I'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

I'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't get a lot of attention because there's no "miracle drug" that can be patented and sold for billions. They fall outside the jurisdiction of the FDA (whether they should or not is debatable), but I wouldn't write any of these items off just because they are marketed as supplements. I think the best we can say is that we don't know enough about them and their effects. Look at how often the "eat X, it's good for you"/"don't eat X, it's bad for you"/"X has no significant effect" articles we see... often where X is the same thing in different categories.