While science was not developed until a few centuries ago, common knowledge has been accumulating since the Garden of Eden, where eating even pre-Alar apples could cause a problem. Examples of people managing to stay in good health, while others lived short, brutish lives, abounds throughout history. For example; 3rd century Chinese people were eating liver to cure night blindness,eating seaweed to cure simple goiter and since Chinese seaman had always drank tea, they never suffered the scourge of scurvy. Yet science did not discover vitamin A (in liver), iodine (in seaweed), or vitamin C (in tea) until recently.

Chinese herbal remedies evolved from a culture whose geographical isolation and undisturbed continuity allowed the uninterrupted accumulation of common experiences, particularly toward health and longevity, amongst a people who venerated their elders. This collective wisdom is the basis for modern Chinese medicine, largely dependent on the use of Chinese herbal remedies.

Modern medical scientists have a universally skeptical attitude towards common experience, but according to Jane Brody, science writer and regular contributor to the N.Y.Times, more than 50 million Americans have turned to herbal remedies. 50 million Americans can't be wrong!