Vitamin C is the vitamin most people reach for at the first sniffle. Here’s what it actually does in your body, which foods cover your needs, what the cold research really shows, and when “more” stops helping.
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Ginger
Ayurveda calls dried ginger "the great medicine" and Chinese medicine calls fresh ginger its most important herb for nausea. Here's how each tradition uses it, what the trials found for nausea, period pain and sore joints, and which medicines to check before taking it as a supplement.
Cranberry
Cranberry is the best-studied urinary food in the library. Here is its Indigenous and folk history, what the 2023 Cochrane review of 50 trials found for repeat bladder infections (and who it did not help), study amounts, and the warfarin and kidney-stone cautions.
Warming Socks (wet sock treatment)
Cold wet socks, wool on top, straight to bed — it sounds backwards, but it's one of naturopathy's best-loved cold-night rituals. Here's where it comes from, why people swear by it, and who should skip it.
St. John’s Wort
A bright yellow summer flower named after St. John, gathered around Midsummer and steeped in oil until it turns blood-red. Europe has used it for low spirits, nerves and skin for centuries, and today it's one of the most-studied herbs for mood. It also has more drug interactions than almost any other herb, so this page starts its Safety section there.
Turkey Tail Mushroom
A striped, fan-shaped mushroom that grows on fallen logs across North America, Europe and Asia, turkey tail is one of the most studied medicinal mushrooms in the world. It has a long history in Chinese and Japanese medicine as an immune tonic, and its extracts are used in hospitals in Japan and China.
Red Clover
A pink meadow flower that herbalists have long counted among the classic "blood purifier" herbs, often sipped as a gentle tea. Members can see how people use it, what the research does and doesn't show, and why it isn't for everyone.
