Meghan Markle stepped out last week channelling the stealth wealth look. White Frame jeans, check, a Max Mara camel coat, check, Chanel sling backs, check, and a Hermès scarf, check, check, check. Oh, and what was that on her wrist? A little blue disc she did absolutely nothing to hide.
Of course, it didn't take long for fans to zoom in on the paparazzi images and discover that Megs was, in fact, wearing a NuCalm Biosignal Processing Disc, a nifty device which claims to alter the neurochemistry of the brain, helping its wearers to feel more relaxed and less stressed.
“Change your mental state with no drugs”, claims NuCalm's website, adding wearing the disc is like “having a remote control for your brain", one that can help you sleep better, feel better and perform better.
Can knocking back a shot of ginger really be life changing?
So, how exactly do neuroacoustics like NuCalm's anti-stress patch actually work? Here's everything you need to know.
Connected to a smartphone app, the product aims to slow function from higher beta frequencies — or “brainwaves” associated with alertness and stress — to lower alpha waves. Users put headphones on and choose from one of the app’s four programs: Edge, Peak, Sleepsuite or Core, which use music to “naturally guide your brain to different frequency states on demand” via “complex physics, mathematics, and algorithms built into a software that lies beneath music."
A 20-pack of disc will set you back around $80 (£63) which, considering Meghan's love for high-end items, these are far more affordable than everything else she was wearing at the time.
NuCalm's CEO Jim Poole told Hello: “NuCalm allows you to manage your mental state on demand without the need for drugs. From the deepest levels of sleep to the highest levels of intensity and everywhere in between. Using complex physics, mathematics, and algorithms in a software underneath music, NuCalm gently guides brain wave function. All you need is a mobile device and headphones.”
The founder said: "Meghan is using NuCalm's clinical strength biosignal processing disc on her inner left wrist to slow down the stress response by presenting the brain and body with GABA, the body’s natural amino acid that slows down adrenaline."
Jim told the magazine that for users suffering with high levels of stress, fear or anxiety, NuCalm "naturally and reliably reverses that cycle and puts you into a relaxed state and improves sleep."
This way for soothed, calm skin.
Guy Leschziner, Professor of Neurology and Sleep Medicine at King’s College London, shared his doubts with The Telegraph.
The newspaper says: "NuCalm claim to achieve their benefits through so-called neuroacoustic software, utilising oscillations and vibrations to achieve a change in the human physiological state. According to Leschziner, this is theoretically possible. “There is some evidence that by utilising acoustic signals, you can modulate brainwaves,” he says. “But I think that the devil is in the details.”
Leschziner said some of the company’s claims, including that “NuCalm can create the physiological benefits of two hours of restorative sleep in just 20 minutes” aren't backed by science. He told The Telegraph, “It sounds like pseudoscience. How you could possibly say that 20 minutes of sleep under this device equates to two hours of normal deep sleep, I just don’t understand.”
Meanwhile, Edzard Ernst, emeritus professor of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter, told The Times: "Alternative medicine offers a wide range of gadgets claiming to relieve stress and other conditions,” Ernst says. “They all have one thing in common: they benefit those who make money on gullible consumers but nobody else.”
