How do you tell if the products and services being offered to you are worth your attention?

There’s no harm in being gullible when the stakes are low, or when you are having fun. Being open to the incredulous is part of being a curious person, and playing along with a friend’s tall tale strengthens your connection while giving you both a good laugh, but in matters of your health, you don’t want to be so open-minded about cure-anything remedies that your brains fall out.

Clark Stanley was the self-proclaimed “Rattle Snake King” of the 1880s. He held live demonstrations in which he killed snakes in front of his audiences, then hawked bottles of snake oil with the promise to cure rheumatism, gout, headache, toothache, sore throat, indigestion, frostbite, partial paralysis, and his list goes on. He was finally charged as a fraudster in 1916 and fined a laughable $20, but for decades, a lot of people believed him.

Nowadays, con artists have a lot more tools for trickery, most notably a far more powerful marketing machinery, but their motive is the same: to get rich at your expense. So, how do you tell if the products and services being offered to you are worth your attention?

First, figure out who is doing the talking and what’s their motivation. Are you dealing with a product promoter, or with a health advocate respected by experts? Does someone credible answer your questions when you ask?

Second, look at the evidence yourself. If a product is backed by a single study with a dozen participants, or if a company doesn’t have any independent research to back their product claims, then be extra cautious.

Third, think about whether the product makes biological sense. If a product claims to detox your body, ask what toxins it removes, where they go, and how it’s different from the work your liver and kidneys already do all day long for free.

The intent here is not to suggest you need to scrutinize every detail of the health remedies on the market. That’s what food and drug regulatory bodies do. Rather, just run your purchases through a mental sieve. If a product fails on points one, two or three, then pause. You need to do more investigation before spending your money.

Here’s another thing. Don’t fall victim to the opposite problem. There are plenty of doctor-approved drugs, also prominently okayed by top health regulatory authorities, that may be effective, but they may not be the right choice. Why? There is a natural alternative that does the same job, but without the side-effects of pharmaceutical products. A perfect example is mild insomnia. Many people reach for prescription sleeping pills (like zolpidem/Ambien), or over-the-counter sedatives (like diphenhydramine/ Benadryl) to “knock themselves out,” when research shows non-drug approaches can work better, last longer, and avoid side effects.

Another example is chronic lower back pain. How grateful we are for ibuprofen, or other painkilling pills to ease the pain. Yet, strengthening core muscles and working on improved flexibility may resolve the problem, and the daily exercise will have so many other benefits for general health too.

The truth is, there are plenty of genuine health remedies that aren’t glamorous. They’re the boring, unprofitable things like moving your body daily, eating a variety of foods, sleeping enough, and building strong social connections. No influencer gets rich from telling you to take a walk with a friend.

The key to all this? Your own thoughtfulness.

Next time you see a health claim that sounds too good to be true, think of the snake oil salesman. The packaging has changed. Human gullibility hasn’t.