Hello and happy February. It is around this time, the shortest month of the year, that the winter just seems to get longer and longer. But, I have some good news that will put some pep in your step until our beautiful spring weather arrives. I'm continuing the covid-19 series with a little tip that one of my friends gave me and devoting this month's natural covid fighting power to nigella sativa. While used as a flavoring for foods, and commonly known as black cumin seed, it is not the same as the cumin we get at the local grocery store. This fancy plant has been used for medicinal purposes for as long as human history can remember and even put into the Canon of Medicine which was published in 1025. And now, nigella sativa is proving itself again to be a powerful healing medicine.
Koshak, etc al. have published some exciting evidence showing a reduction in covid recovery time of 62% at 14 weeks for patients using nigella sativa vs. 36% in the control group. An even more exciting study to watch is pre-print (yep, so hot off the press it isn't even pressed yet) by Ashraf, et al. Preliminary results are showing that taking a combination of nigella sativa and honey alleviated symptoms in half the time it would take compared to the placebo for patients with severe symptoms (6 days vs. 13). Half ya’ll, that’s nothing to brush under the carpet. These studies are showing some really interesting results that we need to apply in our battle to beat covid-19. The best part, is who doesn’t love a little spice mixed with honey, sounds like pretty good medicine to me.
That’s all for this month. I’ll see you in March with more info about what you can do to stop covid. Until then, consider adding nigella sativa to your care plan and talk to an herbalist for more information.
References:
1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34407441/
2. https://www.nutraingredients-asia.com/Article/2020/11/25/Covid-19-RCT-Honey-and-black-cumin-seed-help-speed-up-recovery-in-Covid-19-patients