Medicine

**Medicine** or **Medicinal** items are items used for healing and protection.

## Overview

During the course of your exploration; accidents, locations, and/or combat related injuries will arise and lead to negative status effects. Perhaps your hominid eats some rottenDates, or a  Black Mamba strikes you, or you fall from a great height. Medicine can be used to remedy these conditions.

## Healing

Some afflictions will heal themselves over time but some will continue until your death. Break your leg from a large fall and it will heal over time. Get slashed by a Machairodus and you will continue to bleed until you die.

Even though some of these afflictions will cure over time, there are still consequences to not using medicine. Life Expectancy will go down the more times your hominid is harmed and the longer it is harmed. It is best to cure your hominid as quickly as possible to ensure the longest life possible.

There are seven normal negative effects and seven severe versions. Medicine when used correctly will heal these afflictions.

* Bleeding
* Cold
* Food Poisoning
* Heat
* Injury
* Non-Omnivore
* Venom Poisoning
* Severe Bleeding
* Severe Cold
* Severe Food Poisoning
* Severe Heat
* Severe Injury
* Severe Non-Omnivore
* Severe Venom Poisoning

 Hunger,  Thirst, and  Sleepiness are negative status effects but they aren't cured by medicine.  Eating,  drinking, and  sleeping cure these negative status effects.

## Protection

Medicines can also be used before being afflicted with a negative status effect to give positive status effects or "protections". These protections allow you to endure situations that would normally cause you harm.

Be aware that protections run on a timer and will eventually run out. The protections will also reduce by the amount of damage they stop. Your hominid won't be harmed but the protections will go down instead. You will need to add more protections over time to ensure you aren't going to be harmed by afflictions.

There are six protections that can be gained by using medicines.

* Bleeding Protection
* Cold Protection
* Food Poisoning Protection
* Heat Protection
* Injury Protection
* Venom Poisoning Protection

There is one specific status effect that doesn't have a protection.   Non-Omnivore can only be overcome by eating foods and learning Omnivore neurons. Until you are able to digest the food correctly, the food will act as a negative status effect. Once you can digest that food properly, it will no longer be an issue.

## Mechanics

Medicine can be used in several specific ways. These are  eating,  drinking, or applying the medicine.

A few items can be used in multiple ways. You can eat an item and heal one way. You could also apply that item and heal in another way. An example would be Honey which can be applied to heal   Bleeding but when eaten it instead heals   Venom Poisoning.

A few items offer multiple medicinal properties at the same time. An example would be applying  Aloe Sap Paste heals both   Bleeding and   Heat at the same time.

Most medicines when used to heal will also have the corresponding protection show up if your hominid isn't afflicted with the negative status effect. An example would be if you aren't   Bleeding, applying  Horsetail Leaves will confer  Bleeding Protection. There are a few items that don't follow this protection rule of thumb but most items do. If you can use the item to heal you, you likely can use it to gain protection.

The more concentrated the medicine, the stronger the benefits. An example of the ability to concentrate medicine isAfrican Turmeric.

* You can eat African Turmeric to heal a small amount of   Venom Poisoning.
* You can increase the medicinal potency of African Turmeric to the maximum by  grinding to createTurmeric Paste which when eaten provides the most healing to Venom Poisoning.

Not all substances can be ground into pastes but those that do make powerful medicines.

Until you are acclimatized to certain foods using omnivore neurons, a small number of medicinal items will cause   Non-Omnivore. An example would be eatingBlue Roundhead Fungus Paste before you have acquired the Eumycota Food Acclimatization (OM 01) and Eumycota Food Acclimatization (OM 02) neurons. You will get the medicinal benefits but until you are able to digest mushrooms, you will also acquire non-omnivore when using this medicine.

A small number of medicines will cause   Food Poisoning. Only use these solutions when no other options are available as you are trading one problem for another problem. An example would be drinking from a  Stagnant Water Source to cure   Heat. You will be cured and protected from heat but will be afflicted with food poisoning.

Learning specific neurons increases your abilities with medicines. It is possible to make medicines stronger and last longer by learning neurons.

## List of Medicines

Listed below are all items that can be used for medicines.