It can be very challenging finding your way through the maze of complementary and alternative treatments currently available (this website aims to be one of the resources you can use to navigate your healing journey). And it may not always be easy to find the right practitioner or therapy to address your particular health concerns. As well, natural therapies can be quite costly; unfortunately at this time very few therapies are covered by provincial or even extended health plans.

Here are the top eight questions you can ask yourself and your practitioner to help you clarify which complementary therapy is most appropriate for you:

1. What are my goals in using this therapy?
2. Is this therapy used by other people with my health condition, and what is a realistic outcome that I can expect?
3. Is there some available research or additionalinformation about this therapy and where can I find it?
4. What are the side effects of this therapy, if any?
5. What sort of commitment will I have to make to use this treatment and get the best results from it?
6. Where can I get this treatment and will it be regularly available?
7. How might this treatment integrate with any other treatment I’m currently undertaking, and how might it interact with other natural health products or pharmaceutical drugs I’m currently taking?
8. How much does it cost?

Unfortunately, the answers to some of these questions may not be readily available. It can be difficult to find information on interactions between various complementary therapies or between complementary therapies and prescription drugs.

It is always wise to getinformation from more than one source. Do not rely solely oninformation provided by the providers of a particular treatment. Do your homework and network — ask your friends, family and anyone you trust what their experience has been using this therapy.

Keren Brown is a passionate advocate for the integration of effective natural therapies into the conventional health care system, as a means to emphasize prevention and minimize chronic disease. She was co-founder and Executive Director of the Holistic Health Research Foundation of Canada, which, during its seven years of operation, raised nearly $2 million for holistic health education and research, and funded more than 20 university-based research studies.  A writer and editor with a communications consulting background, Keren is the President of GoGreenInside^® and the publisher of gogreeninside.com.