💾 Archived View for gmi.noulin.net › mobileNews › 2794.gmi captured on 2023-12-28 at 19:57:34. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-01-29)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
2011-01-07 16:08:42
By Finlo Rohrer BBC News Magazine
A growing number of celebrities are being spotted with a distinctive silicone
band on their wrists. While users claim it can help with balance, critics
dismiss it as unscientific hocus pocus. So why would anybody wear a Power
Balance band?
Andrew Strauss is a victorious cricket captain, having starred in a dazzling
Ashes series win.
The cricket fans might talk about diligent batting, calm captaincy and canny
field placings. But what about the 30 rubber band visible on his wrist?
It's a Power Balance bracelet - a silicone band with a hologram. They are an
increasingly common sight on the golf course, and away from sport both Robert
De Niro and Kate Middleton have been spotted wearing them.
Ian Poulter The bands are increasingly popular among professional golfers
But this is a controversial gizmo.
The bracelet's distributors in Australia have just had to apologise and change
their marketing and advertising text after the Australian Competition and
Consumer Commission took action.
The commission said that the local distributors had claimed the bands would
"improve balance, strength and flexibility". They also criticised the slogan
"Performance Technology".
The distributors admitted no credible scientific basis for the claims, the
commission said.
On the US website of Power Balance it explains the bands thus: "Power Balance
is based on the idea of optimising the body's natural energy flow, similar to
concepts behind many Eastern philosophies. The hologram in Power Balance is
designed to resonate with and respond to the natural energy field of the body."
The idea that people have a "natural energy field" might cause a certain
flutter of the eyebrow.
Simon Singh, co-author of Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial,
is not convinced, particularly by the slogan "Performance Technology".
Notable wearers
Alex Reid wearing the band
Source: Power Balance
"Technology implies science. You look at a Power Balance band and you say 'I
don't see the technology, I don't think it's biologically plausible, I don't
see research trials, I just see a bit of rubber.'"
Power Balance's UK website has endorsements from an array of sporting stars.
They quote England batsman Ian Bell as saying: "The Power Balance bracelet
supports my active lifestyle facilitating improvement across all areas of my
fitness."
In this video, the firm shows athletes doing balance and strength tests without
the bands and then performing better with.
Proof of effectiveness? Sadly, no.
John Porcari, a professor in the department of exercise and sport science at
the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, recently tested 42 student athletes in
an experiment.
Balance, flexibility, strength and vertical jump were tested, while the
athletes wore either a Power Balance band or a generic rubber band. Both the
athletes and the testers did not know which was being worn while the experiment
was conducted.
There was no difference between the bands, but there was a marked improvement
in tests which were being done by an athlete for the second time.
This suggests that once people know what is coming, they prepare themselves and
perform better in the test. And that's without even considering the possible
placebo effect, the idea that the psychological boost of believing in the bands
can improve performance.
Paul Collingwood and Andrew Strauss Paul Collingwood and Andrew Strauss wear
both the Power Balance and Trion:Z 'magnetic therapy' bands
David Fletcher, lecturer in sport and performance science at Loughborough
University, says the bands could act in the same way as a lucky charm.
"Habits, routines and rituals are all part of a lot of elite athletes'
preparations. There is a lot of evidence that pre-performance routines can help
performance.
"It isn't something I would particularly advocate. I would look at more robust
routines rather than wearing lucky underwear or wearing these bands. What
happens if you forget your lucky underwear?"
Dylan Evans, a lecturer in behavioural science at Cork University's School of
Medicine and author of Placebo: Mind Over Matter in Modern Medicine, hadn't
heard of the Power Balance bands until he got one for Christmas from his mum.
"It took me about two seconds after I had unwrapped it to think this is a
placebo.
"I was really impressed by the marketing. They have managed to get away without
deceiving anyone in the sense of an overt lie. There are no claims on the
packaging itself.
"They don't make any reference at all to any health outcomes. They leave that
as an inference that most people will draw."
Even the 30 cost may help with the psychological effect of a band.
Ian Bell Ian Bell has worn one and prospered, Paul Collingwood has worn one and
retired
"There is some evidence to show that the more expensive a placebo is, the more
of a placebo effect it has," Evans notes. This is why branded drugs can appear
to "work" better than generic drugs.
"Expectations can enhance performance and become a self-fulfilling prophecy."
So if you take the sceptics' view, the bands are a placebo. But is there
anything wrong with buying into a placebo?
In medicine, the use of placebos is an ethical minefield, and doctors are often
fiercely critical of unproven alternative therapies that cause patients to
dangerously eschew conventional treatment.
But what harm can a rubber band do that is only linked to sporting performance?
"They are selling at 30 a pop with the clothes of science when it's nothing
more than pseudo science," says Singh. "Somebody is losing 30 and their golf
swing is not going to be made better by magnetic forces or balancing your
energy."
A spokeswoman for Power Balance in the UK emphasised that the company was not
claiming there was any scientific evidence behind the product. The Australian
ruling was purely about local marketing and did not affect the product
globally.
In a statement the firm said: "From its inception, Power Balance has lived and
thrived in the ultimate testing environment, the real world. We continue to
see, hear and learn about how people believe our products have positively
affected their lives."
And any golfers who think the bands are improving their putting may refuse to
be put off by the scientists.