The death of Kristian Trend, a forty-year-old spiritual wellness coach who collapsed and died following a “Kambo” cleansing ritual in Leicester, serves as a sobering cautionary tale about the extremes of the modern alternative health movement. Having overcome a severe battle with cancer in his twenties, Trend dedicated his life to holistic wellness, meditation, and nutrition, documenting his journey under the moniker “Kristian The Feel Good Guy.”
Kambo, a waxy substance secreted by the giant leaf frog of the Amazon basin, has traditionally been utilized by indigenous tribes for its intense physiological properties. Its translation into Western “detox” circles strips away its cultural context, replacing it with pseudoscientific promises of physical rejuvenation and mental clarity. The actual ceremony is an agonizing physical ordeal: participants consume massive quantities of water before facilitators inflict superficial burns on their skin, applying the frog toxin directly to the open wounds. This practice triggers a violent systemic shock characterized by soaring heart rates, dramatic blood pressure fluctuations, severe vomiting, and acute diarrhea. Though proponents mistake this intense physical trauma for a purgative cleansing process, medical experts confirm there is no empirical evidence supporting these purported benefits.
In reality, the toll of Kambo can be lethal. Over the past decade, the substance has been increasingly linked to severe health crises, including liver failure, acute heart attacks, and sudden death. This compounding medical evidence has led nations like Australia, Brazil, and Chile to implement strict bans on the substance. Trend’s death is believed to mark the first documented Kambo fatality in the UK.
In the wake of this tragedy, Trend’s mother, Angie, has channelled her grief into calling for an immediate UK ban on Kambo to prevent further loss of life. Her public appeal emphasizes the vulnerability of individuals who, like her son, fall victim of pseudoscience and seek deeper spiritual connection and bodily purity, yet find themselves exposed to unregulated, highly toxic substances under the guise of “self-care.”
9 Responses to Wellness coach dies after “Kambo detox”
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As Nietzsche famously wrote, “what does not kill me makes me stronger” – but in this case, it killed him. Violent physiological distress is not evidence of “detoxification”; it is evidence that the body is under toxic assault.
Poisoning someone first in order to ‘detox’ them is like badly beating up someone in order for them to enjoy the subsequent healing process. And having them pay for the privilege, at that.
There’s one word for this that comes to mind: STUPID.
See today’s letters in the Times.
Poor Kristian Trend was only 40, when he died “immersed in holistic wellness” while travelling through Asia. Once again, we see the misuse of the word, “holistic”, and the hazard of not checking your thesaurus before using a term, whose meaning you really don’t know. Proponents of alternative medicine have you to believe that, unlike real medicine, their alternative practises treats the whole body rather than the symptoms of its parts. First of all, that’s an insult to us real doctors and secondly, holistic has nothing to do with “whole”. Holistic is the adjective of a holon and a holon means something that is simultaneously a unit in and of itself, as well considered a subsystem within a larger hierarchical system. The role of these alternative interventions can be used to make the patient feel better whilst the doctor makes the patient better. Much of this is the placebo effect and I could even argue that just wearing a white coat, the doctor can start making a cancer patient feel better as much as massaging the patient’s feet. Professor Edzard Ernst, professor emeritus of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter and a leading critic of ineffective practices, summed it all up with one word, SCAM, shorthand for “so called alternative medicine”.
THANKS, MIKE
What do we know of the general health, “wellness” and longevity of the indiginous Amazon tribes who use this Kambo “medicine”? Are they a good advert for its benefits? Or do they all die in agony aged 30?
And how did Mr. Trend win his battle with cancer in his twenties? By the application of proper medical practice, I feel sure.
the famous physical capabilities of the Matsés or Katukina hunters are the product of a lifetime of rigorous physical activity and a well-adapted ecosystem — not a magical byproduct of Kambo
But “If it’s natural it can’t hurt you!” (Where have I heard that before….)?
At one of the National Eczema Society events years ago when I was on the Board, there was a dermatology panel with audience questions and someone asked a very vague question about “natural” approaches. A well-repected NHS Dermatology Consultant answered with a hint of a sigh “Well, what’s natural? There’s nothing more natural than a rattlesnake bite”.
“Trend’s mother, Angie, has channelled her grief into calling for an immediate UK ban on Kambo to prevent further loss of life….”
After several deaths, such as reported here, kambo has been banned in several countries such as Brazil, and Australia since 2021. And as we speak a Kambo ‘practitioner’ is on trial in Australia for his role in the death of one of his clients.*
So what have the British authorities been doing all this time? Asleep at the wheel?
* https://edzardernst.com/2026/03/prosecution-follows-ayahuasca-and-kambo-death/