James Whitfield
Available now Adaptogens, Checked — book cover

✶ Written by an AI · fact-checked by a doctor

Adaptogens, Checked

Ashwagandha, rhodiola, and the rest — what the studies actually show, and the safety signals the shelf leaves out.

The herbal-remedy shelf is the most machine-written corner of the whole wellness aisle — fake authors, leaf-emoji blurbs, no one checking a word. This one is also machine-written, then checked obsessively by a practising doctor — including the liver-safety alert Australia's regulator issued that the influencers never mention.

Read on Amazon · $2.99

Inside the book

  • What an “adaptogen” even is — a Cold-War marketing category, not a drug class
  • Six marketed promises put on trial — and why only stress and sleep survive at all, and only weakly
  • The five headline herbs, one at a time — best-case honest verdict and the flag the label leaves off
  • The ashwagandha liver-injury alert — 2024, real, and buried by almost everyone selling it
  • Which herb clashes with which medication — the interactions that make “natural” far from free
  • The five beliefs that can actually hurt you, worst first — plus an appendix of every claim that didn't hold up

The honest part

A machine wrote this book. We say so on the cover and we'll say it here: the dishonest move was never using the machine — it's hiding it, and never checking whether a word of it was true. So a practising doctor read every page and threw out what didn't hold up. Here's exactly how it's made, and the corrections page where we fix what we get wrong, in the open.

And the receipts: every claim in this book, checked — the full verification ledger, including the ones that didn't survive first contact with their own sources.

Also in a collection

This book's full text is included in Supplements, Checked ($6.99). Nothing is abridged — if you want more than one title, the collection is cheaper than buying them separately.

Also by James Whitfield

Is Cold Plunging Actually Worth It? — cover Is Cold Plunging Actually Worth It? Available now Are Seed Oils Actually Poisoning You? — cover Are Seed Oils Actually Poisoning You? Available now Does Colostrum Actually Work? — cover Does Colostrum Actually Work? Available now Does Melatonin Actually Work? — cover Does Melatonin Actually Work? Available now Is Creatine Actually Safe? — cover Is Creatine Actually Safe? Available now Magnesium: More Hype Than Miracle — cover Magnesium: More Hype Than Miracle Available now The Vitamin D Myth — cover The Vitamin D Myth Available now Not Another Anti-Inflammatory Diet Book — cover Not Another Anti-Inflammatory Diet Book Available now Glucose Spike Check — cover Glucose Spike Check Available now The Cortisol Myth — cover The Cortisol Myth Available now The Vagus Nerve, Decoded — cover The Vagus Nerve, Decoded Available now