![Can Phiten necklaces make you win a baseball game? Is voodoo real? <br>[Credit Alan Sung]](http://scienceline.org/_s/files/2008/10/1192130226_ff0fa9ce4f_b.jpg)
[Credit Alan Sung]
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Do those Phiten titanium necklaces actually enhance athletic ability and promote healing?
Asks Alex from NYC
With baseball heading toward the World Series and the NFL just getting started, not a day goes by without a televised sporting event. And people watching those games may notice an odd fashion accessory: the Phiten titanium necklace. The necklaces are sported most prominently by Matt Hasselbeck of the Seattle Seahawks, Joba Chamberlain of the New York Yankees and Josh Beckett of the Boston Red Sox, who believe that they enhance their physical and mental abilities. And they probably do, but more for psychological than physiological reasons.
In 1982 Yoshihiro Hirata, an alternative medicine practitioner, founded Phiten, the company that sells his titanium-infused products. The necklaces first gained prominence in Japan, where they are still popular with athletes. According to the company, the necklaces and bracelets work by stabilizing the electric flow that nerves use to communicate actions to the body. “All of the messages in your body travel through electricity, so if you’re tired or just pitched nine innings, the electricity isn’t flowing as smoothly as it can,” said Joe Furuhata, a Phiten spokesman. “Our products smooth out those signals.”
While many sports stars believe the necklaces give them luck, not everyone is convinced. Many doctors and scientists say there is no scientific evidence supporting Phiten’s theory. “There’s no science and physiology,” said Dr. Orrin Sherman, chief of sports medicine at the New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases. “There’s just no way the chemical structure of the body can be influenced by magnets that small. It’s all superstitions with no scientific basis.”
Sherman noted that when people interact with magnets far more powerful than the Phiten necklaces, like the magnets in a CT (computerized tomography) scan machine, for instance, they do not report any of the effects pitchers and quarterbacks say they receive from the necklace.But while the physiology behind the necklaces doesn’t hold up to scientific scrutiny, that doesn’t mean they do not help. Athletes are a superstitious lot. From Craig Biggio, who did not wash his batting helmet for an entire season, to Wade Boggs, who would only eat chicken before games, athletes love all manners of hokum and voodoo. If the players think they are getting an advantage from the necklace and that gives them increased confidence, then they do in fact get a positive boost from the product. “You’ve gotta believe in placebo effect,” said Sherman.
So maybe science shouldn’t stop Hideki Okajima of the Boston Red Sox from wearing three necklaces whenever he takes the mound. Sure, the necklaces don’t actually alter the electric flow in the body, but as any player who has stopped shaving during the playoffs can attest, when you’re winning, you don’t want to change a thing.
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October 19th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Phiten products do actually have scientific evidence to support the claims. The product does not use magnets, instead it ises an ionized titanium product that emits low level ionized radiation.
Studies have shown that the Phiten technology actually reduces the firing potential of pain neurons in the brain.
Studies have been done on animals and plants that have shown real results beyond a placebo effect. I would add that animals can not feel a pyscological effect of wearing a product. Before writing something off on a science blog I would do a little research on the actual product rather than citing false information.
October 20th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Austin,
Ridiculous ‘healing’ products are launched every day and some gain traction with the less intelligent end of the population. Please do us all the great favor of citing (that means listing the source of) the scientific evidence that you claim exists.
If scientific evidence that proved even the most minute (that means small) benefit for the Phiten Necklace, then the marketing gurus for Phiten would be advertising it everywhere to appeal to the intelligent folks in the world. This would dramatically increase their sales.
By the way, if there is evidence that plants benefit from being around titanium, how is that relevant? Plants also thrive in a carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere that causes brain damage in humans…perhaps you were sitting next to one of these plants during the carbon dioxide experiment??
October 20th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
can u (austin) or anyone tell post up the link containing the scientific evidence if possible?
thanks
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Casey and lola,
I don’t intend to put down your intelligence in anyway and I don’t know your educational background, but even if Austin did post the scientific evidence behind Phiten’s technology, I doubt you would really understand it. Lab tests and results normally aren’t meant for the general public to comprehend.
As an average sports fan, when I see professional players endorse/wear products like Phiten, I give it a try with an objective view. Let’s not knock Phiten even before you step on the field with one on.
November 4th, 2008 at 10:55 am
I was skeptical of these necklaces at first and regardless if its a placebo effect or not, millions on people are wearing Phiten necklaces which has to say something. Http://www.GoPhiten.com has cheap phiten.
November 4th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Hey Lola, I found some info that you asked for above go to http://www.easybackpainrelief.com/evidence.cfm
for evidence on Phiten. It shows thermal body scans etc. Hope this helps. Buy from http://www.GoPhiten.com
November 10th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Oh, please. The healing power of necklaces? My son’s baseball team recently became obsessed with these, and a rep from a Phiten store came to a practice to hawk them. To “prove” they work, she had folks place palms together and then stretch one palm backwards, so we would feel how tight our lower inner arm felt. Then she applied a round patch about the size of a nickel “right where it hurt the most.” We then repeated the stretch test. Whaddayaknow! Not as much pain! A quick two stretches to the other lower arm showed (sans patch) showed the other arm also felt better on the second stretch. That’s what stretching does!Yes, scientific tests are full of mumbo-jumbo that we mere mortals can’t understand, but real ones start out with an abstract, sort of a synopsis, that we CAN understand. I’d love to see an abstract to a genuine study of the Power Of Necklaces.