Unfortunately, that's a view held by cranks in a lot of countries. The modern antivax stuff really started in the UK, for example.

There's a world of difference between visualization and claiming a false mechanism for any beneficial effect of that visualization. If people keep the activity to taking a few barefoot walks, probably no harm. But if they deliberately attempt to seek out electrical exposure and the like or eschew actually effective treatment for their conditions, they might actually do themselves harm.
My problem with this woo stuff is that it rapidly transitions from harmless nonsense to grifty quackery almost imperceptibly.

BTW, I'm pretty sure the difference between visualization and placebo effect is literally nothing.

I love a good hotdog. Nathan's are awful, worse than Oscar Mayer.

Things have gotten a lot worse since he wrote it.

His observation was remarkably prescient.

This thread has given me ideas. I am going to get a dynamo hub and attach the wires to my body to get electric current through my body while riding. Hopefully this set up will allow me to ride my bicycle disease free till I am 200 years old

I was shopping for sandals earlier this year and noticed that some have the option to be made with a sandal strap woven with a copper wire running the length of it and to a rivet that connects through the sole to the ground below. That would be lighter than the chain.

Otto

​​​​​​​

I wonder if a copper wire running from the bottom bracket to the ground would allow a bicycle to function as an earthing device

I'm still wondering how the copper-infused fabrics work (if at all). There were a lot of T.V. commercials during sports programs for those products a while back that had some famous athletes in them (ex-QB Brett Farve was one) but I haven't seen any lately. They really didn't give any sound data on how the copper-infused fabric worked either during the commercial or if you look up the website.

Reflexology has the answers to all of these questions. And there are some really cool multicolored charts.

they don't work

They work by lightening the wallet of people who buy them.

Copper bracelets have been around forever to "treat" arthritis. Those "copper-infused" neoprene wraps that are presently advertised on TV are just the latest incarnation.

Didn't read the whole thread but 20-25 years ago it was magnets. The idea was, because of shoes, sidewalks, floors, etc. we lost contact with the Earth's magnetism which is transmitted into our bodies through direct contact with the Earth's surface, supposedly causing all manner of maladies. Yet another multi-level marketing uhh, "market" opened for magnetic shoe insoles. There were also a multitude of magnetic back braces, anklets, wristbands, etc. All guaranteed to cure everything from back pain, sleep apnea, and various prostrate "issues" if you get my drift. Even came out with a power wrist strap to cure your bad golf shots.
They all pretty well died out. After my own intro of buying some $200 magnetic insoles from a friend, which only accomplished lightening my wallet by $200 bucks, and a $25 golf bracelet which didn't make me feel better and certainly didn't improve my game, I pretty much became skeptical of it all.
A year ago after a 2nd cancer surgery, and because cycling had become more difficult, I started intermittent fasting, 16 hours a day without eating, also cut out almost all sugar and carbs, dropped 30-35 lbs. Arthritis isn't much troubling any longer, I can cycle longer & with less effort, inflammation has gone way down, sleep is better, and I've suffered only a minor head cold once or twice.
Changing diet, particularly with respect to sugar, carbs, processed crap, and losing some weight can work wonders.

A nurse sleeps better after walking barefoot, outside, in the dirt and grass. Hell Yes!

Both Nurse's and Waitress's are experts in foot pain.

If they find something that helps You better listen...

You don't want to be so open-minded that your brain falls out.

There might be a very simple, physically plausible mechanism: walking barefoot uses the foot muscles differently, and could relieve cramps and hot-spots. No need to posit unmeasurable static charge build-up. (If it was that, dissipating the charge by grabbing on to a grounded metal pipe should work just as well, or better.)

There is value in compression for certain types of injuries. That is why they get testimonials. The copper does nothing.

Glad to see another officer of the Grammar Police on duty and busting the evil doers. Of course my point could already be mute/moot over and done with <- ack a preposition!!!

Pos't of the week.

Remember the rule: There is a hyphen required in anal-retentive.

​​​​​​​

That is one of the many benefits of communicating with ascii text.

I think there is something else amiss, but I will leave it to a genuine language maven.
​​​​​​​

They're still around but they don't hype the copper angle any longer. Largely because the FTC, or whoever regulates such advertising, told them to stop as it was bunk.
But they're still selling well and from everything I've heard it's actually very good athletic support wear. The copper was just a gimmick, but the product is supposedly high quality. Never tried it myself but have heard from enough trustworthy sources that I believe the anecdotal evidence.

Lets not be too judgemental when labeling something that appears to be working as Quackery. Many times we find it easy to forget how things develop and change through time. The power of suggestion, routine, and even placebo are valuable. Do note when looking up the procedures for the use of this old electrical device in clinic, details on its placement and settings of the strength of the current were noted. When properly used it did in fact give relief of musculoskeletal pain. Evidently there was more money to be made by exaggerating its performance in curing disease and the device made much more money as a Bar Trick when being sold to the masses. Of course there are other forms of EleQuackery being used today. Some of them working very nicely...


Spinal Cord Stimulation

Pace Maker

AED

TAZER

Of course I am not sure you could label a TAZER as a Medical Device even though I am sure it has cured more then a few people... Ha

You're just wrong about what that device is. From the link in my post:

​​​​​
. "The Davis’ & Kidder’s device dates from the mid- to late 19th Century. The machine was patented in 1854 and made in New York City by W.H. Burnap. Burnap claimed the device would use static electricity created by turning the handle to cure heart disease, lockjaw (tetanus), consumption (tuberculosis) even spinal deformities. " It was the magic power of electricity that was being marketed from the get-go. Its only connection between this and pain relief and pacemakers is just the coincidence of electricity.

Your claim for this is almost as bad as suggesting radiation therapy for cancer is descended from quack cures containing radium.

Now that you've mentioned it I do recall those. I remember them not for some mystical healing properties, but they were made for, and sold by, a charity for Vietnam vets and MIAs. Pretty popular back in the 1980s IIRC. Wasn't the reason for the copper about getting all the MIAs back and the PTSD-inflicted vets in treatment before the bracelets corroded off everyone's wrists?