This is my totally anecdotal experience with "natural" products and my mom. Sorry that it's long, but I'm still emotional about it.

My mother developed pain in her hands in her early 50s. She worked for a hospital (nonmedical) but still didn't want to see doctor - she decided that she was getting osteoarthritis and began self treating with painkillers and herbs. As time went on, the pain intensified, the joints swelled, and then it began to appear in other parts of her body.

So she bought a big huge "natural medicine" encyclopedia so she could "research" better self treatments. She took more herbal supplements, building up to a huge daily cocktail of god knows how many bottles (it filled a small shipping box at one point) and the occasional Aleve. This went on for years. We did ask and beg her to see a doctor, but she insisted that prescription drugs all had bad side effects and that natural products were healthier. Keep in mind that we have several family members who are doctors and nurses, and she herself went to nursing school for a time long ago.

Skip forward another few years, and her hands are permanently swollen and she can't lift a gallon of milk. Getting out of bed is an hour long process. She finally agrees to see a doctor because things are just so bad that she can't take it any more. The doctor finds that she has severe rheumatoid arthritis which is an autoimmune disorder, osteoporosis, and anemia. She's immediately placed on some pretty heavy duty drugs like injections to try to control the inflammation. They still haven't been able to pull her out of active state disease and it's been about 2 or 3 years now that she's been under medical care. She is on disability because she can't lift anything anymore.

Because of this unwavering belief in "natural" cures, we can only imagine how she'd be doing now if she'd sought medical help much sooner than she did. I personally will never take an herbal supplement again and the word "natural" has been thusly stripped of any meaning to me. I happily use AHAs, "chemical" sunscreens, and so on.