Articles

• Does chamomile help anxiety and sleep? — Small placebo-controlled trials link chamomile extract to less generalised anxiety, and reviews find modest gains in sleep quality. The trials are still small.
• Do kiwifruit help with constipation? — Eating two or three green kiwifruit a day increased bowel movements in several small trials. Kiwifruit extracts did not clearly work.
• Can vitamin K2 help keep your bones strong? — Vitamin K2 may help keep spine bone density up in postmenopausal women. Fracture results are mixed, and artery studies so far are small.
• Does foam rolling reduce muscle soreness, and does it speed recovery? — Foam rolling eases muscle soreness a little, with the clearest benefit more than 24 hours after exercise. Its effects on performance are small or unclear.
• Does caffeine improve focus and performance? — Caffeine can sharpen attention, especially when people are short of sleep, and modestly speed up endurance exercise. Here is what the trials show.
• Does massage help back pain, soreness and stress? — Massage eased back pain in the short term and reduced soreness after hard training. Evidence for anxiety and work stress is weaker.
• Does boswellia help arthritis pain? What the trials show — Several meta-analyses find boswellia eases knee osteoarthritis pain and stiffness. Most trials are small, and some were run by extract makers.
• Does owning a pet reduce stress and help your heart? — Large studies link dog ownership to lower death rates, and time with pets eases stress in the short term. The studies cannot prove pets cause the difference.
• Does the low FODMAP diet help irritable bowel syndrome? — A low FODMAP diet eased IBS symptoms, belly pain and bloating in several trials and meta-analyses. Long-term results are less clear.
• Do heat wraps help back pain? Reviews suggest short-term relief, but a 2026 trial found none — Heat wraps may ease acute back pain for a short time, according to reviews of trials. A 2026 trial found no extra effect over a sham wrap.
• Do feverfew and butterbur prevent migraines? — Butterbur cut migraine attacks in several small trials, and feverfew results are mixed. Butterbur also carries a rare risk of liver injury.
• Does acupuncture help back pain, migraines and knee pain? — Acupuncture may ease chronic back pain and cut migraine attacks a little more than fake needling. Results for osteoarthritis and knee pain are mixed.
• Does HMB help you keep muscle as you age? — Early trials suggest HMB, a leucine byproduct, may help older adults keep a little muscle. The gains are small, and exercise seems to matter more.
• Does Pilates help back pain? Reviews say it eases pain, but not clearly more than other exercise — Several reviews of randomised trials find Pilates eases chronic low back pain more than little or no treatment. It has not clearly beaten other exercise.
• Does journaling reduce stress and improve mood? — Several trials link expressive and gratitude writing to small, lasting drops in stress, low mood and anxiety. The effects are modest and vary a lot.
• Does peppermint oil help irritable bowel syndrome? — Pooled trials suggest peppermint oil eases IBS symptoms and belly pain. Newer large trials were mixed, so the benefit is uncertain.
• Do glucosamine and chondroitin help knee pain? What the trials show — Several meta-analyses find glucosamine or chondroitin eases knee pain a little. The largest trials found little benefit over placebo.
• Does riboflavin (vitamin B2) prevent migraines? — Riboflavin may reduce how often adults get migraines, based on small trials. Results in children and combination supplements were mixed.
• Does exercise help depression and anxiety? — Large reviews of trials find exercise eases depression symptoms, with weaker evidence for anxiety. Here is what the studies show, and where they fall short.
• Does saffron help with depression and anxiety? — A 2026 review of 34 trials found saffron eased self-reported depression and anxiety scores. Clinician-rated scores did not change.