The Science of Sport: Power Balance, Placebo and Perceptions:

“It works, who cares why?” vs “The fraud of Power Balance bracelets”

Powerbalance admitted that there is no credible scientific evidence that supports their ‘performance’ claims. Of course they won’t say it directly, but with this means is they are selling rubber bands with stickers with deceptive marketing campaign… and amazingly, this campaign is still finding moderate success.

From FUCK YEAH, SKEPTICISM
http://fuckyeahskepticism.tumblr.com/post/5015732679
4/29/2011 3:30:06 AM
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfRVCaA5o18 Thanks to my wonderful friend, Daniel ‘Professor Funk’ Keogh (interview on Token Skeptic – #30 – On Science Communication, Hungry Beasts And Professor Funk – An Interview With Daniel Keogh) – this will also feature at #QEDCon, I hope!SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Little Kitten – The Strange Powers of the Placebo Effect", url: "http://podblack.com/2011/02/little-kitten-the-strange-powers-of-the-placebo-effect/" });

From PodBlack Cat
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PodblackCat/~3/K5gfKWxslw0/
2/6/2011 5:05:17 PM
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submitted by rmeddy
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From Skeptic's Subreddit
http://www.reddit.com/r/skeptic/comments/jnomd/the_strange_powers_of_the_placebo_effect/
8/19/2011 6:14:51 PM
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Ah, the Power Balance band. You’ve probably heard of it. It was ubiquitous in this year’s AFL season and made headlines around the world when the likes of Shaquille O’Neal started wearing them. However, we here at Victorian Skeptics are nothing if not open to new ideas. So with that in mind, we would like to draw [...]

From Australian Skeptics
http://www.skeptics.com.au/latest/blog/power-balance-…-or-placebo/
10/17/2010 8:10:35 PM
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Something has always bothered me about the placebo effect. And I don’t just mean the way it is co-opted by advocates of pseudomedical bollocks to justify their claims. I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve heard defend homeopathy or acupuncture with the statement “It does work – it just works through [...]

From The Merseyside Skeptics Society
http://www.merseysideskeptics.org.uk/2010/04/the-power-of-the-placebo-a-skeptical-view/
4/20/2010 7:00:21 PM
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submitted by tabris
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From Skeptic's Subreddit
http://www.reddit.com/r/skeptic/comments/f06g5/power_balance_placebo_and_perceptions/
1/11/2011 11:25:42 PM
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---Quote--- *Placebos and Distraction: New Study Shows How to Boost the Power of Pain Relief, Without Drugs* Image:...

From AFA Forums
http://www.atheistfoundation.org.au/forums/showthread.php?t=13180&goto=newpost
2/7/2012 4:22:46 AM
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Ah, the Power Balance band. You’ve probably heard of it. It was ubiquitous in this year’s AFL season and made headlines around the world when the likes of Shaquille O’Neal started wearing them. So what does it do? Interestingly, its makers are careful to avoid claiming that it does anything at all. The “What Is [...]

From Victorian Skeptics
http://vicskeptics.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/power-balance-or-placebo/
10/17/2010 5:37:01 PM
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Many thanks to Matt Rodgers for his BRILLIANT visuals and Milton Mermikides for his music in this project – ‘Little Sugar Pills – Why Choose Homeopathy?‘ This will also feature on the Token Skeptic podcast later, so people can use it if they like. Their wonderful creative powers have made this just beautiful and it’s been getting [...]

From Token Skeptic
http://tokenskeptic.org/2011/02/08/ten23-films-little-sugar-pills-and-the-strange-powers-of-the-placebo-effect/
2/8/2011 5:10:22 PM
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East African Business Week reports… “Hundreds of businessmen in Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Manyara regions are virtually minting from the plight of sick people who track to a remote village of Samunge, Arusha to drink the miracle ‘cup’ of herbal medicine that is claimed to cure incurable diseases including cancer, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, heart-related ailments, and many more. [...]

From Group Sects
http://groupsects.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/ex-priest-taps-into-power-of-placebo/
3/23/2011 3:40:01 AM
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The Strange Powers of the Placebo Effect (via TheProfessorFunk)

From FUCK YEAH, SKEPTICISM
http://fuckyeahskepticism.tumblr.com/post/3743931362
3/10/2011 3:10:07 AM
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I haven't tried the brand new Placebo Band (looks similar to the popular Power Balance Bracelet) but just looking at the picture and reading about it has already made me feel more energised. What mysterious force is at work here? I honestly don't know. I'd ask a physicist if I knew one because I feel there's something happening at the quantum level. There is definitely a transfer of positive energy taking place. It might even be healing, I'm not sure yet.

I've read some good reports on the product. It seems that some people feel it works for them and, like I said, I haven't even got one and I already feel better just knowing about it. The world is filled with cosmic wonder.

From Thinking is Real
http://thinkingisreal.blogspot.com/2010/10/placebo-band-is-here.html
10/17/2010 11:24:00 PM
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Science can sometimes be very counterintuitive. Sometimes more questions are brought up than are answered. And this is exciting because in those instances when we didn’t expect the results, it leads to asking more questions and opens the door for new avenues of exploration. It furthers our understanding of the universe which is always a good thing.

Here is a study on placebos on Scientific American that is just fascinating. It has been well established that placebos can be used to help people feel better and improve their symptoms. But there is always trickery involved. The patient is told the placebo is [...]

