Are Baseball Necklaces Bogus?

Big-league sluggers and southpaws swear by titanium, but is it really helping them win games?

All October long, it's been tough to turn away from Major League Baseball's postseason. There have been no-hitters, home-run parades, walk-off wins, and the usual flurry of bad umpiring calls. You also might have noticed some of the game's biggest stars sporting those thick, twisty necklaces on the mound and at the plate.

But players like Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants and Placido Polanco of the Philadelphia Phillies aren't dangling the colorful cords around their necks to make a fashion statement—they're doing it to improve their performance and send their teams to the World Series.

The necklaces are manufactured by a Japanese company called Phiten, which says its products relieve muscle aches, speed up injury recovery, and boost energy for whoever wears them. How, you ask? The fabric in each necklace contains traces of titanium, which as a conductor of electricity normalizes your body's bioelectric currents, realigning ions in important muscles and joints and effectively eliminating pain.

There is, however, a small catch: No scientific evidence exists to back up Phiten's claims, and the "aqua-titanium" technology the company uses to dissolve titanium into water isn't approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Yet players still subscribe to Phiten's healing powers—after all, some of its devotees have made it this far—and MLB even has a licensing deal with the company. Could it be that scientists are wrong?

"I'm a very open minded physician," says orthopedic surgeon Nicholas DiNubile, M.D., the bestselling author of FrameWork and a former consultant to the Philadelphia 76ers. "I spent time in China learning about alternative medicine, and I'm a big believer in these approaches...but there's absolutely no data or science behind these necklaces. My suspicion is that these athletes are dealing with the placebo effect."

In that regard, the necklaces are on par with other famous superstitions in sports, like a pitcher wearing his lucky shirt every start or teams sprouting mangy playoff beards.

"With or without these devices, they would still be tremendous athletes," DiNubile says.

DiNubile dismisses another performance-boosting fad among professional athletes: Power Balance silicon wristbands with energy-boosting holograms.

"I do believe that energies flow in the body—maybe that's how acupuncture and other Chinese healing arts work—but for now, there's no proof. These products are getting way more credit than they deserve. Don't forget that players are pretty good at using their focus power to get things done."

If you're curious to try out one of these necklaces for yourself, the same "Tornado" model that players wear can be yours for a cool $50 on Phiten's website.

But buyer beware, says DiNubile. "Athletes have very powerful minds."

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