By my reckoning, the industry and all its components is continuing to become mainstream and be integrated into standard health care. In order to maintain the credibility of all the components of the industry, there is value in not misrepresenting the potential benefits of complementary and alternative health care. That value is to keep the doors open to all branches, rather than to have regulators close them down due to claims of fraud and quackery. For those of you practicing any form of complementary and alternative health care today, this article will discuss what the law says you can and cannot say when you are advertising and promoting your business. The limits of what you can say are set by federal and state laws relating to advertising, competition and licensing.
All states have laws that prohibit activities that potentially harm citizens.
Such regulation is within the so called police power of a state. As the space limits of this article prevent me from covering all states, we will have a look at federal law, which applies to us all and is exemplary of all state laws. Despite what you may think, you are probably subject to federal law, even if you only practice, let's say, in Massachusetts or New Hampshire. With so many people today traveling between states, not to mention just the two states of MA and NH, it is highly likely that a newsprint ad, which could be picked up in Lowell, MA and taken home to Salem, NH, can be seen as having moved in interstate commerce. That's all you need.