From Heaving Dead Cats
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HeavingDeadCats/~3/5WUh7WBINN8/
12/27/2010 3:47:18 AM
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Epic Power Band Scam The awesome Mr Brian Brushwood and his team at Scam School show us the tricks of the trade used to convince others rubber bands have magical powers. Get yourself some Placebo Bands and fool your friends today!

From skepticbros.com
http://skepticbros.com/2011/03/01/placebo-bands-on-scam-school/
3/1/2011 1:48:06 PM
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ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2010) — For most of us, the "placebo effect" is synonymous with the power of positive thinking; it works because you believe you're taking a real drug. But a new study rattles this assumption.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School's Osher Research Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have found that placebos work even when administered without the seemingly requisite deception.

The study is published December 22 in PLoS ONE.

Placebos -- or dummy pills -- are typically used in clinical trials as controls for potential new medications. Even though they contain no active ingredients, patients often respond to them. In fact, data on placebos is so compelling that many American physicians (one study estimates 50 percent) secretly give placebos to unsuspecting patients.

Because such "deception" is ethically questionable, HMS associate professor of medicine Ted Kaptchuk teamed up with colleagues at BIDMC to explore [...]

From RichardDawkins.net - All Aggregated News Content
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/569227-placebos-work-even-without-deception
12/28/2010 12:42:14 AM
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If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past seven years or so that I’ve been blogging, first at my other “super secret” (or, more accurately, super “not-so-secret”) blogging location, and then the four years I’ve been blogging here at Science-Based Medicine (SBM), it’s that the vast majority of “alternative medicine,” “complementary and alternative medicine” [...]

From Science-Based Medicine
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/the-rebranding-of-cam/
1/9/2012 7:00:31 PM
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In a word, placebo. As the slang term indicates, the more one drinks in claims of complimentary and alternative medical efficacy through the ‘power’ of placebo, the less inhibition and discretion one seems to exercise in critical thinking, making the blurred claims of alternative ‘therapies’ seem all the more attractive. We describe this power of [...]

From Questionable Motives
http://questionablemotives.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/what-are-the-beer-goggles-of-medicine/
1/10/2012 3:11:46 AM
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In a word, placebo. As the slang term indicates, the more one drinks in claims of complementary and alternative medical efficacy through the ‘power’ of placebo, the less inhibition and discretion one seems to exercise in critical thinking, making the blurred claims of alternative ‘therapies’ seem all the more attractive. We describe this power of [...]

From Questionable Motives
https://questionablemotives.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/what-are-the-beer-goggles-of-medicine/
1/10/2012 3:11:46 AM
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Recently I received some ‘Placebo Bands’ in the post from SkepticBros to hand out to people to help spread the facts behind products such as ‘Power Balance’ bands that make grand claims that have no factual basis to them. I … Continue reading →

From Rather Friendly Skeptic
http://ratherfriendlyskeptic.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/win-a-placebo-band/
4/7/2011 9:25:06 PM
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You have, I am sure, heard of the infamous Power Balance bracelet, the grossly over-priced piece of rubber and plastic that can supposedly improve your balance, flexibility, strength and a myriad of other issues. How does it do this ?  Well, it uses this hologram, see.  And this hologram is created by a process that [...]

From Gullibility Kills
http://gullibilitykills.wordpress.com/2010/10/13/placebo-bands-available-now-at-skepticbros/
10/13/2010 2:26:24 PM
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submitted by Pleurus
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From Skeptic's Subreddit
http://www.reddit.com/r/skeptic/comments/m4gmx/that_energy_bracelet_you_just_dropped_30_on_may/
11/8/2011 3:50:20 PM
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Last year I posted an item here, detailing how I, as the emcee at a charity event, chose not to say anything negative about Power Balance bracelets to the raffle winners that received them as prizes. Many of you thought I had missed a great opportunity to teach about the placebo effect, if not perform [...]

From Skepchick
http://skepchick.org/blog/2010/11/power-balance-because-rubber-bands-just-arent-expensive-enough/
11/6/2010 9:00:06 PM
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I have written before on this blog about the scam called Power-Balance, and how that company has raked in huge gobs of cash by essentially lying to its customers.  In fact, in Australia the company has basically been banned for false advertising, and fortunately more and more people are cluing in to this nonsense here [...]

From The Skeptical Teacher
http://skepticalteacher.wordpress.com/2011/08/14/placebo-band-bracelets-and-opportunity-for-easy-skeptical-activism/
8/14/2011 11:21:06 AM
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A special episode with breaking news about Power Balance holographic sports bands. Researchers from RMIT have conducted a randomised, placebo-controlled trial on the efficacy of Power Balance products in increasing balance and the paper is just about to be released.

Friend of the show Kylie Sturgess, from Podblack.com and the Token Skeptic podcast, interviews the authors of the study, while Jack and Jason discuss the results and the possible impact of the study on the established culture of Power Balance bands.

From The Pseudo Scientists
http://youngausskeptics.libsyn.com/the-pseudo-scientists-power-balance-breaking-news-
2/4/2011 12:24:25 AM
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According to a neat little new paper, the placebo effect relies on the brain's own marijuana-like chemicals, endocannabinoids.

Or rather, some kinds of placebo effects involve endocannabinoids. It turns out that "the placebo effect" is not one thing.

The authors, led by Fabrizio Benedetti, have previously shown that placebo "opioids" - i.e. [...]

From Neuroskeptic
http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.com/2011/10/placebos-and-brains-own-pot.html
10/15/2011 8:23:00 PM
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