When Meghan Markle stepped out in a $1,600 wool coat, Hermes scarf and Chanel flats last month, it wasn’t her outfit that drew attention.
Her most talked-about accessory was a small blue sticker on her left wrist – an anti-stress NuCalm patch that has become popular with wellness gurus and biohackers and promises “resonance and frequencies.”
As a person with high baseline stress levels, I was immediately intrigued—and was willing to pay the $80 for a pack of 20 NuCalm stickers (plus the $30 per month for the company’s companion app).
If it’s good enough to keep the Duchess of Sussex calm, I think it would be an easy antidote to my daily stress.
Meghan Markle was spotted wearing the anti-stress patch on a night out in August
tested the anti-stress patches for more than a week. The discs had a modest benefit on sleep when used in conjunction with the NuCalm app, but overall the effects appeared to be placebo effects
When the sticker is placed on the inside of the left wrist at the Pericardium 6 acupuncture point, it sends a signal to the protective bag around the heart called the pericardium, activating the parasympathetic nervous system to interfere with the body’s natural response to external stress
When I visited NuCalm’s website to learn what to expect, I came across jargon that only a Ph.D. The student could understand it.
The website says the sticker works by “targeting the body’s pericardial meridian with specific electromagnetic frequencies of inhibitory neurotransmitters to disrupt the HPA axis and downregulate sympathetic tone.”
Come back?
I couldn’t help but feel that the jargon was intended to obscure the fact that the sticker was based on traditional Chinese medicine techniques rather than sound science.
For ten days, I wore the sticker on the “Pericardial 6 Acupuncture Point,” which is a fancy name for the inside of my left wrist.
In traditional Chinese medicine, this pressure point is considered part of the “Pericardial Meridian Energy Path,” which, when stimulated with acupressure, can influence the flow of life energy, or “Qi,” and blood along this path.
If you rolled your eyes reading this description, you’re like me. But in the first two days of my trial, I was surprised at how much I felt a decrease in overall stress.
Whether it was a placebo effect or just pure optimism about a possible treatment for anxiety that isn’t a big pharma pill, I’m still not entirely sure.
When you wear the sticker, you will feel a slight pressure feeling on your wrist, which will take some time to get used to.
After about the third day, when I started to forget the sticker was there, the stress and anxiety came back—making me hopeful that something psychosomatic is going on when it comes to NuCalm’s anti-anxiety effects.
There were extended periods of time during the test when I noticed that my breathing felt more even and consistent than usual – but again, was I just being overly sensitive to my body? I’m still undecided.
The disc is designed to utilize the body’s natural frequencies and vibrations to induce a feeling of calm and relaxation
For $80 worth of stickers and $30 for the accompanying app, didn’t believe there was a measurable benefit
As the week progressed, bouts of uneasiness crept back in—waiting on the claustrophobic subway platform during rush hour, or holding my breath on the phone as the dial tone buzzed, hoping the person on the other end would pick up.
But each time I spotted the sticker on the inside of my wrist, my breathing relaxed, my thoughts slowed to a normal pace, and my muscles relaxed.
It seemed like the sticker was more of a reminder than an actual medical device.
I tried to dig up scientific research that might provide an answer to my question: Was it all in my head?
But the answer eluded me, even after I investigated the NuCalm website’s repeated claims that it was “clinically proven.”
I have not found any such clinical study or research on any wearable biosignal disk.
In terms of sleep quality, I felt slightly more rested over the 10 days.
The NuCalm Deep Sleep channel in the app features music that can play for hours, although it’s not the actual music that lulls you to sleep.
The music’s frequencies are intended to synchronize brain waves with other frequencies associated with different states of being – alpha and theta, which mimic the body’s natural communication processes to induce sleep.
The difference after a night of wearing the disc and listening to low frequencies for hours was marginal, although I did notice that I hit the snooze button less often, suggesting my sleep quality had improved.
Given the patchy scientific evidence and tepid reviews from neuroscientists, it’s worth examining the company’s claims in more detail.
The company likens the small disk in each sticker to a charged battery.
When the sticker is pressed against a pressure point, the body draws energy frequencies from it, activating the part of the nervous system that modulates our responses to stress.
The question of what exactly is in that disk to trigger the kind of communication between neurons that the company is so proud of remains somewhat unclear.
The company credits frequency tuning and sound resonance for making its discs work, but elsewhere on the website it says the discs contain “a proprietary blend of inhibitory neurotransmitters, primarily GABA.”
But elsewhere, NuCalm CEO Jim Poole said each of the disks contained a tiny Tesla coil to emit frequencies.
The technology was developed over a period of 20 years by the late neuroscientist Dr. Blake Holloway developed.
But Mr. Poole is not a scientist himself; he studied business administration at Babson College in Massachusetts.
Sophie Summers, a blogger on the Fitness Junkie blog, said of her experience doing a 30-minute meditation session via the app and the sticker on her wrist: “As the beautiful sounds swirled around me, I could feel my whole body moving relaxed.”
“It was as if I could feel my whole body all at once, but also individual parts of it.” My whole body, but especially my arms and chest, became very heavy.
“The thought of moving my arms seemed like an impossible task. But the feeling was so wonderful that I didn’t even dare to do it for fear of losing the deep relaxation.
“I was calm, relaxed, grounded.”
The price is unlikely to deter people who pride themselves on being attuned to their personal health, nor will its lofty promises deter so-called wellness gurus who have successfully monetized the pursuit of self-improvement.