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Searching for alternative remedies usually leads to a confusing number of options. The clerk at the health food store recommends one thing, a friend swears by another remedy, and then you look online and learn about dozens of different remedies that appear to have worked for many people.

The most important thing you can do for your health is to use caution. It's tempting to just buy a product or try a therapy to see if it works, but while some may be harmless, other remedies can be downright dangerous and a waste of your money. Here are some questions you have to get answer to help you evaluate alternative remedies and therapies.

1) Does it claim to cure a disease?
2) Do you know about the side effects and safety concerns?
3) What research has been done?
4) Is your doctor aware of what you're doing?
5) Do you choose your practitioners carefully?

Efficacy

Lack of proper testing

Although proponents of alternative medicine often cite the large number of studies which have been performed, critics point out that there are no statistics on exactly how many of those studies were controlled, double blind, peer-reviewed experiments, or how many produced results supporting alternative medicine or parts thereof. They contend that many forms of alternative medicine are rejected by conventional medicine because the efficacy of the treatments has not been demonstrated through double-blind randomized controlled trials; in contrast, conventional drugs reach the market only after such trials have proved their efficacy.