LIMA, Peru - Peru's government warned people to be wary of fake medicine men offering cure-all miracle herb potions on Tuesday, after a bogus brew killed a man hoping to shake off a spell of bad luck.

Alternative medicine is popular throughout the Andean nation, where newspapers are full of colorful ads from self-proclaimed "shamans" offering to improve anything from customers' luck to their ability to attract a mate.

The poisoning death of a man this week who hired a curer to improve his family's bad luck led the government to warn people away from clandestine or street-corner practices, warning the potions used could kill or cause long-term illness.

"Avoid consuming brews made with herbs of questionable origin or hallucinogenic plants prepared by so-called Shamans," the country's Health Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said that genuine Shamans from the country's north sometimes consumed natural hallucinogens such as the San Pedro cactus in their rituals, but did not administer them to patients.