So my new landlord believes almost everything it seems, and I (as a skeptic) find it difficult to talk to him from time to time.

...sometime almost impossible. Like when he starts touting the benifits of his magnet girdle that ‘departiclizes’ his blood.

The thing that seems wierdest to me is that the guy is an electrition, and aside from his gullibility a pretty smart guy.

Anyway, he just bought several cases of this Evo2lv water at 50$ a case, and I figured if I could at LEAST get through to him on that one I could save him a few bucks (the magnet he don’t buy weekly). I did some looking arund and could not find any out-of-house research, or third party reviews so I was hoping one of my fine fellow skeptics had some input on this matter.

Now then, accepting the fact that ultimatly it is just bottled water (and we can all agree water IS good) and alphapha extract (which at the least is unlikely to be harmful and may even be somewhat healthy), the company is making some claims that seem pretty… miraculous. Anyway, enough of my drivel, here is the link to thier homepage

http://www.evolvhealth.info/

So let’s hear what your collective thoughts are.

sheesh, look at that first video.

This thing is one of them pyramid schemes.

1. The placebo effect and the power of belief.

From the wiki on the placebo

Placebo effects can last for a long time: over 8 weeks for panic disorder, 6 months for angina pectoris, and two and half years for rheumatoid arthritis. Placebo effects after verbal suggestion for mild pain can be robust and still exist after being repeated 10 times even if they have no actual pharmacological pain killing action.

OTOH, there is the nocebo effect:

In the opposite effect, a patient who disbelieves in a treatment may experience a worsening of symptoms. This effect, now called by analogy nocebo (Latin nocebo = “I shall harm”) can be measured in the same way as the placebo effect, e.g., when members of a control group receiving an inert substance report a worsening of symptoms. The recipients of the inert substance may nullify the placebo effect intended by simply having a negative attitude towards the effectiveness of the substance prescribed, which often leads to a nocebo effect, which is not caused by the substance, but due to other factors, such as the patient’s mentality towards his or her ability to get well, or even purely coincidental worsening of symptoms.

2. The products might not harm, but it does not follow that they are beneficial.

3.  Over hype of the benefits of the products with only anecdotal evidence, i.e. hearsay.

So, there are people who will try a wonder product for 6 months and another for the next 6 months etc. because from their experience, the beneficial effects do not last.