10 Wellness Claims Californians Should Question Before Trying

Goop paid $145,000 in 2018 to settle a case over jade eggs sold as a way to balance hormones, and agreed to stop advertising them as a remedy for anything.

The claim outlived the settlement.

These are the wellness claims Californians should question before trying.

Note: This is general information, not medical advice. Guidelines and regulations shift, so talk to a doctor before trying any new supplement, injection or therapy.

1. Raw Milk Beats Pasteurized?

California is one of a handful of states that lets grocery stores sell raw milk straight off the shelf.

The marketing promises better nutrients and friendlier bacteria than anything pasteurized offers.

The bacteria go both ways.

Raw Farm LLC, a Fresno County dairy, had to recall milk and cream in late 2024 after state testing found the H5N1 bird flu virus in its bottled product.

The California Department of Public Health told shoppers to switch to pasteurized milk instead, since heat kills the virus that raw milk can’t.

2. Jade Eggs Balance Hormones?

Jade eggs and rose quartz eggs promise to balance hormones, regulate periods and even prevent uterine prolapse if a person wears one internally.

Ten California prosecutors disagreed.

Sonoma County’s district attorney led nine other California counties against Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness company, over the eggs and an Inner Judge Flower Essence Blend marketed to prevent depression.

Goop paid $145,000 in 2018 to settle the case, agreed to refund buyers, and stopped advertising the products as a remedy for any health problem.

No science backed it.

3. IV Drips Cure Hangovers?

IV lounges pitch vitamin drips as a hangover cure and an immunity boost, often for $150 or more a bag.

Medical researchers who reviewed the evidence found no strong data proving a drip does more than a bag of saline and time.

Water works for free.

California’s Business and Professions Code already treats a vitamin infusion as the practice of medicine, which keeps ownership and clinical calls inside licensed hands rather than a storefront’s marketing team.

Senate Bill 351 backed that doctrine with state law in 2026.

It bars any private equity firm or hedge fund that owns a stake in a clinic from overriding a clinician’s judgment about who needs a needle.

A walk-in menu still doesn’t decide who gets an IV.

4. Alkaline Water Changes Your pH?

Alkaline water brands, including a bottled line Trader Joe’s sells in its California stores, promise a higher pH that neutralizes acid in the body and wards off disease.

The body already handles that job on its own.

The kidneys and lungs hold blood pH in a tight band around 7.4 no matter what a person drinks.

Stomach acid finishes the argument.

Cleveland Clinic calls the pH-balancing claims marketing hype that’s never been properly tested.

A shopper sued Trader Joe’s, the grocery chain headquartered in Monrovia, California, in federal court over its Alkaline Water label.

A judge dismissed many of the claims as harmless marketing puffery, and the Ninth Circuit agreed in 2021 that the label never promised to change a drinker’s internal chemistry.

5. Stem Cells Fix Your Knee?

Stem cell clinics in Beverly Hills and Rancho Mirage built a business on drawing fat cells from a patient’s body.

They inject that mixture back into an aching knee, hip or shoulder and call it a cure.

The Ninth Circuit disagreed.

Federal judges ruled that the California Stem Cell Treatment Center and Cell Surgical Network were manufacturing an unapproved drug, not performing a same-day surgical procedure exempt from FDA oversight.

The Supreme Court refused to hear their appeal.

6. Adrenal Fatigue Is Real?

Adrenal fatigue takes the blame for exhaustion, brain fog and stubborn weight, and wellness clinics sell supplements to fix it.

Rainbow Light, a supplement maker based in Santa Cruz, California, sells a B-Complex formula marketed on grocery shelves for heightened stress and “fatigued adrenal glands.”

No proof backs the diagnosis.

The Endocrine Society, a leading group of hormone specialists, says adrenal fatigue isn’t an actual medical condition.

No approved test exists to diagnose it, and the symptoms overlap with depression, sleep apnea and low thyroid function instead.

Tiredness needs an answer, not a supplement aisle.

7. Food Tests Find Your Triggers?

At-home IgG food-sensitivity tests promise a report card of foods secretly causing bloating, fatigue or brain fog.

Allergists call the whole premise backward.

The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) says these tests shouldn’t be used to diagnose a food problem.

A positive result is normal in healthy people and mostly reflects tolerance to a food, not a reaction to it.

Vibrant Wellness, a lab headquartered in Santa Clara, California, sells a Food Zoomer kit built on this same IgG antibody approach, screening blood against more than 200 foods.

Tolerance isn’t a diagnosis.

8. DIY Ozempic Is Safe?

Telehealth clinics and med spas across California sell compounded semaglutide as a cheaper, faster way around the Ozempic and Wegovy shortage.

The FDA isn’t convinced.

The agency sent more than 50 warning letters to compounders of GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) drugs such as semaglutide in September 2025 over false or misleading claims.

The FDA has logged hundreds of adverse-event reports tied to compounded semaglutide, many linked to dosing errors that left patients injecting five to twenty times too much.

A syringe leaves no room for guessing.

9. Saunas Sweat Out Toxins?

Infrared sauna studios promise a sweat session flushes out toxins the body couldn’t get rid of on its own.

Perspire Sauna Studio, a chain that started in Costa Mesa, California, in 2010, has since opened more than 100 studios.

It advertises that its infrared heat “supports your body’s natural detox pathways.”

Sweat isn’t a toxin exit.

Reviewers have found little evidence sweating removes anything meaningful from the body, since the liver and kidneys already filter and clear toxins without help.

A sauna session can still relax muscles and support heart health.

Detox is the wrong word for it.

10. NAD+ Drips Reverse Aging?

NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) IV bars promise sharper focus, more energy and reversed aging for a few hundred dollars a session.

Not one bag is approved.

Compounded NAD+ has no FDA-approved use for energy or anti-aging.

The agency warned compounders in late 2024 to stop using food-grade NAD+ in IV bags, after patients reported severe chills, shaking and vomiting consistent with contamination.

One clinic named in a related FDA warning that same year, Fullerton Wellness, operated out of Ontario, California, before it shut down.