Just curious if these are gaining popularity out in Canada, they have really become quite popular here in Iceland in the last few months.
The company that makes these was basically forced in Australia to admit they had zero evidence that they worked, yet these continue to gain in popularity all over the world.
The demonstrations used by sales people or seen on TV ADs are tricks that are well known and well understood, example can be seen here:
Another one demonstrating the tricks.
I should stop trying to educate people on these scams and just sell out and make money off of people's gullibility
Yeah, it's just a placebo effect. I achieve the same effect by putting on a pin. I put it on my clothes and I feel better. Except mine is just a toy pin from the childhood television show Captain Power and I say: "Power On!" as was the catch phrase of show and I feel more happy. All this stuff is tokenism and psychology and confidence tricks. It's like an adult security blanket.
Last edited by Hack&Lube; 10-16-2011 at 05:46 PM.
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A friend got one not long ago and tested it out on a few of us. I could hardly notice a difference, if any, everyone else seemed to buy in to it. I tried to explain to them how it's either in your head as the wearer, or in the head of the tester. Having someone press down on your arms just isn't convincing. Even if they aren't consciously doing it there belief about the bracelet will affect their method.
Secondly, typically the test is done without the bracelet first, so you aren't really sure how hard the tester is going to be pushing on you. Therefore when you put the bracelet on you have a basis for resistance and prepared for it.
while today’s [sic] technology has improved, simplified and secured our environment, it has simultaneously created some significant negative health ramifications. Our increased exposure to chemicals, electromagnetic discharge, and other neurological and physical toxins has paralleled rising rates of cancers, stress, sleep disorders and a myriad of accompanying illnesses.
Computers, cellular telephones and the electronics within cars all play a part in creating an increase in our positive ion exposure. Today’s automobiles and residences are tightly sealed, further lessening our abilities to truly recharge our bodies. Our bodies are simply producing a natural response to unnatural stimuli. There is a solution:
Lifestrength ion bracelets.
Our negative ion wristbands counteract the effects of the overload of positive ion emitting devices, structures and vehicles. The effects of this balancing promote improved performance regardless of whether you are undertaking extreme sporting activities or writing a doctoral thesis. Within all human activity, balance is essential.
A lifestrength ion bracelet is lived, not just worn. We have created our products to fill in the elements that keep you from living a complete life.
We are the exclusive developers of the process known as ion health technology. There are two primary factors that contributed to the development of this technique:
Exhaustive research resulted in the discovery that a proprietary combination of minerals in a very specific ratio produces a negative ion factor up to 25 times greater than those of other negative ion bracelets.
We then developed an innovative manufacturing methodology that allowed us to incorporate the mineral mix into our ion bracelets without compromising their life enhancing benefits.
If you want negative ions all you have to do is go take a shower.
When I read the thread title and the little thread preview on hover about this being popular in Iceland, I thought this was about a new type of metal band too.
I am disappoint.
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Yeah I went to Olympian Sports and they had them at the till for $39. When I got home I bought one on eBay for $2. Complete rip-off, they don't even work, people just wear them to look cool (myself included)
Homer: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a charm. Lisa: That's specious reasoning, Dad. Homer: Thank you, dear. Lisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.
Homer: Oh, how does it work? Lisa: It doesn't work. Homer: Uh-huh. Lisa: It's just a stupid rock. Homer: Uh-huh. Lisa: But I don't see any tigers around, do you? Homer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock.
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Without effective regulation, sites like ours are forced to play whack-a-mole with the medical pseudoscience du jour. The latest case in point is Titanium Ion Bands – which are just another version of the Power Balance bands that have been previously exposed as nonsense. The idea is that by wearing a small bracelet on one wrist you will experience improved athletic performance. This sounds impossible – because it is.
But companies have successfully bamboozled enough of the public to rake in millions.
The marketing strategy is three-fold. First, get naive professional athletes to endorse the product. Second, give live demonstrations (deceptive parlor tricks) that convince the unsuspecting that something must be going on. And third, wow the scientifically illiterate with a confusing barrage of medical techno-babble. The combination is sadly effective.
Power Balance, for example, makes vague references to frequencies and energy as the explanation for how a little piece of rubber (with embedded holograms) can have any effect on human physiology. The company was eventually legally forced to admit: “”We admit that there is no credible scientific evidence that supports our claims.” The admission has not ended their sale, however.
Next up is the Titanium Ion Bands. Their claims are essentially the same – wear a little bracelet on your wrist and you will have improved performance. Instead of holograms and frequencies, their bands are alleged to work through negative ions. This is just another recycled pseudoscientific claim that has been around for years. Just search on “negative ions” and you will see a variety of products claiming to improve health with negative ions.
The bracelet claim is nonsense for two independent reasons. The first is that a piece of anything does not generate negative or positive ions. You cannot change the net electrical charge spontaneously – you need a source of energy. The only devices that actually generate negative ions are powered in some way, such as a machine that you plug into an outlet. A chemical reaction, such as occurs in a battery, is also a possible source – but not tourmaline and titanium discs, as the company claims.
Even if the bracelets did give off negative ions, there is no evidence of any healthy benefit from this.
There is every reason to believe that these titanium bands are medically worthless. However current regulations allow the company to market them with deceptive health claims without the burden to provide reliable scientific evidence to back up their claims. The endless chain of such products will continue as long as the lax regulations allow them to.
At present the best we can do is to continue to educate the public about the underlying science and to be skeptical of all such products. Further, we can pressure pharmacies and other outlets not to sell pseudoscientific products. Further, there are mechanisms to force companies to retract deceptive or unsupported claims for their products. It is a game of whack-a-mole, but it’s better than nothing.
I think scammers were sitting around one day and asking themselves "How could we make it easier to pick out the easy marks? If only we could get them to wear wrist bands to identify them."
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
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Yeah, it's just a placebo effect. I achieve the same effect by putting on a pin. I put it on my clothes and I feel better. Except mine is just a toy pin from the childhood television show Captain Power and I say: "Power On!" as was the catch phrase of show and I feel more happy. All this stuff is tokenism and psychology and confidence tricks. It's like an adult security blanket.
My god, you're one step from wearing a replica Star Trek communicator badge and tapping it when your social situation gets uncomfortable and screaming "Riker get me out of here"
Then its straight onto the Star trek Uniform and a job at the U.S. postal service.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
reminds me of my sister in law putting a (amber I think) teething necklace on her baby.
My first thought was all the stuff I do in my house to keep cords and stuff out of reach of my kids so they don't choke themselves and this woman is tying something around her baby's neck on purpose?
__________________
"Wake up, Luigi! The only time plumbers sleep on the job is when we're working by the hour."
I wear one.
I know it's a mind fata, but 10 years on and I still have the occasional pain/balance/strength problems in the leg I had amputated.
I know it's a mind trick, but it is the placebo I needed.
Heck of a lot better than drugs.
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Power Balance bands
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