Steps that would convince me of the amber analgesic hypothesis (substitute which ever is you favorite mechanism of action for the compound):

1. Studies that show analgesic effect for the compound, dose response curves would be good. This need not be carried out in babies – for practical reasons. Anecdotes are not applicable.

2. Work that shows the compound can be leached out of the amber beads under the conditions it would normally be exposed to on the babies skin.

3. Evidence that the compound is absorbed transdermally and in sufficient quantities to cause the analgesic effect (see those dose response curves of #1).

Should your preferred mechanism of action be more mysterious than a compound within the amber (static electricity, magnetism, healing energy etc) then step #1 becomes very important and would need to be of extremely high quality.

Also, I do love your gravatar handle, evolution does rule.

There’s a theory behind why Amber beads reportedly make a difference. And maybe it’s entirely wrong, but that doesn’t change the fact that it has reportedly (through story) made a difference.

So Instead of trying to figure out *how* they might work, perhaps you could address the question of wether or not we can establish a cause and effect relationship. What is necessary to conclusively establish that relationship?

Sheila Price :

FYI:
http://bio-amber.com/ignitionweb/data/media_centre_files/661/MSDS_SUCCINIC_ACID_USA_ENGLISH_VERSION.pdf
(Hazzard – Skin Irritant)

Ha ha, that *almost* proves that no acid gets out of the amber, which would falsify the claimed method of action. The unlikeliness of the acid getting out of the amber (where it has presumably been locked for thousands of years, just waiting for a baby’s skin to release it) has been pointed out by many on this thread.

http://bio-amber.com/ignitionweb/data/media_centre_files/661/MSDS_SUCCINIC_ACID_USA_ENGLISH_VERSION.pdf

(Hazzard – Skin Irritant)

Anyway, I understand the motivation for grabone to be uncritical of their products to a degree and keep on the topic of questions about products. But it’s still frustrating when patently ridiculous items and services can’t have even a sniff of a whiff of a ghost of criticism.

I have a bit of a hobby of making complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority, but GrabOne’s ads never last as long as the process of having a complaint upheld takes so they pretty much always end up “Settled”. Very frustrating – they seem to essentially escape the industry’s self-regulation in this way.