Shilajit
A dark mountain resin that Ayurveda has treated as a prized rejuvenating tonic for centuries, now sold worldwide for energy and men's vitality, and one of the supplements most likely to be contaminated.
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Flaxseed
The small brown or golden seed behind linseed tea, old-fashioned linseed poultices and today's breakfast sprinkle. Flax has been a food, fibre and folk remedy for thousands of years and is now one of the better-studied seeds for the bowels and blood pressure.
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Green Tea
The tea plant was first grown in China thousands of years ago, and a Japanese monk wrote in 1211 that tea was a medicine for long life. Today green tea is one of the world's most-loved daily drinks, and its leaf and extracts are some of the most-studied plant compounds there are.
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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.
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Fenugreek
A small golden seed that has flavoured curries and fed nursing mothers for thousands of years, from ancient Egypt to India. Its maple-syrup aroma is the same one that famously lingers on the skin of people who take it.
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Boswellia (Frankincense)
The fragrant resin of the frankincense tree, burned in temples for thousands of years and used in Ayurveda for stiff, aching joints. Today it's one of the most-studied herbs for joint comfort.
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Quercetin
Quercetin is the most common flavonoid in the human diet, the yellow pigment behind onion skins and apple peels. Here's how naturopaths use it, the traditional herbs that are rich in it, and what the research shows.
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Zinc
Zinc is a trace mineral your body uses in hundreds of enzymes, from immune cells to skin repair. Here's how traditional medicine and naturopaths use it, what the research shows, and why more isn't better.
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Vitamin D3 + K2
A hundred years ago, doctors found that cod liver oil and sunshine could straighten the bowed legs of children with rickets. Twenty years later a dentist found a mysterious "Activator X" in spring butter. Here's why people now take vitamin D3 and K2 together, what the studies actually show, and the one medicine that makes K2 a serious matter.
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Magnesium
In 1618 an English farmer found that cattle on Epsom Common wouldn't drink from a bitter pool. The salt left behind became one of the best-known home remedies of the next 350 years. Here's how people use magnesium today for sleep, muscles, headaches and regularity, what the studies found, and the safety limits that matter.
