natural remedies to help with anxiety

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^ like aspirin (from willow tree bark),
quinine (from cinchona tree bark),
antibiotics such as streptomycin, vancomycin, aureomycin, erythromycin, lincomycin, and clindamycin - among many (derived mainly from various soil bacteria),
the antifungal Amphotericin B and its relatives (derived from bacteria as well),
vinblastine, vinorelbine, vincristine, and vindesine (anticancer drugs from the ground cover plant Vinca major),
taxol (anticancer drug derived from the Pacific yew),
and the cyclosporine immunosuppressant/transplant drugs (derived from soil fungus)?

(and many more)

No placebos there.

Sorry - I trained as a PhD chemist/biochemist, even if I haven't been at the lab bench for 30+ years at this point. Just because the principal active compound hasn't yet been isolated or independently synthesized doesn't mean it isn't there and doesn't work.

I don't mean to be harsh, but I don't like seeing what's quite often "applied pharmacognosy" dismissed as "woo" when natural products chemistry in the lab has proven many times that it's more like "wow".

And yes, I know there are hoaxes, and wishful thinking, and I'm well aware that the placebo effect is real. It confounded the study of major antidepressants for many years - largely because the big pharma houses were too timid to do more than modify their existing molecules when looking for new ones.

Not trying to bash you, honestly. But people on fixed incomes, and disabled people especially, do need to know that there are *some* natural remedies that are not only affordable and accessible, they actually work.

Oh, as a PS - garlic contains compounds that make it an anticoagulant, and a very effective one; the omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil are also known for this. Conventional physicians now specifically warn patients to stop taking these prior to surgery or in the final trimester of pregnancy, to prevent complications.

I sometimes drink passion flower tea. It comes in droplets and pills as well. It really calms my nerves.

Be careful with St. John's Wort - it can increase the risk of cataracts in susceptible people. To reduce that risk, and this is *not* a joke, try eating pumpkin (the canned, precooked stuff is really nice if you season it with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and a dash of clove, and eat it warm with a little butter). The orange pigments in the pumpkin are antioxidants and seem to be quite effective in protecting the lens of the eye.

This all comes, by the way, from direct personal experience - a little over a year on SJW, then noticed clouding of lenses and began to panic. Most aldose reductase blockers have unpleasant side effects (that's the most effective orally dosed protectant against cataracts - known so far) but the carotenoids in pumpkin flesh don't seem to. PS, carrots do help, but there's a wider range of pigments in pumpkin. Also PS, I can now look directly at illuminated fluorescent lights and see no haze whatsoever, whereas a year ago they were shrouded in fog due to lens clouding.

Anecdotal, but the thing is: a statistically significant dataset is simply a meta-anecdote with a consensus.