Like many people with chronic ailments, sufferers of chronic arthritis are potentially vulnerable to proponents of heavily marketed "cure-all" treatments. These "quick fix" treatments are promoted as having great benefits, but in reality have no right to such claims.
Quackery (the business of promoting unproven remedies) is recognized as a billion dollar industry. We feel the buyer should beware!
Consumers should be especially cautious when products come with marketing claims such as "will cure," "ancient remedy," "has no side effects," "revolutionary new scientific breakthrough."
The following remedies and tests have no scientific proof of benefits related to arthritis:
[Now you've heard it from Alfalfa to Zinc. Beware when you take care!]
| Alfalfa | Lapachol |
| Aloe vera | Macrobiotic diet |
| Amino Acids | Ma-huang |
| Ant venom | Mandell arthritis diet |
| Arnica | Megavitamin therapy |
| Ascorbic acid | Natural and organic foods |
| Bark teas | Nightshade vegetables |
| Bee pollen | Ozone |
| Biotin | P vitamins |
| Bowel cleansing | PABA |
| Chinese herbs, such as Chuifong toukuwan (potentially dangerous) | Panax |
| Cinnamon | Pau d'arco |
| Clay enemas | Powdered ant |
| Clemantis | Propolis, royal jelly |
| Cloves | Raw milk |
| Cod Liver oil | Rhus toxicodendron |
| Coenzyme Q-10 | Rose hips |
| Coffee enemas | Rutin |
| Coicis semen | Sassafras |
| Colonics | Selenium |
| Copper bracelets | Shark cartilage |
| Cytotoxic testing | Snake venom |
| Devil's Claw | Soapweed |
| Dismutase (superoxide dismutase) | Spanish bayonet |
| Dong diet | Spanish fly |
| Elimination diets | Stephania |
| Feverfew | Tang-kuei |
| Fit for Life diet | Teas (alfalfa, feverfew, ginseng, sassafras) |
| Fo-ti | Thiamine |
| Garlic | Vegetarian diets |
| Germanium | Volcanic ash fast |
| Ginseng | Water enema |
| Green-lipped mussel | Wood spider |
| Hair analysis | Yucca |
| Homeopathy | Zen macrobiotics |
| Hydrogen peroxide | Zinc |
| Kelp |