Whilst the steemprice continues to bounce about a bit, Nat Med folk have been bouncey too, creating fab posts to empower us all with their wisdoms. We do hope you find the time to go and give these hard working and dedicated folks some llllooovvvvin'.

In case you were wondering how we chose posts to be featured in these curations, we favour:

• original articles
• a blend of personal stories and facts/research (either anecdotal or otherwise) to engage the reader
  good images or photos
• novel or interesting approaches to self care through natural remedies
• content that makes us go aaaaaaaaahhhhh

If you'd like help making your posts pop, please let us know - we're here to help you succeed!

@alchemage has been working really hard over the last few months on a science project for his studies. The quality of this post was so good and the effort so clear that it's really worth going over and seeing what he discovered. Natural Medicine really appreciates those that go to the effort to not only provide us with studies that others have done, but to conduct these experiments themselves.

The purpose of this experiment was to test three different commonly available essential oils for their antifungal properties against a standardized household cleaner. These three variables were Salvia officinalis (sage), Origanum vulgare (oregano), and Citrus limon (lemon) essential oils, while the control was 409 All-Surface Cleaner, with the main cleaning agent dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride. Four microbial samples were applied to sterile Malt Extract Agar petri dishes using the bacterial lawn streak method from three environments. Each of the petri dishes was visually divided evenly and a variable or control was applied to each section in such a way that each compound could be compared. The samples were evaluated using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method to measure and compare the diameter of each Zone of Inhibition after incubating in the dark at an average of 26°C for five days. Each of the compounds showed at least a mild antifungal activity, with oregano oil displaying the greatest efficacy.

@alchemage ain't the only one getting his science on! @metametheus's post here writes about the 'good sperm' and recent WHO research, concluding that:

If you and your partner are trying to have children, and nothing is happening, go see a natural health practitioner with expertise and experience in fertility. Both of you! For men, it's really important to consult with someone who understands how to read sperm analysis, and to get any semen analysis performed by specialist andrology labs. Unfortunately, General Practitioners do not understand how to interpret semen analysis data properly, and will tell men their sperm is fine when their results show them to be in the lower 5th percentile range. This is just plain wrong, as the research above shows clearly. So guys, don't just expect your partner to go through all the tests and treatment when there is so much more you can be doing to improve your chances of natural, easy, (and fun) conception.

@el-nailul often writes quality posts, and this one is no different, exploring the health benefits of luffa. He steems not only about it's health benefits, but it's growth from seed to plant, growing it himself to support his family.

Luffa squash is kind of veggies that has delicious taste, I love to make soup or saute it with garlic and onion or even cook it in coconut milk is one of my favorite. It calls sponge, because it has the fiber inside it, where the seeds attached, but it needs to be ripe enough. The sponge can be used to clean the kitchen set or cutlery, and sometimes that is used to brush the cloth as well or in the bathroom. This kind of luffa squash/sponge also have many special efficacies to cure some of well-known illness that I had experienced once long ago. I was gotten by typhus and the elder suggesting me to eat this kind of seed. But, the taste of it was extremely bitter. The taste remain in my throat in 3 days, any time I belched the taste came out as it was the first time I chewed it. But, it gave me a significant result. Beside of typhus these seeds are able to cure the diabetes mellitus and reduce bad cholesterol in my blood.

@walkerland gave us a beautifully presented recipe for chai - perfect for sitting down to read all these amazing natural medicine posts! Check it out here.

Winter is the time of mulled spices and warming comfort, and masala chai offers all of that! For centuries we have celebrated and created rituals around tea. It is a communion with nature and ourselves and offers a warm welcome to those that sit at our hearth. Masala chai is a rather modern recipe but its roots are ancient. Packed with aromatic herbs and spices that support good health, this sweetened, milky spiced tea is a perfect holiday beverage.

@walkerland sets an absolute benchmark for steemposts with everything she does - if you'd like to know how to set a post up, go check out her fab work.

Another Steemian who is an absolute treasure trove of NM wisdoms is @artemislives - she pops up in nearly every curation here for a reason! Check out her post on the bioavailability of pepper here. What was cool about this is that she wrote it specifically in response to a query that came up in the Natural Medicine discord server. That's what we're all about folks - helping each other learn and grow! She writes:

Well known in the Ayurvedic tradition but only relatively recently studied in the supposedly-first-world, pepper can increase the bioavailability of most substances by an estimated (and incredible!) 2000%. Sweet Mother of God, did you read that right? Actually yes, you really did. 20mg of piperine (the component within pepper which is the actual catalyst) can increase absorption by up to 2000%.

Other Goings On...

@mountainjewel wrote a post for @sndbox describing the future of Steemit here, mentioning how fab Natural Medicine is

@sagescrub has blown us all out of the water with their @homesteader's co-op - check their intro post here - if you create natural medicines, you might want to contact them about selling them on their website, entirely driven by love and steem.

Other honourable mentions must go @preppervetuk who wrote about bug out natural medicines, @maria-mariah who wrote about the importance of 'heal thyself', @samstonehill's post about nettles stimulating hair growth and @macchiata explored coriander seed tea. Last but CERTAINLY not least @ofsedgeandsalt brings us yet another awesome Ground Shots podcast interviewing an Appalachian herbalist that you can listen to here.

Photo Cred

We hope you loved these posts as much as we did!

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