Safe Use of Complementary Health Products and Practices

As with any treatment, it is important to consider safety before using complementary health products and practices. Safety depends on the specific therapy, and each complementary product or practice should be considered on its own.

Psychological and/or physical approaches such as meditation and yoga, for example, are generally considered to be safe in healthy people when practiced appropriately. Nutritional approaches such as herbal medicines or botanicals are often sold as dietary supplements and are readily available to consumers; however, there is a lot we don’t know about the safety of many of these products, in part because a manufacturer does not have to prove the safety and effectiveness of a dietary supplement before it is available to the public.

Two of the main safety concerns for dietary supplements are