When it comes to health there are billions of dollars wasted on ‘snake oil’ cures. As much as I dislike people selling placebos or snake oil to get rich there’s plenty of room for real remedies and supplements that actually work. Many of these supplements are a fraction of the cost of prescription medication and they don’t have the same types side effects. More testing is needed but intuitively these natural supplements don’t cause the extended harm on other bodily functions/organs as prescription medication. My wife is on daily Prednisone for lupus and she can look forward to cataracts and a number of other nasty side effects from extended use.
There was an episode on MythBusters regarding nausea from sea sickness that always stuck with me. In that episode Grant Imahara was the most susceptible to motion sickness (he vomited multiple times trying different natural remedies). After trying everything one thing actually worked, and worked well. By taking a ginger supplement he was able to ride the motion sickness machine for an extended period of time with no ill side effects. This was a real breakthrough for me mentally since non-traditional medicine is treated like snake oil by most of the public and definitely by medical professionals. Maybe there was a middle ground to this debate over natural drugs vs prescription drugs.
The inherent problem with natural supplements is the fact that no one (read company) is willing to fund clinical trials for herbs or other vitamins. With no way to patent the common supplement there is no incentive to fork out the expensive testing. I don’t blame them for this, it’s just the way the system is.
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The Supplements that Top the List for effectiveness are:
*Click on the name of the supplement to get it on Amazon
- Folic Acid: Helps prevent certain birth defects (like spinal bifida). It’s recommended to take a prenatal vitamin the entire time in your life you may get pregnant so your body has folic acid reserves ready for the developing baby.
- Green Tea For the regulation of cholesterol. Green tea has other benefits as well but the most evidence supports it’s role in reducing cholesterol. Heart health, cognition, cancer.
- Probiotics – Helps with digestive health and IBS.
- Vitamin D – General health, cancer prevention, heart health, .
- Selenium – Relief from Chemo Therapy Effects
- Cranberry Pills – Urinary System Health
- Omega 3 – High Blood Pressure, Secondary Heart Disease
- Licorice Root – Coughs
- Olive Leaf Extract – High Blood Pressure, anti-viral,
- Red Yeast Rice – Blood Pressure, Heart Health
- St. John’s Wort – Helps with depression
- Valerian Root – Anxiety and Sleep Aid
- Omega 6 – Heart Health
- NAC – Mental Health
- Reishi Mushroom – Immune System
- Peppermint Oil – IBS, Digestion
- Hawthorn Berry – Blood Pressure
- Cocoa – Blood Pressure, Heart Health
- Cinnamon – Type II diabetes, regulates blood sugar.
- Devil’s Claw – Pain Relief
- Creatine – Cognition
- Calcium – Colorectal Cancer
- Zinc – Cold Prevention, Improves Immune System, and Anti-Inflammatory for Asthmatics. Zinc has an important role in cell-mediated immune functions and also functions as antiinflammatory and antioxidant agent. IL-2 production (Th(1) cytokine) increases, this leads to increases in activities of natural-killer cell and T cytolytic cells, which are involved in killing viruses, bacteria, and tumor cells
- Ginger – Motion Sickness and Nausea
- Peppermint Oil – IBS
- Tyrosine – Improves alertness, wakefulness, and memory.
- Krill Oil – Management of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and pain during menstruation that interferes with daily activities.
- Beta Glucan – Results suggest that LNT in combination with anticancer drugs prolong the survival time of patients with advanced gastric and colorectal cancer.
- Aloe Vera Pills – Oral administration of aloe vera might be a useful adjunct for lowering blood glucose in diabetic patients as well as for reducing blood lipid levels in patients with hyperlipidaemia.
