# "Bio-Energy" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 3, 2005, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-energy/306682 "2005-06-03T04:50:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-energy/306682/1 "2005-06-03T04:50:30Z")
Not to mention “molecular ions.” A friend of mine is receiving treatments her chiropractor with [this](http://www.eb305.com/proddetail.php?prod=eb305), the EB-305 Energy Balancer. Looking over the site just about pegged my B.S. meter with its phrases like _The EB 305 creates energy by altering the electron and proton load in the water to create an electromagnetic environment or “Bio-energetically” altered water environment . . ._ and _The EB 305 has been proven in clinical trials to balance and restore the body’s electromagnetic energy._ but they don’t cite any of these trials. I also find it interesting that, _The EB 305 uses direct current and ions to provide energy that is sub-threshold, meaning that the patient generally will not feel the treatment._ meaning you plug 'em in and . . . nothing dramatic happens. Oddly enough, when I Googled [Helsinki Bioenergetics Group](http://www.physics.helsinki.fi/biophysics/bioenergetics/) it came up. It seems mostly interested in cytochrome oxidase, whatever that is. So, how about it, Dopers. Does anything about this gear withstand scrutiny? DD ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-energy/306682/2 "2005-06-03T04:57:06Z")
Uh no. I wouldn’t get too close to your friend unless you have been vaccinated against stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-energy/306682/3 "2005-06-03T13:37:40Z")
Yeah, what **tries** said. This is a highly engineered and well designed device for converting gullibility into money. But healthwise, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-energy/306682/4 "2005-06-03T13:57:11Z")
I thought for a moment this might be a device used to make patients drink a lot of water, which is usually beneficial, regardless of whether it has been trated by some mumbo-jumbo process. But it isn’t - you sit in an electrolysis bath, as far as I understand it. This bit from the FAQ made me chuckle though: > [@](#): > > Why does the water color change? > > Due to the interaction of the toxins from the body along with the metals from the array when creating an ionic field within the water bath. > > The water will change color regardless of whether there is a person in the water or not, due to the metallurgic reaction of the array and the polarization of the solids and minerals in the water. However, there will normally be two-three times the cellular debris within the water when the treatment is combined with a patient. So… the water changes colour and this is proof that it’s doing something to the patient, however, the water also changes colour if no patient is present, because… ummm… because… pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2005, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-energy/306682/5 "2005-06-03T14:45:53Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > when I Googled [Helsinki Bioenergetics Group](http://www.physics.helsinki.fi/biophysics/bioenergetics/) it came up. It seems mostly interested in cytochrome oxidase, whatever that is. [Cytochrome c oxidase](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytochrome_c_oxidase) from Wikipedia. It’s got nothing to do with sticking batteries in water to ream out clogged “meridian channels.” The Helsinki Bioenergetics Group looks like a fairly [typical biochemistry lab](http://www.physics.helsinki.fi/biophysics/bioenergetics/group_members.html) . It’s got a prof, some postdoctoral researchers, grad students, techs etc. BIOENERGETIX’s quote from their site reads like standard first-page-of-a-grant boilerplate. It says nothing about the validity of using electrically charged footbaths to tune your mystical energy balance. ---
**Author:** ![serious\_lark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@serious\_lark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/serious_lark)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2005, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-energy/306682/6 "2005-06-04T05:23:54Z")
What everyone else said. I remember getting really annoyed when in Star Trek: Voyager, the ship’s gelpacks were stores of “bioneural energy”. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![trupa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@trupa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trupa)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bio-energy/306682/7 "2005-06-05T05:29:01Z")
> [@serious lark](#): > > What everyone else said. > > I remember getting really annoyed when in Star Trek: Voyager, the ship’s gelpacks were stores of “bioneural energy”. :smack: It appears that the credibility of this treatment is about right up there with ST:Voyager’s scriptwriting… 😛