The problem is kind of subtle. Take homeopathy or the supplement industry as an example. These industries are generally not regulated and there have been reports of ingredients in these products that are not disclosed on the label so people may not know what it is they are actually taking and that can be dangerous. Also, ingredients may be labeled but since there is no regulation or scientific standard the amounts can wildly vary. As an example, belladonna has been found baby teething gels and since there is no medical or scientific standard for the products and no regulation the dosage can vary and harm children.
Personally I am all for people having good health, so I think this is a very fair thing to consider and something people should seriously weigh whenvever they look into alternative treatments (and I think you should also get approval from your doctor). This goes well past traditional cures though. And I agree there are a lot of shady supplement industries. But you don't have to go after something like herbal cures that cultures have handed down for hundreds or thousands of years to find an issue, just go to GNC. I used to be very involved in physical activities where GNC was just part of the culture, and I even tried some of that stuff for awhile. One thing you realize is a lot of it does work, but you also have a nagging suspicion that it isn't good for you. I worked at a medical journal for a while and I remember editing articles that covered a lot of the products on GNC shelves that can do harm to internal organs. And there are herbal cures that can also be dangerous. But there is also a lot of stuff that actually seems pretty effective. And drug interactions are always a very, very big concern, whatever you are taking. Even if you don't supplement some of the ideas GNC culture has about how much protein to consume and how much vitamins you should get are not healthy for you.
Also what we are talking about applies to food in stores. There is a lot of food we eat and we buy that is can be just as devastating for your body and organs over time. I don't think that means something like Soda ought to be outlawed (people have a right to drink that stuff if they want) but they should be given good nutritional and health information. Pretty much everyone in my family over 50 is diabetic or pre-diabetic. Heart disease runs on my mom's side of the family. I made a point of cutting out unnecessary sugar in my diet (and keeping my weight under control) so I can minimize my risks there. I take the same degree of caution with that, that I do with anything I put in my body. I always talk to my doctor about any treatment or therapy.
Something people also need to understand about alternative therapies and medicine, and I would contrast this with traditional medicine, because the latter is much more closely tied to culture and family history, is with a lot of conditions, people end up hitting a wall, and they reach a point where they are just trying anything, with a doctor's approval, just to hedge their bets. It doesn't particularly matter why it helps, even if its purely psychological it can still help and, even if it physically does nothing in some cases, provided its safe and the doctor approves, it is at least giving them a sense of doing something and being in control (which also has a massive impact).
One thing that has become very clear to me, and this is something that traditional meditation has helped me with a lot (but also something I've learned through modern therapy) is the power the mind has over our bodies. You aren't going to fix a heart attack with positive thoughts, but your thoughts do have an impact on health. With Crohns for instance you can see this in real time, and you can manage some crohns symptoms simply by being more conscious of how your thoughts affect something like the tightness of your stomach or the degree of nervousness you feel in your gut. That isn't a cure, but it isn't nothing, it is a very substantial degree of control over the illness.
Another example is pain management. A lot of our pain management in modern medicine, has had serious unintended consequences. I've had family and friends who have become addicted to pain killers (and I've seen people die from that stuff: I'm sure many other people here have). I had a bunch of Crohns surgeries and each time they were trying to get me to go onto opiate medications. For the first three I did. But I also got uncomfortable being that reliant on them by the fourth. And so I used real basic medication techniques to help get my mind to distinguish between the pain and the emotions that amplified my perception of the pain. I was able to have multiple surgeries without taking any pain medication after I got out of the hospital. It hurt a little bit, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would, or as much as my doctor's said it would (and I informed them I wasn't taking the pain medication). To me that shows that some of these traditional spiritual methods can have very practical results for people, even in the context of something like recovering from a surgery. And given the risks of opioids, I'm glad I went that direction.
