Can Ayahuasca Permanently Cure Cancer or AIDS?

Someone on a board I occasionally visit asked the question of whether ayahuasca, the jungle medicine from the Amazon, could permanently cure cancer or AIDS or other killing diseases. I thought that was the wrong question to ask. Took me a bit of background to get to it, but I think I did finally answer the question--or what I think was the right question for the person to have asked.
    Here's what I wrote:
Traditionally, illnesses in Northwest Amazonia were seen as the symptoms of an imbalance on another plane of reality. Fix the imbalance and the symptom could be cured or would disappear on its own. With that in mind, until quite recently only the curandero would drink the medicine, not the patient. The curandero would be told what ailed someone and he/she would drink ayahuasca to access other levels of reality where he/she could communicate with spirits--whether that be plant or animal spirits, or other types--to try to discern what the imbalance was in the patient that was causing the ailment on the physical level. Once that was discovered, the spirits might also recommend specific diets or plant decoctions or other things to help expedite the elimination of the physical illness.
    In other words, I don't think--except for stomach ailments--that ayahuasca was ever thought of as a curative until curious Westerners decided to stand the paradigm on its head and drink the medicine themselves. That is a pretty modern development; one that was certainly not widespread until the 1990s or so.
    The curative properties of the ayahuasca came from what the curandero learned while communicating with his genios/spirit allies when under the influence of ayahuasca. Some of those have become pretty standard medications for certain ailments. Drinking large amounts of water from the chawki paujil (or paujil chawki) vine will do wonders for cirrhosis of the liver--the drawback being that the mineral water is unstable and has to be drunk almost immediately or it loses much of it's value.
    For bolstering immune system, and eliminating excess water--as in bursitis, arthritis--Una de Gato will generally do the trick.
    For diminishing the size of tumors, fresh Sacha Jergon is the ticket--or at least one of them. In combination with Una de Gato, Sacha Jergon can do wonders for people with cancer or immune deficiencies. My late teacher loved adding essence of Medio Renako (spelling?) tree bark to the Una de Gato and Sacha Jergon when working with someone with cancer.
    All of the old timers knew the plants and their benefits in the region where they lived. And if they needed more information, the spirits would give it to them when they asked.
    So I think the answer to your question of whether ayahuasca can permanently cure cancers or AIDS and other wretched diseases is not the right question. I think the question should be: Can a good curandero really access a spirit world that can aid him/her in finding imbalances in a patient that, if corrected, will help eliminate physical illnesses on this plane of reality? And if extra work is needed, can that curandero really come back from his/her ayahuasca dream armed with the information about plants and diets for the patient to use to eliminate those illnesses? And if that's the question or two, then the answer is yes.