Ecoflow Bioflow Review

Overall Rating

Very powerful.
Works like hospital equipment.
There's a 90 day money back guarantee (less 15%).
Medical tests show they work.
Almost everyone I've met who has tried one found that it works - and people see you wearing one and come to tell you yet another story of what it's done for them!

Expensive - though maybe you get what you pay for. Typically £50-£100.
The jewellery models are not as slim as most magnetic bangles because the magnets have to be big to work.
The straps don't last forever on the leather and rubber models - about 2 years for mine. I really bash them, and you have to pay half price to get a replacement when the 1 year guarantee's run out.
They've stopped doing solid gold fashion models, though the gold plate is thick on the replacements.

When you get the Ecoflow Bioflow and you've got another kind of magnetic bracelet, you can spot the difference right away. It's VERY much more powerful, and has a thing they call CRP which changes the magnetic field from North to South very fast, so they work like the therapy machines in hospitals and physiotherapy clinics.

They say it works through your blood, so you can wear it anywhere where there's a good blood flow (eg, wrist, ankle, neck (on dogs and cats)). It can take a while to work, and I suppose that's why there's a 3 month money back guarantee. I got immediate results, and so did someone I met with Carpel Tunnel pain.

I use mine for back pain. If I accidentally leave it off I soon suffer, but when I put it on it takes about an hour for the pain to go away. I also get very bad swellings in my ankle or hand when I'm bitten by an insect. It cuts the swelling to half within a day, and it's gone in a week, but taking antihistamines used to take a week to get much relief, and 3 weeks to go.

Other people i.e. my father-in-law used to have permanent high blood pressure (he's 91), now it's in the normal range, unless he forgets to wear the Bioflow (note: his is the fabric strap Nations, and it shows no sign of wearing out). My son-in-law is a severe type 1 diabetic. His pump now uses 15% to 20% less insulin, and his aches are now very much relieved, except in his hands (they need a hot wax bath).

By the way, they've been tested against an ordinary magnet and found to work a lot better for Osteoarthritis. (Go to the British Medical Journal online for 18 Dec 2004, and do a search for magnetic bracelet). The trial isn't allowed to mention the name, but the maker is the number 1 reference, and the 'standard magnet' described is the Bioflow. It's a patented design and no one else does the 'changing flux' thing the doctors describe.

So overall, I've found the Bioflow bracelet to be the best magnetic therapy I've seen and tried. They seem to work for nearly everyone with arthritis, rheumatism, carpel tunnel, spondylosis (spondylitis) and blood pressure problems, and a lot of other problems respond too. They all seem to be something to do with blood problems or poisons in your body cells causing pain - that's what most arthritis is. Try one! It won't cost a lot if you have to send it back, and it works.

Members' Comments ondavidinnotts's Review

• davidinnotts on 12th Nov 2005

  PS: the magnets they use are called Neodymium, the best you can buy.
  
  All decent magnetic therapy should use these magnets, mainly because they're very powerful for the size and because they take ages to lose their magnetism - I found 5% decrease in power per 20 years quoted on one magnet maker's site. Cheap bracelets lose their power in a year or two.
  
  The Bioflow and an American brand called Norstar are the only makers I've found that use the large Neodymium magnets that do the job, and the Bioflow is the only one with the hospital-type flux changing feature.

• Bertie on 16th Nov 2005

  'Medical tests show they work'.
  
  Who conducted the tests and what are their qualifications?
  
  The only tests I've read on the magnetic therapy stuff conclude that any supposed benefits are all in the mind - so to speak.
  
  Nevertheless, it seems to work for some suggestible people but the tragedy is that conventional medicine could probably do it better and at much less cost.

• davidinnotts on 19th Dec 2005

  I've just got back from California - lucky me! - so here is some more information following from Bertie's welcome comments.
  
