Anxiety rings have splashed onto the scene as a highly marketable product. As mental health disorders and their treatments become more widely accepted in our society (this is a good thing), people have become more susceptible to buying products marketed for “fixing mental health disorders”.
We dove into this topic – ready to consume and analyze pages of research regarding the effectiveness of anxiety rings. Amongst published and peer-reviewed articles in common medical journals, we found nothing. Not one article for, or against, anxiety rings. On the Harvard Health blog (not medical journal grade but reasonably reputable) we found an article that outlines a similar situation.
A wearable device (wrists and ankles) labeled the Apollo Neuro claimed to decrease anxiety by providing vibration therapy. The website claims that over 50 medical articles back up their claim, but there are no articles published testing the efficacy of that specific product. You can find the article mentioned above here.
Making claims for a product that will benefit you medically is heavily charged with an ethical component. Essentially, these companies are selling consumers the equivalent of a solution to a medical condition – similar to commercials you see for medications claiming to cure diabetes or psoriasis. The difference, however, is that those medications you see on those late night commercials claiming to control psoriasis symptoms have gone through rigorous scrutiny and analysis.
Products like anxiety rings have not been proven to work or fail. This is important to note. They may work and they may not, but claiming to work without actual scientific analysis is a marketing lie to consumers.