Article Details

1. Find out exactly what is in the product. If the product is being offered by a reputable dealer this is easy. If you type the name brand into a search engine, you can usually find a merchant’s or manufacturer’s website that provides an exact ingredient listing. Otherwise you will have to call the merchant or manufacturer.

2. Apply everything you already know about the underlying causes of arthritis to see if this product is likely to help. In the case above, I used my knowledge of food sensitivities being an underlying cause of many cases of arthritis to warn the reader that she would need to test for food sensitivities before she could know if this particular product would be likely to help her arthritis.

If she reacts poorly to any of the ingredients, it will likely make her arthritis worse. If she has no problem with any of the ingredients, it may improve her general health and might even help her arthritis.

3. Look at the research on arthritis treatments. More research is being done all the time on arthritis. It is worth keeping updated on what actually has been proven to work, how well it works, and if there are any known drawbacks.

The Arthritis Foundation is a conservative, well respected organization. There has to be a fair amount of scientific evidence that a treatment offers long-term improvements for people with arthritis before they are willing to say anything positive about it. With this in mind, their supplement guide is a good place to visit for this type of fact finding.

My old favorite, PubMed, is another excellent resource. It will give you a direct look at the scientific research.

4. Check if the FDA has issued warnings about the dietary supplement you are considering.

5. Check whether the FDA or the FTC have taken action against the promoter of a product you are considering.

6. Finally, if you want to learn even more about product safety, visit NIH’s Medline Plus site which has a special health fraud page with many useful links.