How to Read a Health Claim 求证

The three questions

Aim these at any claim — a bottle, a headline, or a page in this grove:

1. Compared to what? A treatment can only be shown to work against a comparison — placebo, sham, or standard care. No control group, no conclusion; a thousand testimonials are an anecdote wearing a choir robe^[1].
2. In whom, and how many? Twelve mice is a hint; forty volunteers is a pilot; a thousand patients across several trials is evidence. Watch the leap from cells-in-a-dish to capsules-in-a-cart — most supplement marketing lives entirely in that leap^[1].
3. Who's counting, and did they know? Blinding, pre-registered outcomes, and someone other than the seller doing the measuring. "Clinically proven" on a label legally means nothing; a citation you can read means everything.

The phrases that should raise an eyebrow

"Boosts the immune system" (unmeasurable as stated), "detoxifies" (from what, into where?), "ancient secret" (age is not evidence — see our own classics shelf for the loving version of that point), "no side effects" (then it has no effects), and "natural, so it's safe" — a sentence he shou wu and every mushroom forager can correct^[1].

The rules this site holds itself to

Written once at the About page, enforced everywhere: scientific claims cite the actual literature, verified before citing; "the tradition says" and "the research says" never blur; thin evidence is called thin on the page that sells nothing. When one of our herbs carries strong evidence, we say so plainly — and when the strongest thing we can honestly say is "safe ritual, plausible mechanics," we say exactly that. Hold us to it: the contact page exists for the reader who catches the grove slipping.

Reviewed 2026-08-26