Infrared-Reflecting Patches For Health?

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small

❝Hi! I’ve been reading about LifeWave patches, would you recommend them?❞

For reference first, this is talking about these: LifeWave.com

Short answer: no

Longer answer: their main premise seems to be that the patches (subscription prices seem to start from about $100–$300 per month) reflect infrared energy back into your body, making you more energized and healthy.

Fun fact: aluminum foil reflects infrared energy (which we feel as heat), by the way, and that is why space blankets (of the kind used in emergencies and by some athletes) are made shiny like that, often with aluminized mylar.

We cannot comment too closely on the rest of the presented science of their products, as it seems quite unlike anything we’re accustomed to reading, and we were not able to make a lot of sense of it.

They do cite research papers to back their claims, including research conducted by the company’s founder and published via an open journal.

Many others are independent studies conducted by often the same researchers as each other, mostly experts in acupuncture and acupressure.

For the papers we looked at, the sample sizes were very small, but the conclusions were very positive.

They were published in a variety of journals, of which we cannot claim any prior knowledge (i.e:, they were not the peer-reviewed journals from which we cite most of our sources).

Also, none were registered with ClinicalTrials.gov.

To be on the safe side, their disclaimer does advise:

❝LifeWave products are only intended to maintain or encourage a general state of health or healthy activity and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, mitigate, or prevent any disease or medical condition of the body❞

They do have a Frequently Asked Questions page, which tells about ancient Egyptian use of colored glass, as well as more modern considerations including joining, ordering, their commissions system, binary commissions and matching bonuses, and “how to rank up in LifeWave” as well as a lot of information about subscribing as a preferred customer or a brand partner, opting in to their multi-level marketing opportunities.

Here’s what “Honest Brand Reviews” had to say:

Honest Brand Reviews | LifeWave Review

Our position:

We cannot honestly claim to understand their science, and thus naturally won’t actively recommend what we can’t speak for.

An expert’s position:

Since we couldn’t understand how this would work, here’s what Dr. Paul Knoepfler has to say about their flagship product, the LifeWave X39 patch:

LifeWave X39 stem cell patch story has holes

Take care!