The five topics
- Product comparisons & total cost. Choosing a home blood pressure monitor: check it is validated, not just well reviewed
Choose a home blood pressure monitor that has been validated for accuracy. - Returns, warranties & subscriptions. null (Guide in preparation)
Cancel a subscription or membership, and know what California law requires the company to allow. - Recalls & product safety. How to check whether a product, medicine or food has been recalled
Check whether a product, medicine or food you have has been recalled. - Skin, hair, beauty & cosmetic claims. null (Guide in preparation)
Read skincare claims such as 'clinically proven' for what they do and do not mean. - Fake reviews, counterfeits & shopping scams. null (Guide in preparation)
Spot fake or paid reviews before you rely on them.
Health is sold everywhere: blood pressure monitors with thousands of star ratings, skincare that is "clinically proven," supplements with confident labels, subscriptions that are easy to start and hard to stop. These guides help you look past the marketing to what can be checked: validation lists, recall databases, labeling rules and consumer protection law. They name the agency that handles each kind of problem and how to report it.
What this area covers
Product comparisons & total cost. Choosing a home blood pressure monitor: how to check that it has been validated for accuracy, not just well reviewed.
Returns, warranties & subscriptions. How to cancel a subscription or membership, and what California's automatic renewal law requires a company to allow.
Recalls & product safety. How to check whether a product, medicine or food has been recalled, and what to do if yours is on the list.
Skin, hair, beauty & cosmetic claims. What skincare claims such as "clinically proven" or "dermatologist recommended" do and do not tell you.
Fake reviews, counterfeits & shopping scams. How to spot fake or paid reviews before you rely on them.
Start here
- Choosing a home blood pressure monitor: check it is validated, not just well reviewed
- How to check whether a product, medicine or food has been recalled, with a printable recall check card
From the patient education and policy libraries
- Home Blood Pressure Monitoring
- Understanding Your Blood Pressure Numbers
- Safe Medication Storage and Disposal
- Counterfeit Medicines and Online Pharmacies
A habit worth keeping
Before you buy a health product, check three things marketing can't change: whether an independent list or a regulator has validated or cleared it, whether it has been recalled, and what the label actually says it does. Star ratings and testimonials answer none of those questions.
Where this connects
Product safety, advertising claims and refund rights are areas of consumer protection law that reach directly into health. The policy library explains how counterfeit and unapproved medicines reach buyers and how regulators respond. When a guide here suggests reporting a product, it names the agency that receives the report.