For how we live.
A network meta-analysis of 163 trials found EPA, vitamin D and a St John's wort extract beat placebo by margins so large the researchers treat them as a warning about the evidence, not a green light.
A meta-analysis of 30 randomised trials found fibre supplements work in IBS, with the benefit concentrated in psyllium. Wheat bran was the most-studied type and did not carry the effect.
Photobiomodulation raised skin temperature by 8 °C and left mitochondrial respiration exactly where it found it. Ketone esters across an eight-day stage race did nothing for performance, cognition or sleep.
Participants on Magtein scored better on memory and reaction-time tests after six weeks. On sleep — the reason most people buy it — an Oura Ring found no measurable difference at all.
A meta-analysis of 26 trials found creatine raises serum creatinine without markers of kidney injury. Weeks earlier, a Nature Communications paper reported that supplementation promoted metastasis in mice.
A systematic review of 113 studies found real biology in NAD+ supplementation — and not one eligible human trial testing the IV or IM version clinics actually sell for anti-aging.
Cochrane reviews covering more than 19,000 participants found no reduction in cold incidence from regular vitamin C, a possible reduction in duration from zinc, and a clear increase in adverse events.
A Cochrane review of 50 trials found cranberry products lower UTI risk in women with recurrent infections and in children, but no benefit in the elderly, in pregnancy, or in bladder-emptying problems.
GAIT randomised 1,583 people and found neither supplement beat placebo overall. A later network meta-analysis found effects below the clinically important threshold, and smaller still in industry-independent trials.
Cochrane found cognitive behavioural therapy cuts the impact of tinnitus by about 11 points on a 100-point scale. Against active audiological care the difference was 5.65 points, below the noticeable threshold.
In 2023 declining taurine was proposed as a driver of ageing. Two years later the same journal published human, monkey and mouse data in which taurine rose or stayed flat.
A Cochrane review of 18 trials and an NIH-funded randomised trial both failed to show that milk thistle improves liver disease. Product quality is also inconsistent, with some pills contaminated or mislabelled.
The trials that made eye vitamins a standard recommendation enrolled only people who already had substantial disease. In AREDS2, neither omega-3 nor lutein beat placebo on the primary endpoint.
Two randomised trials in more than 1,800 children found no benefit in acute gastroenteritis. A Cochrane review of 23 trials found fewer upper respiratory infections, on low-certainty evidence.
In 390,124 US adults followed up to 27 years, daily multivitamin use showed no mortality benefit. Randomised trials within COSMOS found a real but modest effect on memory, and none on physical function.
No randomised controlled trial has tested a commercial detox diet in people, and the reviews that exist find no compelling evidence they remove toxins or aid weight. Some carry real risks.
There is no trial showing a cleanse product improves kidney function, which already filters blood continuously. One class of herbal kidney remedy is a proven cause of kidney failure and cancer.
Its 2024 guideline also advises against routine blood testing for vitamin D, on the grounds that no trial evidence supports it. The largest randomised trial found no effect on cancer, heart disease or fractures.
The pooled effect is about seven minutes off the time it takes to fall asleep. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends against it — on evidence it grades as weak in both directions.
Twenty-one amateur runners took vitamin D3 or a placebo before a marathon. Some muscle and oxidative-stress markers looked better in the supplement group — but most measures showed no difference.
A systematic review located 19 articles on melatonin in children aged 0 to 6. Trials covered 167 children, all with neurologic conditions. There was no efficacy data for typically developing children.
Black cohosh, Chinese herbal medicine and vitamin D reached moderate certainty for specific outcomes. Most of the rest of the field — 158 studies deep — sits at low or very low certainty.
A meta-analysis of eleven depression trials found an average effect below the threshold for clinical importance, with signs of bias favouring creatine. A separate review found no change in kidney filtration.
PISCES randomised 1,228 haemodialysis patients in Canada and Australia. The headline hazard ratio of 0.57 counts every event, not just the first — and that choice explains part of the gap.
October brought pooled analyses of ginger and of marine omega-3s. Both report significant effects on blood markers. Neither measured whether anyone got healthier.
A meta-analysis of 20 trials found a two-kilogram gain in one-rep max and no effect on bone density. A small crossover trial found functional strength gains largely independent of muscle mass.
A 21-trial meta-analysis found effects concentrated in older age groups and largely absent elsewhere. A separate safety review of the most-used strain found no excess adverse events — and a big reporting gap.
Ten weeks of a legal broad-spectrum CBD product produced detectable cannabigerol and cannabidivarin in most participants. After a 90-minute ride, detection rates rose to 74% and 84%.
Collagen, flavanols and polyphenols beat their comparators on skin elasticity and sun tolerance. The pooled estimates carry heterogeneity of 95% to 98%, and some comparators were low doses of the same ingredient.