Today was the 1st time I've had a patient tell me that they actually bought a q-ray bracelet. Yes .. as-seen-on-TV. "These things are REMARKABLE" according to the very happy people on the infomercials. My patient wasn't so pleased. His shoulder still hurt .. and he's out the $90 for the bowling league since I told him to give it a rest for 2 weeks.
In this month's Mayo Clinic Proceedings is a paper that will likely (let's hope!) spread the work about these things. In a randomized placebo controlled trial, the ionized bracelet was just as ineffective as the placebo bracelet.
Next on the agenda… magnetized back brace. Not much in the literature (that I can find) on this yet. There was a pilot study a few years ago that showed no effect. I've heard anecdotes from several patients (including one today) that this is effective. We'll have to see.
