There is Superstition...

I was going to make love to Excy last night, but I couldn't find my Power Balance bracelet.
Geez.

Of course, you've ordered your PB bracelet by now, right??

The PB bracelets have taken the sports world by storm, and athletes believe they keep them in optimal physical shape and improve their overall performance. Many world champs won't compete without them. I understand baseball players -- they've always been a superstitious lot -- but Shaquille O'Neal, surfer Andy Irons, formula one winner Rubens Barrichello, soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, among others?

The bracelet is touted as "reacting positively with your body's natural energy field." The company that sells them didn't exist three years ago and today has sold more than 2.5 million worldwide in the past 18 months, at between $30 to $50 a pop.

The thing is, they don't work. It's all psychosomatic. There is no scientific evidence these bracelets do anything. A clinical researcher and chairperson of the American Board of Sport Psychology says "Between 15% and 30% of any population or group will have what's known as high-range hypnotic susceptibility, which makes them inclined to look for outside answers, search for improvement and be vulvernable to those giving them simple answers to what they're striving for."

Lots of people think the placebo effect is fine. After all, if wearing the thing makes you feel you perform well or better, who cares? But let's not go overboard.