurotoxic effect in neuronal cell cultures.

I doubt however that dmt-associated release of cortisol can cause any damage in vivo. dmt administration also causes the release of a whole range of different molecules. Some of them may even counteract any negative effects of cortisol. They may even be more overwhelmingly powerful at doing good that any "bad" effects from cortisol are masked completely.

Trying to get in vitro observations in vivo is always tricky. As long as one does not smoke dmt every 5 hours it is safe to assume that its use is fairly safe.

maybe the cortisol is the mechanism that releases NGF...if there is damage being done (things breaking down...barriers) then there would be a need to repair those sections...and maybe because dmt is soo damn powerful..it over compensates the nerve growth..resulting in a massive expansion

it would be interesting to look at the brain of a shaman that has been taking aya his whole life..i wonder what you would find