On the weekend I was at a friend’s place, and he was demonstrating a device called the “Circulator”.
Imagine a plastic box thirty or forty centimetres wide containing an electric motor. There’s a power cord with a remote control. On top of the box is a movable plastic piece with two indentations.
To use the device, you put it on the floor, and then lay down on your back on the floor, placing your ankles in the indentations. When the operator turns the device on, the plastic piece oscillates sideways, back and forth, moving your ankles with it. As your ankles are moved back and forth, the motion propagates through your whole body.
The guy demonstrating it claimed all sorts of health benefits relating to “improved circulation” which was mechanically induced throughout one’s body by the device. He also said that some of these benefits were available from somewhat-similar manual massage techniques.
He did admit that using the Circulator was not for everyone. I tried it, but found that my neck hurt. He adjusted my neck support. A little later, my ankle started to hurt where it touched the moving plastic piece on the machine, and we stopped my demo. Others in the room were on the machine for longer, and ended up extremely favourably inclined towards it.
Apparently this Circulator machine has been available in Toronto for some time, but isn’t well known and hasn’t sold well.
Any Dopers ever encountered it before?
Is it a scam? For real? Uselful in limited curcumstances?