Image: amazon.com
Started a new job recently, and one of my trainers conspicuously wore one of these magnetic bracelets on each wrist. It caught the attention of a coworker, and after he asked about it, the trainer promised a presentation of their attributes after the lesson.
The time comes to prove that there’s something to these bracelets. Two volunteers stood at the front of the room, and the trainer did various demonstrations to prove that these magnetic bracelets helped with balance and strength. Nothing so impressive that I was playing with the idea of paying money for a rubber band with a magnet glued to it, even if it did promise to give me more energy, stamina and focus (as well as x-ray vision, the ability to fly, telekineses, and the ability to magically be a size 4).
Then, he went one step further, saying, “And I don’t mean to brag, guys, but ever since I started wearing these bracelets, I’ve been able to do one-armed push-ups.”
Ok, I thought, now this I can’t pass up. “Prove it!” I challenged.
Sure enough, to my coworker’s delight, he did some one-armed push-ups; feebly at first, since he wanted to prove he wasn’t wearing the bands. Then, he put the bands on and could do better push-ups. They still weren’t too pretty, but they were better one-handed push-ups than I’d be doing. Of course, then he put in a plug for buying these bracelets straight from him and he could give us a deal. Many of my classmates were hooked.
So naturally, I spent my lunch on my iPhone looking for scientific articles that could support or disprove these magnetic bracelets. I’m the kind of consumer that likes to research a gimmick so that I either can laugh at other’s gullibility, or convince myself that there truly is something to the gimmick that I can put my money behind (hey, I like a magic product just as much as the next girl!). You can buy magnetic bracelets in almost any style — but beware, I really didn’t see any kind that didn’t look stylish enough to con itself into being actual jewelry!
I found two things: first, that the scientific evidence behind magnetic therapy is severely lacking and any supportive findings tended to be due probably to placebo effect. I couldn’t find any strong studies (the kind that use large sample sizes, random assignment of subjects, methods that wouldn’t tip the participant off to what they were being tested for, etc.).
What I also found, more surprisingly, was the prevalence of magnetic therapy being targeted to golfers.
In reading golfer’s reviews about magnetic bracelets, most of the positive anecdotes seemed to acknowledge that the “best game of their life” that they played the minute they snapped on the bracelet very well could have been placebo, but they could care less. If there was a magic bullet, they would admit, to dropping 3-4 strokes off their game, then even if it turned out to be total bullshit, it was worth it for those 3-4 strokes.
And I just can’t help but find this golf phenomena extremely strange — some of us really will try to shrink that handicap at any cost! Golf is such a cruel game that there will always be something to improve upon. We will probably never have a perfect round, but regardless, we all feel like we won’t be happy till we play like the pros. We can get almost religious about our devotion to improving our game. And thus, any money spent to achieve that goal is just a pious drop in the offering plate to our temple. Hats off to the marketers of these bracelets for figuring that out.
Will I buy one, even if just to try? Probably not. One, I don’t really have the money to drop on what scientifically could be considered quackery, even if I kinda am curious about whether it would make me play better (I won’t lie, I still am a little bit intrigued). My second reason is that knowing that there’s little evidence to support whether it would really work, I would feel embarrassed that I had to buy a wonder-product to give me the incentive to play more golf. The mere act of playing more and practicing purposefully will do that all by itself!
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