I suppose a lot of these effects were known based on what people told they were useful for in traditional medicine or such.
The thing about useful ideas from traditional “medicine” is that modern medial research has done a lot to check into a lot of the remedies suggested. The ones which did prove useful in double blind studies were examined, the active ingredients isolated and synthesized. This then just became part of modern medicine. A lot of the rest though, has been tossed aside as quackery. But, because it’s “traditional” people still cling to it, pretending that people who had trouble counting above ten had some “ancient wisdom”. It’s complete crap, usually useless and sometimes outright harmful. But, people like their superstitions.
Are there still some traditional remedies out there which could lead to medical breakthroughs? Sure, there are a lot of uncontacted tribes which may have found legitimate uses for plants which haven’t been well studied. But, most of the stuff people talk about isn’t that. It’s usually some offshoot of Chinese Traditional Medicine, which seems interesting and mystical to western audiences in the same way Orientalism seems to sweep European and US audiences every few decades. Again, it’s pretty well known stuff, and largely superstitious crap.
But hey, if you get a good feeling from drinking tea, drink tea. Psychosomatic effects are very real and so long as you aren’t chopping up endangered species or ingesting mercury salts (a fantastic Traditional cure-all, which you absolutely should NOT ingest), then it’s probably fine.
The thing about useful ideas from traditional “medicine” is that modern medial research has done a lot to check into a lot of the remedies suggested. The ones which did prove useful in double blind studies were examined, the active ingredients isolated and synthesized. This then just became part of modern medicine. A lot of the rest though, has been tossed aside as quackery. But, because it’s “traditional” people still cling to it, pretending that people who had trouble counting above ten had some “ancient wisdom”. It’s complete crap, usually useless and sometimes outright harmful. But, people like their superstitions.
Are there still some traditional remedies out there which could lead to medical breakthroughs? Sure, there are a lot of uncontacted tribes which may have found legitimate uses for plants which haven’t been well studied. But, most of the stuff people talk about isn’t that. It’s usually some offshoot of Chinese Traditional Medicine, which seems interesting and mystical to western audiences in the same way Orientalism seems to sweep European and US audiences every few decades. Again, it’s pretty well known stuff, and largely superstitious crap.
But hey, if you get a good feeling from drinking tea, drink tea. Psychosomatic effects are very real and so long as you aren’t chopping up endangered species or ingesting mercury salts (a fantastic Traditional cure-all, which you absolutely should NOT ingest), then it’s probably fine.