Carole Grant doesn't really trust medical doctors. She never has. Whenever she has had a health issue, she has headed straight for an herbalist, acupuncturist or other "natural" healer.

A few years ago, her alternative practitioner of choice was a self-described "intuitive healer" in New York, where she lives. The healer put Grant on a regimen of herbs, supplements and vitamins to help her lose weight.

A few weeks later, Grant, a geriatric care manager, was closing up an apartment for an elderly client who'd died when she started feeling strange sensations in her toes.

"I don't think any herb is good or bad. It's how we use it," said Dr. Brent Bauer, director of the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program at the Mayo Clinic. "Sometimes people take too much. They think, if two is good, then 20 must be better."

CNN by Elizabeth Cohen, 08/20/09

Tags: Complementary/Alternative Medicine