Chinese rhubarb root is a strong stimulant laxative herb with a 2,000-year history in Chinese medicine. Europe's herbal regulators allow it only for short-term use, and it isn't for everyone; here's what members need to know before trying it.
Vitex is the peppery little berry of the chaste tree, used by women for over two thousand years and best known today for the days before a period. In Europe one vitex extract is an approved herbal medicine for premenstrual syndrome.
Huang Qi, the yellow root behind Chinese "Jade Windscreen" formulas, is one of the best-known qi tonics in traditional Chinese medicine and a popular immune-season herb in the West. Here's what the tradition uses it for, what the (mostly small, Chinese) studies show, the Health Canada amounts, and why people with autoimmune disease or a transplant should steer clear.
Chaga is the black, crusty "birch conk" of the northern forests, brewed for centuries into a dark, earthy tea in Siberia, Scandinavia and Indigenous North America. Here's where it comes from, what the research actually shows so far, and the kidney caution everyone should know before trying it.
The bright red fruit left on wild roses after the petals fall has been brewed into a warming winter tea for generations, from Indigenous communities in British Columbia to European kitchens. This profile covers its traditional uses, the joint research that put rosehip powder on the map, and who should go easy on it.
Lavender is the classic calming flower, sipped as a gentle evening tea, added to baths and breathed in from the oil. In Europe the flower tea is an approved traditional remedy for mild stress and to help with sleep.
Raspberry leaf is one of the best-known "women's teas", a mild, slightly drying leaf that midwives and herbalists have handed down for generations. It is also a European-approved traditional tea for period cramps, mild tummy upsets and as a mouth and throat gargle.
Breathing warm, moist air over a bowl of hot water is a family remedy for stuffy noses and sinus trouble. Here's what the trials show, how people do it, and why burns units warn against bowl steaming with children.
Sarsaparilla root was one of the most famous "blood purifiers" of European and American medicine for about three centuries, and it still turns up in blood-cleanse, skin and men's tonic blends. Members get the full entry: its history, why doctors doubted it as early as the 1850s, what the research does and doesn't show, and its digoxin, lithium and kidney cautions.
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.
