Greg Smith, right, and Daniel and Mary Schlenger are the West Coast distributors for LifeWave Products, which makes a stamina skin patch. (Dan Coyro / Sentinel)

Local chiropractic team pitches controversial stamina patch

By GWEN MICKELSON
Venice hotel roomsSentinel staff writer

CAPITOLA Greg Smith had been in and out of Disc Treatment Plus chiropractic office for 20 years.

A sufferer of bad knees and shoulders, Smith recently decided to try a new skin patch he learned about from a friend who was working for the Suwanee, Ga.-based maker of the patches, LifeWave Products.

Upon donning the Harmony stamina patch, "The shift in Gregs body was dramatic," said Daniel Schlenger of Disc Treatment Plus. "About 90 percent of his problems were resolved."

Smith, a general contractor by trade, is now working as a distributor of the product, along with Schlenger and his wife, Mary Schlenger, who runs her husbands chiropractic office.

Last month, the patches made headlines when six female Stanford swimmers wore them during Olympic trials, causing USA Swimming officials to send samples to the United States Anti-Doping Agency for testing.

But the products inventor, research scientist David Schmidt, says that preliminary results have found that the patches were clean. The swimmers were also drug tested and found clean, he said.

"I was looking for a new way to improve energy and stamina that wasnt a pill or a drink," said Schmidt of the patches, which he described as LifeWave Technology.

 

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"Its a well known scientific fact that theres a pulsating magnetic field above the skin. I took amino acids and put them into water-based solutions and came up with a technique that used nanotechnology, so that I can program these organic structures the same way we program computer chips."

Schmidt says the patches, which his company put on the market in June, contain no drugs and do not send anything through the skin.

The small, round adhesive patches are worn as a pair on established acupuncture meridians on the body such as the wrists or around the knees. They are being marketed to both athletes seeking a performance edge and everyday consumers simply looking to boost strength and stamina.

"The patch communicates with the body and says, Use fat as an energy source " said Schmidt. "You get twice as much energy from fat as you do from carbohydrates, so you get a 30 to 40 percent improvement in stamina, within 10 minutes of use."

Schmidts company has tested the patchs results with double blind studies at Morehouse College in Atlanta and Troy State University in Troy, Ala., and with various studies by medical doctors.

The most simple explanation of his product, says Schmidt, is that it balances the bodys meridians.

"Its like a needleless acupuncture," he said.

Though new, the product has not gone unnoticed.

"Sales have been going through the roof," said Steven Smith, the LifeWave national marketing director based in Saratoga who introduced the patches to Greg Smith. (The two are not related.)

"We believe in the next four to five months well be going worldwide with this," he said, adding that the complementary health-care field is a $40 billion industry.

Jill Marino, a licensed acupuncturist in Santa Cruz, had not heard of the product, but said she would be interested in learning more.

"I think the body is far subtler than we recognize in our culture," she said. "Were very heavy-handed in our treatment of it, but I think were getting a little more sophisticated. Theres a lot we dont know."

Dr. Warren Scott, a Santa Cruz sports medicine doctor who also serves on the editorial board of scientific journals, was skeptical.

"Its totally bogus," he said. "It has to be, theres no way. Any product that has a medical effect on the body has to be FDA-regulated."

And, he added, "If stuff really works, the Olympics ban it."

The Harmony patch costs $80 for a one-month supply. It is available locally through Disc Treatment Plus, at 465-0844, or via the Internet, at www.thelifewave.com. The Web sites also contain information and studies about the product.

Schmidt will be offering a seminar on the patches at 11 a.m. Aug. 21 at the Scotts Valley Hilton, 6001 La Madrona Drive. For information, call 465-0844.

 

Contact Gwen Mickelson at gmickelson@santacruzsentinel.com.