"Energy" bracelets powered by placebo effect

[The Straight Story]

"Energy" bracelets powered by placebo effect

...

"You could put a rubber gasket around your arm and think that was going to heal you," Robinson said.

Some companies claim the bracelets are "infused" with ingredients that repel bad energy emitted by cell phones, TVs and computer monitors.

"A lot of the claims they're making don't hold up to scientific reasoning," 9News Health Reporter Dr. John Torres said.

A spokesperson for Energy Armor, the manufacturer of the volcanic ash-infused bracelets, stood by his company's claims that negative ions protect the body.

http://www.9news.com/news/article/228434/188/Energy-bracelets-powered-by-placebo-effect

[Rabblevox]

1. Energy bracelets, copper pills, tin-foil hats. /nt

[The Straight Story]

3. My tin foil underwear works, it repels mormons when they are wearing magic underwear

:rofl:

[Rabblevox]

4. damn. I think you repelled them to my underwear. Itching and chafing blamed on you! /nt

[JNelson6563]

2. I can't believe how many buy into that

First time I saw an ad for some magical powered bracelet I laughed and laughed and predicted they would sell millions of 'em.

So many suckers out there.

Julie

[WCGreen]

11. My brother has one and he swears by it....

Me, not so much.

[Rabblevox]

13. Unfortunately, most of us have an idiot brother/sister in the woodwork. /nt

[yellowcanine]

5. Magnetic bracelets supposedly do wonderful things for you. Actual evidence is thin to

non-existent, though, so I put it down to a placebo effect as well.

[Romulox]

6. I've been dismayed to see lions QB Matt Stafford with one of those things on...

Really Matt?

[TheWraith]

10. You're counting on the decision making capability...

...of someone who takes violent blows to the head as a career. :)

[jayfish]

12. As a Lions fan...

It could have been a gift. They are fine as decorative jewelry. ...no?

[sufrommich]

7. Gosh, I'm shocked.

:sarcasm:

[Romulox]

8. The "magic" necklaces baseball players are wearing are laughable, too.

[Blue_Tires]

18. I was wondering what those were

most players seem to use them...

[Romulox]

20. They're made by a company called Phiten, and supposedly contain titanium.

This is NOT an endorsement of what is almost assuredly a snake oil product!

http://www.phitenusa.com/

[Blue_Tires]

21. i imagine the players wear them more out of superstition than anything

i originally thought it was some 'stylish' thing they were doing...

[JuniperLea]

9. I wish I could be "fooled" by a placebo...

I am convinced all we really need is contained in our own minds... but how to access? Aye, there's the rub!

That said, placebos work for some people... I've known doctors to prescribe placebos that worked brilliantly.

[CanSocDem]

15. Indeed!

"I am convinced all we really need is contained in our own minds..."

Just stay away from the various scientists, religionists and marketeers who profit from your lack of personal confidence.

Placebo's aren't only rife in the medical industry. How about your two party political system....????

.

[JuniperLea]

17. Smoke and mirrors...

Dogs and ponies... yep. I do believe you are onto something.

This is sage advice for everyone: "Just stay away from the various scientists, religionists and marketeers who profit from your lack of personal confidence."

[eShirl]

16. I think it might be possible...

Part of the mind can still be "gullible" and react as if something is real, even when you intellectually know something is fake. Like how you can get scared watching a certain kind of movie.

[JuniperLea]

27. Ooooo! Great explanation...

I believe you are correct. Optical illusions work on us too... the brain can be fooled, that's for sure.

[hootinholler]

14. Isn't the real purpose of them to identify marks?

:shrug:

[immoderate]

19. Indeed.

:rofl:

--imm

[GliderGuider]

22. I'm not sure why anyone has a problem with that.

The placebo effect is a well-recognized and reasonably well understood phenomenon, in which belief induces changes in a person's perceptions.

The sales pitch for the bracelets creates a belief, the belief induces a change in perception, the patient feels better as a result.

If the sales pitch wasn't present, the belief would not be created, their perceptions would remain unchanged and nothing at all would happen.

The sales pitch is essential to the actual subjective effect.

I'm not sure what the fuss is about, beyond a scientistic need to elevate the objective over the subjective. Where peoples' perceptions and feelings (which are inherently subjective) are concerned, that seems a little silly. There are bigger problems in the world, no?

[Xithras]

23. It's an interesting conundrum.

The "placebo effect" is recognized by medical science, and even if there is still a raging debate on it's ability to conquer actual disease, it's generally unquestioned that the placebo effect has proven beneficial for a patients mental health and feelings of mental well-being. People believe they are feeling better.

