A field guide to the cures medicine forgot.
Mainstream medicine is rigorous, and also slow, conservative, and shaped by what can be patented. Folk knowledge is fast, broad, and shaped by what can be remembered. Sylva is an open archive of the second category — measured against the first whenever the science exists.
What you'll find
A curated library
Hand-picked entries spanning clinical-grade adjuvants, repurposed drugs, and honest folk remedies.
A live AI researcher
Type any ailment and surface 6–10 candidates with sources, mechanisms, and cautions.
A daily dispatch
Five fringe or overlooked items each day — repurposed drugs, traditional protocols, fresh preprints.
Evidence tiers
Every entry is labeled by the strongest evidence behind it. Tiers describe confidence — not effectiveness, and not safety.
At least one randomized human trial, peer-reviewed and replicable. Often used adjunctively in integrative oncology, psychiatry, or rheumatology.
Cell, animal, or case-series evidence — promising but unproven in controlled human studies. Includes most repurposed drugs in early oncology research.
Folk, indigenous, or fringe — used for generations, or championed in subcultures, with little or no rigorous study. Read with curiosity and skepticism.
Why include the fringe
Penicillin was folk knowledge before it was a Nobel prize. Ivermectin and metformin both began outside the clinic. We include items that mainstream medicine has dismissed — clearly labeled — because the cost of pretending they don't exist is higher than the cost of naming them honestly.
We also include things that almost certainly don't work, because a complete archive is more useful than a flattering one.