Mind Your Treatments

It can be difficult for a consumer to judge whether an unconventional health treatment is promising. Experts recommend that people contemplating such treatments avoid those that:

• make extraordinary claims about their success rates or how quickly they work

• are not supported by studies published in a reputable, peer-reviewed journal

• claim to work for a host of ailments

• rely on anecdote or personal testimonial

• are aggressively marketed over the Internet

• use "obscurantist" language that sounds scientific but is confusing and hard to understand

• require that you believe in them in order for them to work

• promise a cure.

Sources: Scott O. Lilienfeld, James D. Herbert, Jeffrey M. Lohr, Quackwatch