  Medical test on Bioflow:
  
  The test mentioned in the review was by a team mostly of GPs in a group of medical practices in SW England. If it wasn't properly conducted, the BMJ (UK's premier medical research publisher) would not have accepted it. You can see all their qualifications, etc. in the BMJ article. The trials took about three years and compared the Bioflow CRP system to a weaker plain magnet typical of those in rival wristbands and to a dummy magnet (a steel washer). The results showed that the Bioflow was substantially more effective in reducing the pain of osteoarthritis in the knee or hip than either the weaker magnet or the dummy. The inclusion of a dummy (called a placebo) is to take account of the 'all in the mind' syndrome, which really does occur - Bertie is right to bring this up. The introduction to the article describes all this. The whole trial was commissioned by the well-respected Arthritis Research Council.
  
  Magnotherapy must always have worked on some people, or the many folk tales would have been easy to disprove. The problem seems to have been that it didn't usually give measurable results for most people. Modern research and neodymium magnets seem to have completely reversed this in the last 15 years or so, providing these new systems are used rather than the old ones found in most magnetic bangles.
  
  There have been many hundreds of trials conducted on magnotherapy, and until about 15 years ago, results ranged from mixed to positively dubious. Bertie will have read some of these. I have a collection of abstracts from the medical databases, and they show a steady progress in the medical research over the years, leading to the development of reliable electromagnotherapy equipment for hospitals in the late 1980s. There is now a mature commercial market in equipment for doctors and physios to choose from, with several brands showing provable results for a wide range of conditions.
  
  To give you some idea of current reliability, sports medicine forums don't now discuss whether electromagnotherapy in clinics is of any use - they discuss what settings on various makers' equipment will give optimum results for a particular condition or injury! This shows that professionals trust this kind of magnotherapy. Most physios I've met are happy to use the equipment if they have it, along with other treatments like massage and infra-red therapy which also have proven effectiveness.
  
  This is all relevant to the Bioflow, because it was specifically developed to mimic the action of the proven hospital equipment, but as a 'trickle charge' of therapy to be worn permanently, rather than the 'boost charge' of the hospital machines where the treatment takes under an hour. In both cases, the criteria that make the difference from older therapies are (1) very high magnetic flux, much more than almost all wrist bangles, and (2) rapidly changing magnetic flux, in other words, the magnetic pole is swapped between north and south several times a second. This combination is the medically proven system, and as a wrist magnet it is unique to Ecoflow's Bioflow CRP unit because the inventor patented it.
  
  How does this compare with conventional medicine? We have a problem in the UK, because most people regard using drugs as free treatment under the Health Service. The true cost of the drugs is ignored, and so, usually, is the NHS Prescription Charge because so many people do not pay it. Taking the drug cost into account, halving the drugs bill for a typical arthritis sufferer could pay for a Bioflow in a few months - and the Bioflow only has to be bought once if it is not abused. Even if you regard the drugs as free, over a couple of years the saving on Prescription Charges would pay for a Bioflow.
  
  Apart from the cost, though, drug use has a significant drawback - side effects. I don't need to go into this, because it's a major topic of conversation for most pill-takers It's enough to say that a key reason for people in pain to try Bioflow at all is the side-effects of their drugs. Most Bioflow users can cut down their drug regime (or eliminate it altogether in less cases) and they regard this as one key benefit - irrespective of cost.
  
  With nearly two million sold, the only side effect reported by using Bioflow is a 'detoxification effect' similar to that from having a whole-body massage. It can range from slight nausea to a 'hangover', to muscular cramps to 'flu-like symptoms (though this last is very rare). It's caused by a sudden flow of toxins into the bloodstream as the Bioflow improves the body's ability to remove them from each cell, and rarely lasts more than a few days from first use. It can be alleviated by wearing the wristband for only a few hours a day until the symptoms die away. Most people get no symptoms at all, probably because they follow the maker's (and doctors'!) advice to drink plenty of fluids and avoid stimulants like caffeine and alcohol for a few days so that the kidneys can cope with the extra toxin removal.
  
