Twisted around many stars’ necks has been a thickly braided and variously colored rope made by Phiten, a Kyoto-based company with U.S. operations and distribution. Phiten, if you don’t know, manufactures a series of “health bands” — like the models that have proliferated throughout MLB clubhouses — which they claim can reduce fatigue and speed up recovery after hard workouts and intense competitions.

And professional athletes from all sports are hooked on them.

Despite widening coverage of this latest craze, hard analysis of the science and tech behind the bands and necklaces has been scarce. According to Phiten’s patent application, the company creates its rope products by heating metals in high-pressure water until the deposit breaks apart. The water bath filled with small metal particles is then used to coat the fabric of the necklaces now seen so prominently around players’ necks.

But for how much detail exists in their patent applications, Phiten and its global distributors have scant evidence for how — or how well — their products really work.

Phiten was started in 1983 by Yoshihiro Hirata, a former chef and self-taught alternative-medicine guru. Registering their inventions under the company name Phild Co., Hirata and his colleagues have patented products ranging from an entire series of “health bands” to improved curling and hair-straightening irons.

On their websites, Phiten and one of its U.S. distributors, Ace Sporting Gear, claim that the necklace “regulates the body’s energy flow by stabilizing ions.” The necklaces work so well, say the companies, that “90% of users typically find their pain reduced by 70-100%.”

Their reasoning for why the titanium-laden rope transfers healing powers to the body relates to how strenuous exercise alters the chemical composition of our bodies. Sore muscles, they say, are caused by ion imbalances. Returning harmonious balance to the salts of our body using water-soluble titanium, Phiten postulates that the braided necklaces help muscles relax and heal.

Now, the idea of balancing the ions in our body in order to improve sports performance is nothing new. One of the most famous sports nutrition products of all time, Gatorade, keeps athletes going through the use of similar principles. When we sweat, we lose water and electrolytes (ions), and Gatorade, being a balanced salt solution, helps athletes rehydrate. But PepsiCo, which manufactures Gatorade, hasn’t simply made unfettered claims about how its product works in the body, as it has backed up its billion-dollar business with years of peer-reviewed research.

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Authors: Brian Mossop

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