Nobody is advocating taking natural remedies that have little or no studies behind them or what the native People relied on Empirical Evidence. There are some snake oil things out there but a little research and you can easily find the ones that have withstood the test of time.

Double Blind studies cost big bucks. No drug company is going to spend the money proving something they can't patent and is available for cheap is as comparable or better than a drug they can make for pennies and sell for big money. Imagine if people could grow their own medicines in the backyard garden, that wouldn't do would it.

Even if tart cherry juice is just a potent source of anti-oxidants what do you have to lose as long as you don't go overboard with it?

All or most folk remedies that have proven effective over the generations are based on real science, even though at the time it was just the old if it works, try it again method.

Clove oil is the pain reliever in over the counter dental medication. You get a tiny little vial for big bucks compared to it's quantity. I got an iodine sized bottle of pure Clove Oil for cheap at the health food store.
Wouldn't go on a wilderness trip without it.

When my Dad was a kid, back in the Depression days on the farm, they didn't have medical insurance and the money for common injuries all farmers suffer. They would get a bad cut/boil etc, Grandma made a poultice out of stale homemade/whole grain bread and unpasteurized milk warmed and then put on the bread until it was like a mush. Wrapped in sterile bandage and put on the wound. Next day the infection was gone.
Why? This concoction made a crude form of penicillin, a wonder drug back in those days before the overuse of anti-biotic's made it necessary to find more potent drugs.

Sty in your eye? You rubbed it with a real silver spoon and it cleared up. Real silver is soft, rub it over eye and tiny amounts of silver get in eye. Silver nitrate is the main ingredient in over the counter sty medicine.
Do a little research about natural remedies and you'll find that more often than not, they have a natural ingredient that when isolated and distilled is the main ingredient in prescription medicine.

That's why herbs/natural things take longer to work, there not as potent. They also don't have the nasty side effects most prescription drugs have, unless you abuse them.
One thing to remember, herbs are drugs. Natural doesn't mean that you can take all you want without consequence. If it says 3x a day with meals, you treat it like you would prescription medicine.

For all Western medicine's expertise and knowledge, every year they pull supposedly safe drugs off the market, becasue even after so called double blind studies and millions in R+D, they're found to do more harm than good.

dd, It's smart to ask your DR if there's a possible problem with taking that tart extract. He may or may not know enough about natural products to give you an answer. I know your better half is a yoga instructor and I would bet she knows people that are knowledgeable about that kind of thing? After all it wasn't that long a go that Yoga was considered some weird practice with no physical/health benefits. Intelligent people now know that couldn't be farther from the truth.