Native americans used to chew birch bark in their older years. Other peoples used to make tea from it. Now we get it in a pill. But it’s the same substance.
If I get really jammed up, I mean bad shape, I will admit to sneaking an aleve from time to time at bedtime. But that’s so rare that I have one tiny bottle of it and it’s close to ten years old.
I’ve come to believe there are certain substances required by humans for good health that there are no explanations for. I wonder if humans have just been using these substances for so long that we’ve somehow evolved to be dependent on them. But whatever the case, these are them, IMO.
aspirin(birch bark)
iodine(from sea kelp, and shellfish)
olives(or olive oil)
oily fish(salmon, sardines, etc, or more accurately the oil contained in them)
nuts(or technically the oil contained in them)
red wine and/or dark beer(irish stout for instance)
garlic(also onions and related plants like leeks, chives, scallions, etc)