[Eagevawax]

I've been seeing plenty of people walking around with the familiar rubber band around their wrist with a variety of different brands on them. A little background research shows these are completely fraudulent items purporting nearly the same "benefits" as products such as the Q-Ray bracelet, which the government aptly nuked for some $80+ million in damages for making a wide range of claims ranging from improving your “energy flow” to dealing with cancer pain.

Any website selling the product will offer a wide variety of mumbo-jumbo telling you how they work: imbued with a “special hologram” (plastic sticker) that is tuned to “frequencies” that offer such-and-such health benefits. Since Intelligent Quantum Solutions (IQS) sells these things by the base, I took special interest in their website. Their evidence supporting the claims is comprised of a study that isn’t found in any peer-reviewed journal (or published anywhere else on the internet from what I could find) that had no control or blinding and relied solely on the subjective reporting of the individuals being tested. Essentially: a study of questionable legitimacy that wasn’t even performed correctly.

The bracelets are a 30$ silicon band that claims to do something with your body's "energies" or something to do with acupuncture (both claims are bunk). The "test" performed on people to convince them that the product increases performance or balances energies or whatever is simply a trick: a cheat designed to scam you out of your hard-earned cash.

One common tactic to defraud the customer: the mark (victim) stands on one leg with their arms out. The scammer pushes straight down on the mark's elbow and easily knocks the mark over. The scammer then offers the mark the product to wear or hold or put on their head, then repeats the test. This time, the scammer pushes down on the elbow but directs the force slightly inward toward the mark's center of gravity. This makes it seem like the bracelet is effective at, well, keeping you balanced. However, it is little more than a parlor trick.

The second trick has the mark stand with their hands clasp behind their body. The scammer pushes down on their hands from behind, easily knocking the person back. The scammer then offers the mark the product to don, repeats the demonstration, except subtly pushes in toward the mark’s body. To the mark, there is a dramatic difference between not using the product and using the product. To the scammer, it is another person duped by a clever fraud.

I’m offering this as a PSA and will be contacting relevant offices to alert them of the fraudulent activity.

EDIT: Forgot to add in a recent mutation: "Energy Armor". Same scam, same garbage.

[inhitoemits]

Not to mention the "mark" is aware of what they're going to do on the second attempt and they tense their body up so as not to fall down.

[Sakkola]

I was impressed by the psuedoscientific garbage spewed out to support these sorts of products. Then again, it isn't any different from magnet therapy, acupuncture, crystal healing, homeopathy, reiki, psychic mediums, or ghost hunters: people who are either scientifically illiterate themselves or make their money from duping the scientifically illiterate.

[pitoufsd]

Actually, acupuncture does work. There are even military doctors trained in it. My wife used to have severe migraines and we went up to Tripler and were referred to a US Army Major who performed it. Not 1 minute after putting the pins in the right spots her migraines were gone. He even showed us how to do it and gave us the self-inserting pins. It kept her happy for quite some time and now she hardly has them at all.

[CenICrerflind]

i was just wearing the rubber band around my wrist so i could give myself the stranger.

[ClaudeMarkus]

Actually, acupuncture does work. There are even military doctors trained in it. My wife used to have severe migraines and we went up to Tripler and were referred to a US Army Major who performed it. Not 1 minute after putting the pins in the right spots her migraines were gone. He even showed us how to do it and gave us the self-inserting pins. It kept her happy for quite some time and now she hardly has them at all.

Actually, acupuncture works entirely on placebo. In fact, sham acupuncture performs just as well as "real" acupuncture, and you can "poke" anywhere on the body and get the same results as whatever your particular chart says. In fact, randomly poking you with toothpicks performs just as well as that ancient Chinese wisdom can provide (link 4). Without getting too personal, you're treating your wife with general relaxation and giving the credit to magic.

There exists no mechanism for acupuncture to work and it relies on the existence of "energies" which have not been demonstrated to exist, acupuncturist are in the incredible minority when it comes to medical experts, it only "works" for entirely subjective things like pain, it does not outperform placebos in properly performed double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, and commits the fallacy of the appeal to ancient knowledge.

Some reading on the failures of acupuncture to produce meaningful and confirming results:
1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16674760
2. A follow up to above: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18209514
3. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0504101520.htm
4. http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...897636,00.html
5. http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/20...nterpreted.php

[squeerisott]

Lies!!!!!
They are infused with magic. They work, I wore one and I was able to lift a C-5 with a single hand. 100% pure magic.

[thargeagsaf]

I wonder why any replies I post that contain links have to be "vetted" by a moderator. Maybe because of the whiny dweeb that gave me negative rep because I called him out for being a blatant liar involving what another user posted (and had that user's post to back me up)? Is that what bad "rep" does?

