The Duchess of Sussex is famous for her love of an “arm party”. No, that’s not a bizarre West Coast elite trend for limb-worshipping get-togethers, but the fashionable act of dressing your wrists with an array of meaningful jewels. For Meghan, her Cartier love bangle (prices start at £7,050) and Princess Diana’s Tank Louis Cartier watch are usually de rigueur members of her arm party.
This weekend, however, she has redefined the term after being photographed with a NuCalm Biosignal Processing Disc – an anti-stress patch – stuck to the pulse point on the inside of her left wrist as she walked around Montecito. She was dressed in a quintessentially Meghan “stealth wealth” look, which included white jeans by Frame, a Max Mara camel coat, Chanel sling backs and a Hermès scarf which rather helpfully toned with the blue hues of her disc.
With a 20-pack of discs costing just $80 (£63), for those who love to copy Meghan’s style, it’s certainly a more affordable buy than her usual array of Cartier. But according to Guy Leschziner, Professor of Neurology and Sleep Medicine at King’s College London, many of the company’s claims sound suspiciously like pseudoscience.
NuCalm’s product description page reads like something out of a Black Mirror episode – the disc apparently “provides the resonance and frequencies to ensure a fast-acting, deep and long-lasting NuCalm experience”. But while the company claims to have spent the past 14 years testing, clinically proving, refining and simplifying complex neuroscience to develop a platform which can promote relaxation as well as improving sleep, focus and creativity, the actual scientific evidence is undeniably scarce.
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.”
However, there is no concrete proof that NuCalm can actually do this. A brief search of the academic literature revealed a handful of publications in 2017 and 2018 in little-known scientific journals, seemingly based on a previous iteration of the technology. Leschziner says that some of the company’s claims, including that “NuCalm can create the physiological benefits of two hours of restorative sleep in just 20 minutes”, stretch the realms of credibility.
“It sounds like pseudoscience” he says. “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.”
Suspicions are also aroused by some of the public figures and scientific collaborators working with NuCalm. They include Michael Galitzer, a leading purveyor of the pseudoscientific field of energy medicine, who has previously collaborated with Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness company Goop, and Janet Hranicky, medical director of the Bioenergy Fields Foundation, another branch of alternative medicine.
The businessman and life coach Tony Robbins, who has been previously criticised for promoting a field of pseudoscience known as neuro-linguistic programming, is one of NuCalm’s leading advocates. “When you’ve got Tony Robbins as your main proponent, that has to ring some alarm bells,” says Leschziner.
It is not the first time that the burgeoning wearable industry has come under criticism, fuelled by a growing demand among 40-somethings for displaying their passion for inner wellbeing through connecting their bodies to various apps. While a number of start-ups have achieved enormous success in a short space of time – such as the Zoe app co-founded by Professor Tim Spector which uses a technology known as continuous glucose monitoring to monitor spikes in blood sugar in response to changes in your lifestyle or diet – they tend to be those with a solid evidence base.
As one of the world’s most divisive figures, a woman whose private life has been pored over and critiqued in minute detail ever since her relationship with Prince Harry was revealed in 2016, Meghan’s decision to partner with NuCalm seems telling. It suggests that she may be exploring the possibility of building her own alternative health brand, in a similar vein to Paltrow’s Goop empire which the Hollywood star used to broaden her own cultural significance, making her synonymous with everything from macrobiotic diets to vagina eggs.
It does appear like auspicious timing that she would be photographed with a NuCalm disc now. The company had not posted to its Instagram profile since May when it collaborated with ultra runner William F Goodge during his challenge to run across America in 56 days. Then just two days ago, NuCalm released an onslaught of artful collages and videos sprinkled with slogans like “ignite”, “flowstate” and “powernap”.
Around the same time, Meghan took her jaunt out and about in Montecito and just happened to raise her wrist to tuck her hair behind her ear as the paparazzi shutter clicked. Soon after the pictures emerged, NuCalm reposted them to their Instagram stories along with a link to a free seven-day trial of its programme which usually costs $29.99 (£24) per month.
This coincidental timing comes just as speculation mounts about how the Sussexes will continue to fund their Californian lifestyle. Stepping into the possibilities offered by the world of paid ambassadorships could be a lucrative option for the couple. Sources have told The Telegraph that Meghan is working on reviving her lifestyle website The Tig, a platform she used before her marriage to share her thoughts and advice on food, travel, fashion, beauty and philanthropy with her fans.
If she does bring back the site, she could earn significant sums through partnerships and sales. However, before she makes herself the poster woman for luxe arm discs, it may be advisable to collaborate with a company which offers more scientific proof than headlines such as “change your mental state with no drugs”.
“It doesn’t look like they’ve actually proven anything,” says Leschziner. “They may well prove us all wrong, but the burden of proof is on them.”
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbHLnp6rmaCde6S7ja6iaKqfrq6tecWapKKkqWR%2FcX6SaGdxZ2FofK6xxqGYp2WUqrCpsdKsZKieXajCtL%2FEsWSwnZGneqK606JkrKyimsC0ec%2Baq5ygXaPCpK3LpmY%3D