  Trials on simple magnets still take place, but the only certified positive results I've heard of are for leg ulcers suffered by the bedridden. (Maybe someone can direct me to the medical trial results for other conditions?) A lot of District Nurses have done verified research binding simple low-power magnets of several makes into the dressings over ulcers, and the magnetic field has been shown to accelerate healing by a useful amount. This does, by the way, kill the old wives' tale that using magnetic therapy directly on an open wound is dangerous - quite the opposite!

• david232 on 5th Feb 2008

  hi
  i am using bioflow wristband since 6 months. then i added BOOST BUTTONS, purchased almost 3 months ago,to be used at the knee joint area where i had an autoscopy (no implants)operation november 2006. these boost buttons helped the circulation, i guess. BUT now after almost 3 months use (daily 10-12 hrs)i see the hair on that area is disapeared and my skin got wrinkled compare top the other leg where iam not using these buttons. my question: is this dangerous to use in a long run and are there any prooven bi-effects of these buutons.
  i used 2 buttons around the knee joint and the wrist band bioflow as usual. should i consider stopping using these buttons? while iam using these boost buttons & wristband i spend some time in my office using computer. is that a hazard for me or the computer?
  in the leaflet boostbuttons it explains under IMPORTANT ADVICE: DO NOT PLACE NEAR, OR NEXT TO, ANY ITEM THAT COULD BE AFFECTED BY A MAGNETIC FIELD SUCH AS AUDIO TAPES, cd, COMPASSES WATCHES ETC
  

• davidinnotts on 6th Feb 2008

  Hey, wrinkly skin and hair loss! That shows that you were wearing something hard on that spot. It was a Boost Button! You'll get less hair rubbed off if you have another piece of cloth under it, but I wouldn't worry: when you stop using the button, it'll soon go back like the other one.

  
  
  The Boost system is to add extra magnotherapy at the point of pain, but the main job is being done by the CRP unit on a pulse, working through your blood. Any pulse point will do, but inside your wrist is usually most convenient. So you can try not using the Boosts. Keep them handy though - after a while the extra therapeutic effect of the Boost will go, and you may get more pain. Then you'll need to put them back on. But if they make no difference now, they've already done their job. Most users need to Boost as well as a wristband only when the pain is worst.
  
  By the way, a Boost Button works as well as a wristband on your blood, providing it's right on a pulse point. A lot of people can't wear a wristband at work, so they slip one kind of CRP or another into their sock, right over the pulse point on the inside of the ankle. That's as good as on your wrist. The carotid arteries on the side of your neck are even better. Though when I suggest people wear one of our dog collars for best effect, I get some funny looks!
  
  The Bioflow CRP system has never been shown to cause any ill effects, except some initial detoxifying symptoms in a minority of people, as their bodies adapt to it. It's similar to the detox effect from a whole-body massage, and for the same reason: you body becoms more efficient and throws more cell toxins out into the blood for a while, which your kidneys have to remove.
  
  Magnets Do affect a lot of modern equipment, and trial-and-error will show you what not to do. The Bioflow CRP module has a particularly powerful neodymium magnet, so you hae to be careful not to touch it to a credit card magnetic strip, audio or video tape - it will wipe the information on them. Also, don't put it close to a heart pacemaker. Some older types are set with a strong magnetic field, and you don't want to upset that! Still, follow your cardiologist's advice if you have a pacemaker.
  
  But, except for the Boost Buttons, this huge power is only on one side. The back side, away from your skin, has a relatively low magnetic field and is of little therapeutic use. So putting the back side in these places will be far less likely to do damage - it's not much more powerful than a bangle full of ordinary magnets or a big fridge magnet, and they are not proven to be of much use in therapy.
  
  If you want to play, you could try putting a wristband (inside surface) or a Boost button against the screen of any old-type CRT monitor or TV. You'll see the effect on the screen. If it doesn't go away in a minute or two, switch off and on again to get rid of this effect. It's harmless. It can also temporarily stop some watches with second hands, or some older mechanical watches. Again, it won't do any damage, but it will affect the timekeeping till you take it away.
  
  Bioflow is a powerful system, but if you treat it with common sense, you'll have no problems.
  
  David.