Review of Resperate® Blood Pressure Reduction System
- From: Dave <djensen36@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:09:57 -0800 (PST)
How can a product that often does what it is designed to do be
considered a sham?
That's the question that I asked myself as I sat down to write this
review of the Resperate Blood Pressure Reduction system. For anyone
with higher than normal blood pressure readings, you've probably been
bombarded with advertisements for this device. You see it everywhere
on the Internet. It's a small electronic device that looks like a CD
player, and its built-in tunes and a breathing sensor help you slow
down your breathing. With regular use, it is designed to make a dent
in your high blood pressure readings.
So the questions I asked when I checked out Resperate for review were,
1) Does it work? and, 2) Is it worth the money?
With regards to the first question, I DID get a small reduction in my
blood pressure readings. But, the second part of my question, the "is
it worth it" part, is so flagrantly out of kilter with reality that I
believe it moves Resperate into the category of a sham. This is one
little $50 or $75 product that has ballooned out of proportion (due to
the costs of marketing and advertising) into a $300 medical device.
When your small positive effect is counterbalanced by a huge ding in
your checkbook, I believe this can still represent a SHAM. Others may
feel differently.
Here's how it works . . . the Resperate device helps you to slow your
breathing down by monitoring your breaths and telling you to breath
with the little "tune" it generates (you have a choice of several of
these little musical passages). The tune slows down, as does your
breathing, until you've moved from 12 or 15 breaths per minute to 4 or
5. This "therapeutic breathing zone" has been shown in meditation to
reduce blood pressure, so it is indeed based upon science. And for
some people who just can't mediate any other way, perhaps Resperate is
the way to go.
But, as my doctor told me, you can buy a CD to slow your breathing
down, such as "Ken Cohen's Guide to Healthy Breathing" for about $12.
The difference between this CD and the Resperate is that the device
guides you through it. For some people, perhaps this is worth the
additional $280. I may have considered keeping the device myself if it
hadn't been so visibly a poor value.
When you receive Resperate, it's clearly not worth the investment by
its outer appearance. Like many guys, I'm a gadget nut. When I buy a
$300+ electronic goodie, I'm expecting a certain level of quality.
After opening the box and seeing those less-than-airline-quality
headphones included, my impression went downhill fast.
In this case, the first one didn't work at all and had to be returned.
Then, I started noticing that the device (which resembles a $20 or $25
WalMart portable CD player) had some real design problems. The chintzy
cable for the chest sensor goes directly inside the case instead of
plugging into a jack so that it could be replaced when its 2¢ cable
frays and breaks. Not in this case -- when cables break, the whole
unit is dead in the water. And the headphone jack on mine had to be
held in just a certain way in order to get the sound, because it was
shorted out.
The long and the short of this "sham" is that the device does what it
says it will do, for most people. But the savvy shopper will invest
$12 first as opposed to $300, and recognize the fact that Resperate is
simply a good $50 idea with an added $250 in marketing costs picked up
by the consumer.
I'll stick to the CD, thanks Resperate.
Dave
Full text article above extracted from http://shamvswham.blogspot.com/
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