Which raises an interesting conundrum: If the placebo effect is unquestionably beneficial for some people, and if these bracelets trigger a placebo effect in some people, then are the bracelets actually triggering measurable and beneficial medical outcomes in those people, even though the bracelets themselves do nothing? Doesn't that, by definition, make them valid and effective medical devices?

I'd never wear one (I don't believe, so the placebo can't work on me), but it's still an interesting question.

[chaska]

24. Most "medicine" works by the placebo effect.

[Lance_Boyle]

25. What a ridiculous thing to say.

Enjoy your bliss, though.

[GliderGuider]

29. I wouldn't say "most", but the effect is extremely common

According to the American Cancer Society:

Even though placebos do not act on the disease, they seem to have an effect in about 1 out of 3 patients. A change in a person's symptoms as a result of getting a placebo is called the placebo effect. Usually the term "placebo effect" speaks to the helpful effects of a placebo in relieving symptoms. This effect usually lasts only a short time, and is thought have something to do with the body's own chemical ability to briefly relieve pain or certain other symptoms.

The BBC reported on a study of the placebo effect that demonstrated its power:

They showed the benefits of painkillers could be boosted or completely wiped out by manipulating expectations. The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, also identifies the regions of the brain which are affected.

Heat was applied to the legs of 22 patients, who were asked to report the level of pain on a scale of one to 100. They were also attached to an intravenous drip so drugs could be administered secretly.

The initial average pain rating was 66. Patients were then given a potent painkiller, remifentanil, without their knowledge and the pain score went down to 55. They were then told they were being given a painkiller and the score went down to 39. Then, without changing the dose, the patients were then told the painkiller had been withdrawn and to expect pain, and the score went up to 64.

So even though the patients were being given remifentanil, they were reporting the same level of pain as when they were getting no drugs at all.

And of course, there's the same problem with placebo effect in anti-depressant therapy:

With antidepressant drug trials, the placebo effect is high enough to cause a full half of these studies to end in failure, which has set off fierce debate over whether an antidepressant is little more than a placebo with side effects. The focal point of the controversy are two studies by Irving Kirsch PhD of the University of Connecticut:

A meta-analysis of nineteen nineteen double-blind antidepressant trials published in the American Psychological Association's online publication, Prevention and Treatment (Guy Sapirstein PhD of Westwood Lodge Hospital, Needham, MA, co-author) in 1998 caused an uproar in professional circles when it was revealed that the placebo effect accounted for a mind-boggling 75 percent of an antidepressant's result - any antidepressant, you name it.

Four years later, the July 2002 Prevention and Treatment published another study by Dr Kirsch that analyzed the FDA database of 47 placebo-controlled short-term clinical trials involving the six most widely prescribed antidepressants approved between 1987 and 1999. These included "file drawer" studies, ie trials that failed but were usually never published.

What Dr Kirsch and his colleagues found was that 80 percent of the medication response in the combined drug groups was duplicated in the placebo groups, and that the mean difference between the drug and placebo was a "clinically insignificant" two points on both the 17-item and 21-item Hamilton Depression Scale, regardless of the size of the drug dose. The placebo factor ranged from a high of 89 percent for the Prozac response, according to the study, and a low of 69 percent for the Paxil response. In four trials, the placebo equaled or achieved marginally better results than the drug. In the nine expert commentaries published with the study, none of the commentators disputed the study's main findings.

So my question is this:

If the placebo effect of anti-depressants and painkillers is accepted with little fuss, why the sturm und drang around these bracelets? My impression is that it's simply a cultural thing - the former are seen as side effects of a "respectable" scientistic endeavour, while the latter are seen (by those same scientists that support the former view) as fraud. The effect is exactly the same in each case, just in the case of the bracelets it's being delivered by guys in blue jeans instead of lab coats

In the case where the effect of an anti-depressant is shown to be due to the placebo effect, aren't the scientists wo brought it to market guilty of effectively "selling bracelets to unsuspecting dupes"?

[CanSocDem]

30. This...

"...the effect of an anti-depressant is shown to be due to the placebo effect, aren't the scientists wo brought it to market guilty of effectively "selling bracelets to unsuspecting dupes"?"

...is the 'dirty little secret' of the free-market. All is fair in the pursuit of hearts and minds and profit.

.

[GliderGuider]

31. Pill-pushers are making a lot more money off their placebos than bracelet merchants are off theirs

Follow the money. Always follow the money.

[Zhade]

26. Prayer "works" the same way.

NT!

[Gamow]

32. My thoughts exactly. Praying to a fictional character is actually kind of worse. nt

[piratefish08]

28. FAKE! the bracelets that actually work are powered by Unobtanium.......