I&#x27;m not an alternative medicine fanatic, but neither am I someone who thinks that Big Pharma is nothing but an evil conspiracy, but I suspect at the end of the day, these things don&#x27;t get a lot of attention because there&#x27;s no &quot;miracle drug&quot; that can be patented and sold for billions.<p>They fall outside the jurisdiction of the FDA (whether they should or not is debatable), but I wouldn&#x27;t write any of these items off just because they are marketed as supplements.<p>I think the best we can say is that we don&#x27;t know enough about them and their effects.  Look at how often the &quot;eat X, it&#x27;s good for you&quot;&#x2F;&quot;don&#x27;t eat X, it&#x27;s bad for you&quot;&#x2F;&quot;X has no significant effect&quot; articles we see... often where X is the same thing in different categories.