Traditional Indigenous-Amazonian Therapy Involving Ceremonial Tobacco Drinking as Medicine: A Transdisciplinary Multi-Epistemic Observational Study.
Study Goal
The researchers aimed to assess the therapeutic use of tobacco by Indigenous healers in the Peruvian Amazon, not Ayahuasca.
Results Summary
The abstract does not provide results related to Ayahuasca, as the study focused on tobacco use by traditional healers.
Population
Patients treated by a traditional healer specializing in tobacco in the Peruvian Amazon.
Effective Dosage
Not mentioned
Duration
Not mentioned
Interactions
None mentioned
| Intervention | Direction | Endpoint | Population | Dosage | Impact | Claim # |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
tobacco plant | neutral | therapeutic purposes | Indigenous cultures across the Americas | - | employed as a medicinal and sacred herb | #1 |
tobacco smoking | increase | public health problems | worldwide | - | harmful to health | #2 |
tobacco plant | neutral | - | Indigenous healers in the Peruvian Amazon | - | use for therapeutic purposes | #3 |
Although the tobacco plant has been employed as a medicinal and sacred herb by Indigenous cultures across the Americas, its usage drastically changed after the 15th-century colonial arrival; its large-scale commodification and global marketing once brought to Europe lead to hedonic and addictive uses harmful to health. As a consequence, tobacco smoking is now one of the largest public health problems worldwide. However, in the Peruvian Amazon, a region of origin of tobacco species, Indigenous healers still know how to use the plant for therapeutic purposes. Due to a general disregard of Indigenous knowledge and stigma, these uses have however not so far been clinically investigated. We hence conducted for the first time a clinical field study assessing a sample of patients treated by a traditional healer specialized in tobacco in the Peruvian Amazon (observational design, pilot study,