A B-complex bundles the eight B vitamins your body uses to turn food into energy and keep nerves and blood healthy. Here’s what each one does, who tends to run low, what the research on stress and energy shows, and why “more” on the label isn’t always better.
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Omega-3 Fish Oil
Fish oil carries EPA and DHA, the long-chain omega-3 fats found in oily fish. Here's how folk medicine and naturopaths have used it, from cod liver oil for "aches and pains" to heart and brain support, and what the big trials found.
Bitter Melon
A knobbly green gourd that is everyday food from India and China to the Philippines, and the famously bitter "cerasee" bush tea of Jamaica and the Caribbean. Few plants are used in as many traditional kitchens and medicine systems at once.
Apple Cider Vinegar
People have used vinegar as a kitchen remedy for thousands of years, from Hippocrates' wound care to the honey-and-vinegar tonics of Persian medicine. Here's what tradition says, what the small modern studies found, and how to take it without hurting your throat.
Goldenseal
A small woodland plant of eastern North America with a bright-yellow root, used by Cherokee, Iroquois and other Indigenous nations for sore eyes, wounds and as a yellow dye. It became one of the best-known remedies of 19th-century herbal medicine, and is now so heavily harvested that it's a protected, at-risk species, so where it comes from matters.
Garlic
Garlic fed the pyramid builders, went into Hippocrates' remedies and is still one of the most used herbs in Ayurveda and Chinese medicine. Here's how each tradition uses it, what the bigger modern studies found for blood pressure, cholesterol and colds, and the medicine interactions that come with the supplements.
Valerian
Valerian has been the classic "sleep root" since the days of Hippocrates and Galen, and it's still one of the most-used herbs for restless nights and nervous tension. Here's how tradition uses it, what the research on sleep really shows, why it can take a few weeks to work, and who should skip it.
