Power Balance holograms, BS? Docs?
 

What say you guys about the Power Balance bracelets? Supposedly using a "charged hologram" to help sync with the frequencies in your body to improve balance, strength, etc? They are getting pretty popular here on campus. Several of my friends that climb swear by them. I'm not so sure.... Part of me says it makes sense, the Pharmacist side of me chocks it up to the placebo effect. Anybody got any real science on either side of the fight? I'd like to see it.


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rQ5pkhTtME...AF3612A038.jpg

It's total placebo effect. They were selling them down at the pier at a festival a few weekends ago. They do this demonstration where they have you sand straight up and tell you not to move, and then push you, and you nearly fall over and have to catch yourself. Then they give you a bracelet and do the same push. People don't tip over as easily, and they claim it's the bracelet. It's just you mind telling yourself that, because you believe this bracelet, you won't fall over, when in fact all that is happening is that your brain is just working better the 2nd time around and resists the push better.



There is this guy at work who wears one, says that he knows it shouldn't work, and says it has no science behind it, but it does work somehow. He plays a lot of basketball with some guys at the gym next door and they are all into it.

The private gym that is next door to my office is used by a lot of LA Laker players, and a few of those guys even wear em.

I feel charged after sticking my fingers in a power outlet.

I tried that once. I don't recall liking it....

Ya gotta read the comments...
Amazon.com: Power Balance Bracelet Black w Black letters - Size LARGE: Sports & Outdoors

"I strapped one of these little miracles on and then jumped right in front of a commuter bus. Amazing! The bus couldn't push me off balance. Or even kill me! On top of that, when the bus slammed into me, rainbows and unicorns flew out of my butt! Try doing that without a bracelet on, you skeptics!"

Come on Sid, power balance bracelet, seriously dude.

Didn't say I was gunna buy one. Was just curious if there was any science or if it was all placebo affect.

no science -- ask to see the citations for their 'studies' and then see if those 'journals' are in the science library at your state university

Dude, come on. Tell your friends that are wearing them that they are morons.

:rolleyes:

I feel charged after sticking my fingers in something else... doesn't work for long, repeat regularly :D



LOL!


Sid, it's BS, spend your money on your car. It needs power and balance too. ;)

What Sidney did not know, is that he could have saved the $550+ on the 944 corner/alignment and just stuck 4 Power Balance bracelets on the 4 corners instead.

This year's snake oil.

It won't work without the matching PARTY RING!

1000+

Come on the frequencies in your body?

What frequencies ? Can we measure them with a radio or a microwave receiver?

I bet it takes a special guru with years of training to sense the frequency. :rolleyes:

There are ions in blood that can be aligned better with magnets to some health benefit(not much) and there are certain frequencies of light and sound that are proven to have effects on the moods of humans. There is some basis of truth in the claims. But charging a piece of Mylar? HOW? Thats the big thing that I see wrong with these.

My issue with stuff like this is that once I cry BS! on it - I figure the whole product is BS...

The commercials where they push you off balance, then give the bracelent and push you again? Uhhh....even the most dense of us figures it out the second time you push. We're ready and brace/balance ourselves.

How about this? Put the bracelet on, push me unexpectedly and watch me stagger. Then take it off and push a second time! OH wait - LOOK I'M CURED BY TAKING THE BRACELET OFF - LOL! :rolleyes:

angela

+1.

Almost no magnets will even penetrate the skin. They will do NOTHING to the blood. Mythbusters did a show about as I recall. A MRI uses BUNCHES (the technical term) of energy and magnetic fields that are huge (more techno terms) and that blood is never aligned or affected. The entire body does not feel it at all. A magnet on your wrist or in your shoes is as useful as a Unicorn statue.

External frequencies of sound sure can affect the body, and so will light. Hearing loss and sunburn are real but they are not related to a silly bracelet.

It is just as useful as the copper bracelets. Pure placebo. Nothing else.

We have a 16 Tesla magnet here at work. You're welcome to come try it out and see what happens. ;)

16 Tesla! :eek:

I know the 7 Tesla magnet we have in the NMR here at school has all kinds of warnings on the door...


16 Tesla... That would like pull you across the room if you had keys in your pocket right?

Correction... 16 Tesla... That would like suck metal objects through your body.... 300,000 times stronger than the magnetic field of the earth? Yikes!

I bet it is WAY too heavy to put it on a wrist band. Home much does that sucker weigh?

You probably don't want to know....

The best debunking of the magnetic thigns was on Penn & Teller BS. The attached magnets to some ovenmitts, demagnatized them, then went to a mall and sold them as a medical miracle.

This was the same show with the slug facials.

Yeah but unicorns flying out your butt... how cool would that be?

You would be gettin all the chicks!


Don't they use the same pitch with the copper bracelets?

It would depend on how big. Don't unicorns have a big pointy horn on their heads? Sounds painful. Don't get me started on fairies comming out of your butt...

That has to be a pretty crappy thing to have things fly out your butt. Do they leave skid marks on your wear?

Some folks really want to believe in this kind of crap. they need to believe in it to fill a void. I know some people like this. There is no reasoning with them.
They will not listen to skeptics, they only listen to those who support their fantasy, someone telling them that they are right. They have already made up their minds. They are just looking for reassurance.

I presume they keep their head down during the procedure...

I just think it would be a refreshing change from pigs flying out my butt...

Why the heck do you guys need an NMR? We just got one here at work and from what I can tell it's one SCWHEET piece of kit.

The NMR belongs to the Chemistry department. They use it for analyzing compounds that the people doing research synthesize. You pretty much can't publish a scientific paper these days without an NMR spectrum.

OK, you made me Google it to be sure.

Nuclear magnetic resonance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hehe. Interpreting the signals is tedious for beginners. But it gives lots of information. We have a 300MHz machine and an older 60MHz machine here on campus. Cool stuff.

Edit. Picture didn't work
Looks like Octane to me!

What does that have to do with unicorns?

No wait there is more! Buy now and get a second unicorn FOR FREE!!!!

I don't understand that symbol. It is a double negative?

Not Forbidden? Or Forbidden prohibited? Forbidden not allowed so it must be OK.

Hmm. It showed an NMR spec earlier. Apparently the AIST doesn't like linkbacks....

C'mon, Sid... admit it... you've stood close to it because you wanted to see if it would make your manhood tingle.

That's called image leeching, and no, people don't like it.