For Whatever Ails Ya

I was fired up about writing for a 2nd day in a row earlier, but my motivation has started to waver as the day has gone on so we’ll see how this goes…

A couple weeks ago when we were at the beach, Krissy’s brother Nick was showing us something that he had recently bought: one of those balance bands that supposedly improve your balance, strength, flexibility, and cure deadly diseases as well…ok, well maybe not the last one, but they are advertised as a cure for whatever ails you. The “science” behind these bands is that a holographic chip within each band helps to improve and regulate your body’s already naturally-occurring magnetism and frequencies. Nick ponied-up like $40 for his, but I have seen them priced anywhere from $20-$50 depending on what brand you buy…that’s right, there are multiple companies that are trying to peddle these things. Now, I was skeptical about whether they truly provide any benefits or not, but once she saw it Krissy immediately wanted one. In all honesty, I kind of wanted one too. I mean, I always thought the “style” or whatever you want to call it of wearing a little wristband was pretty “dope” as the kids are saying these days. When Kevin Garnett was a rookie and started just wearing a rubber band on his wrist during games, I was all over that (I must have been like 12 at the time). To this day, if I pick up a rubber band off the ground I will pick it up and put it on my wrist at least until the next time I get a chance to put it on my rubber band ball (sorry, getting a little too dorky here). I still have a drawer full of WWJD bracelets, Nike and Adidas baller bands, and LiveStrong bands in a drawer at home as well. So anyway, to say this product is catered to people like me in the 1st place is an understatement. I mean, even if the thing was a piece of crap and didn’t work at all I would probably wear it just because I think it looks cool. Still, $30-40 is a lot of money for a wristband, so I did a little research on it, and my skepticism was mostly confirmed.

From everything I read it seems like all these wristband companies are basically trying to do what people have tried to do for centuries: sell you some snake oil advertised as a magic cure-all. Anyway, there doesn’t appear to be any scientific backing for any of this kind of “technology.” There are no “double-blind” study results out there that detail these things as even mild successes. In fact, the only documented study that I came across that studied the effects of power band devices showed that, if anything, people not wearing the bracelets out-performed the ones that did wear them. So, why are these things as popular as they are? You see them everywhere, and there were as many as 3 or 4 different brands for sale in the last Eastbay catalog that I got alone. Well, that part isn’t that hard to figure out actually.

1st, there are people like me who would wear a rubber band or some other band that doesn’t even have any magic powers just because they like the way it looks. If they wear one that even has a chance of improving their physical performance, bonus! 2nd, people will believe what they want to believe. Call it what you will, but people tend to be superstitious. If a ballplayer thinks that not washing his lucky socks is the key to winning, he is going to wear the same decrepit socks every damn game. There is nothing like the power of the mind, and power bands can be a pretty effective placebo. 3rd, pro athletes vouch for these products (whether they actually do anything or not). Turn on a game one night, and you will see half the players on the court/field wearing them. If you go on the website for the “Power Balance Wristband,” you will find testimonials by guys like Derrick Rose and Matt Kemp. Now, how do we know these guys said these things on their own accord, or if the company simply paid them to be an advertiser of their product? The 4th reason is that the demonstrations for these bands are very effective (especially in person). Heck, usually the buyers (who are also believers) do the work for the salesmen. For example, Nick basically did the same demonstration to Krissy that the place he bought it from did to him. He told Krissy to do a series of balance and strength tests, then placed the band in her one hand and did the same series of tests. Amazingly, Krissy found them all much easier the 2nd time around with the band in her hand. To me, these demonstrations contain a lot of hand-waving and smoke and mirrors. A good salesman can probably manipulate you into thinking he’s doing the same thing he did to you before, only he really makes it just a tiny bit easier on you the 2nd time around. Also, anyone is obviously going to perform better on these little “tests” once they already know what’s coming. If I tell you to stand there, and then slap you in the face you probably won’t be ready the 1st time. If I try to do it a 2nd time, you probably aren’t going to let me slap you again. I think the 5th and final reason people fall for these may also be the most important reason of all. The advertised benefits for these bands are so vague and wide-ranging that you can point to improvement in almost anything and say, “Hey, that was because of my band.” In that way, the benefits of the bands become a self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, you might not see a change in your balance after wearing the bands, but what if you feel stronger? It’s got to be the band, right? Similarly, Nick showed the demonstration to one other guy, Tony, that we were staying at the beach with, and he wanted to get one right away. The next night at the boardwalk he found a store that sold them. The next morning Tony said his back, which had been bothering him for days, was pain free! It had to be the band, right?

The thing is that personally I do think that there is something to our bodies having an “optimum” frequency or something to that effect. I’m just not convinced (and apparently the scientific community isn’t either yet) that a wristband with a holographic chip inside it is what will tap into that…otherwise doctors would be prescribing balance bands to people like Tylenol. So, maybe one day soon a study will come out saying that these balance bands do in fact work, but until then I think I will just stick to my drawer full of wristbands and the rubber bands that I find on the ground. They look just as cool, and it will save me 40 bucks too.