Ayahuasca: A Strange Brew

[Android]

http://www.latimes.com/features/magazine/la-tm-ayahuasca.02feb3,1,6118145.story

one of my favorite quotes
"Truenos believes ayahuasca’s dark reputation is exaggerated. It is transformative and healing, he says, a cure for the “cancer of indifference,” a remedy for our “failures in integrity.” But it’s even more than that. “Some people,” he says, “need to be frightened by the way they live their lives.”

[aesir]

so, its a mix of shrooms and super powerful prozac that tastes like raw sewage, usually causes vomiting, and has been known to produce an effect similar to post-traumatic shock disorder. Also, it has been known to cause death.

Find me on a day when Im in the right mood and I'd give it a shot.

[Snarfevs]

It's a mix of dimethyltryptamine (and friends) and monoamine oxidase inhibitors, which makes the DMT orally active and probably a lot more persistent. Normally DMT needs to be inhaled because monoamine oxidases break it down before it can enter the blood stream if it is taken orally. Monoamine oxidases are however also used to metabolise tyramine (among other things) which is involved in blood pressure regulation, if too much builds up it can cause blood pressure to spike dangerously.

Incidental inhibitors are interesting. There's some mushroom species that produces compounds that interrupt alcohol metabolism, leading to super hangovers shortly after drinking alcoholic beverages... nature's own Antabuse... has led to Bad Things though