US Olympic team full on tDCS doping?

Have you seen how so many US olympic team athletes are using the HALO Headphones?

Check them out:
www.haloneuro.com...

The HALO headphones do Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) which is a powerful way to tamper with your brain.
en.wikipedia.org...

Just as almost all armies used drugs to improve soldiers performance and dictatorships used doping to prove their superiority on major sports events looks like the US Olympic team is fully on these HALO gadgets. And with so many athletes using this it has to be a decision from above...

To me this is doping just as amphetamines or blood transfusions or hormones or steroids, its the same thing. An easy way to get around training and hard work... It´s cheating.

And now, the US team sweeping so many medals, much more than in previous games, this makes me think about the effectiveness of the HALO gadget.

To me its like dope, what do you think about it guys?

Almost all serious athletes do steroids at one time or another. With the Olympics being every 4 years its nice and easy to do the juice and plan your clearing times.

a reply to: CrapAsUsual

It's not like dope. It may not even work. It's a headset of energy pulses. When my physical therapist puts a TENS machine on my knee, feels good, but won't give me an unfair advantage at the Olympics anytime soon.

When athletes that are not supposed to win start winning you can search for a reason.
There is really nothing unusual about the medal count.

What if its just a concentration booster? nothing wrong with that.

a reply to: reldra

Nope, thats not tdcs. Tdcs is used in the brain creating currents between different parts of the brain in order to obtain a result. Currents up to 2 mili amperes. Very low current.

But its not an exact science and results are not uniform.

a reply to: CrapAsUsual

I've been meaning to try these for a 2-3 years. They can be made at home for next to nothing. I'd like to compare the actual experience to those which are reported across the web and particularly on the YT

They're not illegal even if they gave the power of flight. USADA, WADA and whoever else work of lists of banned substances and so forth. This device mustn't even count as a prosthetic.

I followed your link to the Halo website and think some of their claims there could be actionable. They miss out on the caveats of *could* or *potentially.* Minus the evidence to prove the certainty, it's just a false claim.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: CrapAsUsual

I've been meaning to try these for a 2-3 years. They can be made at home for next to nothing. I'd like to compare the actual experience to those which are reported across the web and particularly on the YT

They're not illegal even if they gave the power of flight. USADA, WADA and whoever else work of lists of banned substances and so forth. This device mustn't even count as a prosthetic.

I followed your link to the Halo website and think some of their claims there could be actionable. They miss out on the caveats of *could* or *potentially.* Minus the evidence to prove the certainty, it's just a false claim.

Any DIY links? I would be interested in tinkering around with it if its not too much effort

a reply to: Tjoran

This is very interesting stuff:

www.reddit.com...

www.diytdcs.com...

a reply to: CrapAsUsual

So, it's iDrugs?

and here I thought it was Pantera and Fear Factory.

Correct, I have NO clue.

a reply to: Kandinsky

Yes, they are not prohibited. My comment was more in the sense of if they were ethical or just a new trick that will be banned in future sports events...

Because if this really works you can always take the idea to an extreme, one day you can have every athlete on a sports event using this kind of stuff, or even worse, imagine the find a way to implant this into the brain?

All you would ever need is a jack behind your ear to charge the batteries...

a reply to: Tjoran

Give this show a listen to (Radiolab) and see what you think. It's great! There are YT videos giving instructions. listen the show for a bit of background first

a reply to: CrapAsUsual

I'm pretty keen on running, swimming and sports and read articles on gizmos that 'support' or 'improve' performance. With this Halo device I'm not sure that the benefits aren't simply placebo effects.

They don't appear to have any peer-review studies to demonstrate benefits. I mean something like creatine is studied to death; steroids too. Any device that definitively guarantees testable, sporting improvements would be investigated. If this is out there, it suggests studies haven't found a significant, repeatable effect which makes it a 'gizmo' and not a prosthetic.

imo

a reply to: Sublimecraft

Athletes are always trying to do better, this looks like the new trick to achieve that.

As it is right now it may even be slightly silly but if the technology works it can be refined and improved, what if in 2020 they start to show up with tDCS implants in the brain? Will it be doping then?

This is what I´m concerned.

Pantera may be interesting when skateboarding becomes an olympic sport in 2020

a reply to: CrapAsUsual

Do you remember that movie DRAGON - The Bruce Lee Story, and he had those electrode thingys pulsating away while he was typing on the typewriter? In 2020 they should have like a Borg Olympics and we can see just how far we can push the limit!!

a reply to: CrapAsUsual

I think they are playing the song by Tom Petty...........Running Down a Dream.

Double post, please delete if possible.

a reply to: Kandinsky

I´ve been looking into tDCS since I saw a a piece on some BBC or CBS doc. They were using this technique on image analysts to improve their ability to spot weapons on satellite images.

This may seam trivial but according to them it would take many hours to train ones to do this job, with tDCS was a mater of minutes and the results were even better than without it.

I think the studies on this are scarce because we are dealing with the brain and because its not just a mater of placing two electrodes in the scalp and turn the device on, the positioning of the electrodes will create different results and possible the results will be different from person to person.

What I think it´s fascinating is that so many US athletes are seen with these, this is no coincidence, and surely not the case of a gift to the olympic team from the HALO company, this is something planned and sanctioned by the US team bosses.

a reply to: Bluntone22

That is true. I saw Phelps using them but yes, Phelps is Phelps, he would probably win medals competing without an arm and his left foot.

a reply to: CrapAsUsual


Are you talking about the Beats Headphones that Michael Phelps was wearing? The same kind you see scores of pro athletes endorse and use? He received a scolding for failing to cover the logo, as Beats wasn't a sanctioned sponsor of the Olympics. Other than that, there is no controversy here. We have no way of knowing what Phelps was listening to but whatever it was, it certainly wasn't against the rules.

Athletes have used music to psyche themselves up or calm their nerves for competition for years now. Some may listen to Mozart to calm themselves, while others prefer to get amped up on some Slayer. I don't know much about the neural beats or whatever you're talking about but I doubt it would give athletes any more of an edge than their favorite music. How petty would it be to micromanage what an athlete chooses to listen to before competition? Why not make stretching or hydrating illegal while youre at it?

That being said, there have been times I was driving and listening to certain music that pumped me up to the point I was driving overly fast and aggressive. Perhaps heavy metal should be banned in automobiles.