Snake Oil

 My husband & I are both analytical thinkers and in being so we often don't believe the various claims we see & hear.  Although my husband is much more skeptical than I.  For example, last fall a couple of girlfriends & I went to Nashville to run in the Women's 1/2 marathon.  At the expo the 3 of us had the Power Balance Bands demo & we were all amazed at their power.  Each of us immediately bought one to wear the next day for our race.  Well, upon arriving home I showed Steve the band & he proceeded to tell me what a sucker I am.  I tried to tell him I didn't care that I just wanted to believe.  He then found a u-tube video discrediting the power bands.  After that I couldn't bring myself to put the band back on.  So after one race, I retired the band to the pile of crap on my dresser. 

Fast forward about 10 months, we are in Asheville for the Mountain Sports festival.  I see a both doing demos of the healing power of Australian Eucalyptus oil.  I marched right in & asked for a demo.  You see, I have scoliosis & almost everyday I have some kind of pain ranging from my shoulders to my back to my neck.  That particular day I had a stiff neck & was having trouble turning my head side to side.  After the lady rubbed the oil on my neck & shoulders I felt immediate relief.   The pain wasn't all gone but I definitely felt an improvement.  They said they would be there until 9PM so I decided to see how it worked during my race.  By the time the race was over I could completely move my neck around which I hadn't been able to do for a week or so.   I tried to go back to buy some but they had packed up & left early!   The bummer of it is that I couldn't remember the name of the product just that is was eucalyptus oil. 

Steve of course thought is was a load of crap.  Snake oil he said!   With my temperamental shoulders I really wanted to get a bottle just to see for myself.  So when I got home I did some internet searches but couldn't find anything that looked like what they were demo'ing.  I did find a product out of California that had the same claims for about the same price.  I said what the heck, $30 isn't that much to pay considering how much I spend annually on massages, chiropractic & acupuncture just to keep my back & shoulders from a complete blow out. 

The bottle of Pain's All Gone arrived today.  Yeah, pretty cheesy name I know!  I sprayed on the first application tonight.  Will it work?  Who knows but for now, I am going to ignore my husband & his snake oil commentary.  My Olympic distance training officially starts tomorrow & I need all the help I can get to keep my shoulders happy!