Back on topic: I wonder if I could appeal to people having a hard time with their PT tests and wasting money and relying on these products to "help" them as a reason for products that rely on magical thinking to be banned from being sold.

[Mabeavyledlib]

I wonder why any replies I post that contain links have to be "vetted" by a moderator. Maybe because of the whiny dweeb that gave me negative rep because I called him out for being a blatant liar involving what another user posted (and had that user's post to back me up)? Is that what bad "rep" does?

No. Any posts with links are set for admin review to keep out the spammers...we used to get quite a lot that here.

To get around that...you can make your post and then go back to "edit" it and add your links. That seems to avoid the admin review.

Back on topic: I wonder if I could appeal to people having a hard time with their PT tests and wasting money and relying on these products to "help" them as a reason for products that rely on magical thinking to be banned from being sold. I don't believe acupuncture works...but I do believe that a patient believing in SOMETHING working, may actually work. Doesn't matter whether that SOMETHING is an acupunturist, a pill, Jesus, a wrist band, or a potato. There is something healing about believing you're being healed....doesn't beat actual medical procedures though, no.

[estuapped]

My wife actually had a negative attitude towards acupuncture when it was suggested to her. She didn't believe it would work but had been under enough intensive pain that she was willing to try anything. That it was so successful on her, despite her misgivings, led us to decide that, at least for her, it had a positive affect. Like anything, nothing works on everyone all the time. Your mileage may vary. I actually put the pins in the wrong place the first time I tried it and it had no affect on her migraine. It wasn't until I relooked at the proper placement and reinserted the pins that it affected her pain.

You can believe what you want, pro or con. It worked for her and that's all I care about.

[O25YtQnn]

@ SailorDave: I'm sure'll understand when I take the position supported by rigorous, significantly-populated, double-blinded, controlled, peer-reviewed trials over your anecdote. Based on what the evidence shows, it is more likely that you are affirming a confirmation bias (regarding your placing the needles in the wrong location, therefore, it didn't work) because the evidence shows that it doesn't matter where the needles go.

I understand it is difficult to discount your personal experience, but there is a reason that thoroughly-designed trials are so important in medicine and "someone tried X and it worked, therefore, it works" is useless.

Your evidence for acupuncture is exactly that of every other nostrom I posted earlier in the thread: "I/my wife/my credible friend tried alternative treatment X and it worked, so there must be something to it!"

@ Measure Man: Yes, that "something" is placebo. Placebo is notoriously effective at dealing with subjective things like "pain". This is why you don't see any remotely credible acupuncturist claiming to be able to handle objective, testable diseases like smallpox or polio. The ones that do are quacks and should expect substantial federal charges for making medical claims that aren't backed by evidence.

[Jadldqys]

I'm sorry, you misunderstand me. I'm not trying to convince you or anyone else. Perhaps I should have said "Acupuncture worked for us". Whether it works for anyone else, during any type of trial or whatever is irrelevant to me. Because people have nothing to lose by trying it, perhaps it may work for them and it may not. It's up to each individual to make that decision.

If you choose to only go with treatments that meet your requirement to have "rigorous, significantly-populated, double-blinded, controlled, peer-reviewed trials", then have at it. I'm sure that for whatever medicine a doctor has prescribed for you, for any illness during your adult life, has met that prerequisite. If it works for you, stay with it.

[rammossyAcron]

I'm sorry, you misunderstand me. I'm not trying to convince you or anyone else. Perhaps I should have said "Acupuncture worked for us". Whether it works for anyone else, during any type of trial or whatever is irrelevant to me. Because people have nothing to lose by trying it, perhaps it may work for them and it may not. It's up to each individual to make that decision.

Actually, people do have something to lose, ranging in problems from punctured lungs to spreading blood-borne diseases. They also have plenty to lose when you waste time and money treating yourself for things like HIV using acupuncture; that valuable time could be used to seek useful and relatively effective medical treatment.

If you choose to only go with treatments that meet your requirement to have "rigorous, significantly-populated, double-blinded, controlled, peer-reviewed trials", then have at it. I'm sure that for whatever medicine a doctor has prescribed for you, for any illness during your adult life, has met that prerequisite. If it works for you, stay with it. Not my standards, just a way to keep myself grounded in reality without wasting my time or money.

[ProomoSam]

As I said, whatever works for you.

[PebydataFeents]

As I said, whatever works for you.

And as I alluded to: you could have "prescribed" her Smarties and had the same effects with a fraction of the investment.