Why Professional Athletes Fall for Health Scams
From titanium necklaces to recovery water, superstition and pseudoscience in athletics runs rampant
During his first Major League Baseball spring training in 2008, Matt Antonelli, a former second baseman for the San Diego Padres, found a pile of Phiten necklaces waiting in his locker. The blue-and-white nylon-coated chokers were infused with a dye-like substance called “aqua-titanium.” According to Phiten, a Japan-based athletic company, the necklaces can stabilize the bioelectric current running through the wearer’s body. “Phiten necklaces could help provide relief if you suffer from migraine headaches, lack of sleep, or have tension or pain in the neck, shoulders, or back,” reads the company’s pitch on its website. Antonelli was never a big believer in performance hacks, but he threw one on anyway.
“I remember guys would do this thing where they’d make you bend down and touch your toes. Then you’d throw on [the Phiten] necklace and do it again, and [they’d say] ‘see you’re stretching further now!’ he laughs. “I remember putting it on and being like, ‘I don’t know if I notice anything.’ I was pretty skeptical.”
Antonelli’s hunch was right. The company was founded in Kyoto in the early 1980s by an alternative medicine specialist named Yoshihiro…
