It is unsurprising that you want to do all you can to stay healthy and thus, have a longer and more comfortable life. However, some put their faith in medicinal products with no scientific backing.

While these products may prove benign or even somewhat helpful, others have more adverse effects.

Here is a list of alternative medicine that are common in Malaysian households.

1. Salt lamps

It is common to see these illuminated blocks of salt being sold in shopping malls.

They are ultimately harmless lamps which look pretty and their lack of blue light means they serve well as night lamps and emergency salt reserves.

However, some vendors claim that they improve your health by releasing negative ions into the air, and this is a little far-fetched.

For one, electric bulbs and lit candles are not hot enough to break apart the ionic bonds between sodium and chlorine, which are electro statically attracted together.

The lamps are orange simply because of impurities in the salt, particularly iron oxide (rust).

If salty air does indeed bring health benefits, this will not explain the amount of sickness sailors of old had to suffer.

2. Magnetic bands

Frequently worn by young people, these metal bands come in the form of bracelets and medallions. As with salt lamps, they look pretty and are ultimately harmless.

However, they are sometimes worn for supposed health reasons; as they are said to “increase blood circulation” and “reduce swelling”.

The effects of minuscule magnetic fields are exactly that – minuscule. While haemoglobin is indeed slightly diamagnetic, you will need an extremely powerful magnetic field to have any effect on your body, let alone beneficial effects.

The magnetic fields of these bands are less likely to ease your pain than have a placebo effect.

3. Healing crystals

It seems to be a recurring theme that pretty and harmless items are being advertised as miraculous cures for diseases of all kinds.

While you collect crystals and gemstones out of interest in geology, others buy them for the supposed healing powers they have.

Normally, crystal healing involves assigning a colour of the rainbow to the chakras of your body and the ailing part of the body is “treated” by putting a correctly coloured crystal on the affected area.

There really is no scientific evidence that healing crystals work in any way and practitioners are more or less free to ascribe any healing property to any crystal.

It is also telling how practitioners never have a uniform reasoning on how exactly the crystals supposedly balance the chakras.

4. Essential oils

People all over the world put their faith in the healing properties of essential oils, which are concentrates of plant aroma compounds.

Again, some essential oils do have actual uses; small amounts of menthol and camphor can de-congest the lungs, witch hazel has minor antiseptic properties, citronella oil is a good insect repellent.

However, no matter how “natural” these essential oils claim to be, they are ultimately highly concentrated chemical mixtures which can cause an allergic reaction or be toxic in large doses.

Essential oils are sometimes used as alternative medicines based on their “naturality”, but this can cause severe ailments or even death.

A more serious problem arises when essential oils are touted as a cure for cancer and other diseases; it encourages the ailing person to ignore effective medical treatment in favour of essential oils with varying levels of safety.

5. Elephant ivory, rhino horn, tiger parts and bear bile

No, they do not work! It’s unbelievable that this has to be said in the 21st century. Yet, these magnificent animals are still being mercilessly hunted down for the most ridiculous reasons: their supposed medicinal value.

Elephant ivory chemically consists of dentine, the same material that gives human teeth their structure. Eating ivory powder is literally the same as eating ground human teeth, which will do absolutely nothing for you.

Rhino horns are made out of keratin, the same material as fingernails and hair. If you are indeed that desperate for virility, just bite your own fingernails rather than drive an entire species to extinction.

The big cats have about as much medicinal value as ingesting a piece of cardboard. Eating tiger poo to cure alcoholism? Really? And tiger bones are no different from the bones of any other species, so paying tons of money for them is a financially stupid move.

As for bear bile, the gall bladder of the black bear is identical to that of any other mammal, so claiming that only a bear’s bile has medicinal value is complete and utter bunk.

Seriously, taking a Panadol is more medically effective than any of the aforementioned “health products”.