Medical equipment

Valkee HumanCharger light therapy LED headset review

I don’t travel across time zones that often and I don’t have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) issues that some people get during the dreary winter months. But what I do deal with is a slight sleep deficit because I get a little less than 7 hours of sleep on weeknights. Unfortunately, I can’t do caffeine, so any gadget that might help me feel a little more energetic is something I want to try. The HumanCharger from Valkee claims to help with jetlag, the winter blues and help shift works be more focused and energetic. Let’s see if it works for me.

What is it?

What is the HumanCharger? It’s a small iPod Nano shaped light therapy device with earbuds that pump UV free blue-enriched white light instead of music into your ear canals. Wait, what? You read that correctly, there are little LEDs built into the tips of earbuds that shine light into your ears to increase energy levels, improve mood, increase mental alertness, help with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder. AKA the winter blues), reduce the effects of jet lag, and even help with food cravings.

HumanCharger has a unique and patented mechanism of action which stimulates the photosensitive proteins on the surface of the brain using a calibrated white light that passes through the ear canals. When these photosensitive areas of the brain are activated by HumanCharger, chemical compounds (Serotonin, Dopamine, and Noradrenaline) are released. The outcome: boosted energy levels, uplifted mood, and enhanced performance.

What’s in the box?

The HumanCharger main unit
LEDset Earplugs
Multiple ear tips in various sizes
micro USB charging cable
Quick start guide

Design and features

As mentioned above, the main unit reminds me of an old school MP3 player. But the HumanCharger does NOT play music. It has a micro USB connection on the end and a power button with a LED status ring around the button. That’s it, there are no other buttons, dials, switches, or ports.

The LEDset that come with the device look like a standard set of earbuds until you look at the ear tips where you’ll find a LED.

You can get a better look by removing the ear tip.

Let’s get lit up!

Before you use the HumanCharger for the first time, you have to charge the main unit by using the micro USB cable that was included in the package. A fully charged main unit will provide up to 10 light therapy sessions before needing to be recharged.

With the LEDset plugged into the micro USB connector on the main unit, all that’s left to do is to insert them in your ears and press the power button on the unit. The LEDs will turn on and remain on for 12 minutes, which is the length of the light therapy session. The LED around the power button fills in as the 12 minutes countdown.

I used the HumanCharger light therapy device each morning at about the same time each day for a full week. Although the LEDset earplugs are not the most comfortable earbuds I’ve ever worn, they stayed in my ears long enough to complete the short 12-minute sessions.

But does it actually work?

After using the device for 7 days, I can’t say that I noticed any extra energy, focus or fewer cravings for sweets. I’m actually eating some Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies while I’m typing this

The only small thing I noticed was that on 2 of the 7 days that I used the device, I was able to convince myself to get out of bed within 10 minutes of my alarm going off instead of my usual 3 snooze bar presses and 20 minutes. I’m not going to say that this device was responsibile for giving me 20 minutes of extra time on 2 days out of 7, but I won’t say that it didn’t either.

Final thoughts

I know that light therapy isn’t a scam because I’ve seen and read about larger therapy devices for years. Having a pocket-sized light therapy device is a great alternative to the devices that have to sit on a table.

I’m on the fence about the HumanCharger device because it didn’t’ seem to help me in a very noticeable way. That said, there are quite a few people who have left positive reviews on Amazon who really like this device. If you’ve benefited from larger light therapy devices in the past, chances are that you’ll benefit from this one too.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by Valkee. Please visit their site for more info. You can order through the HumanCharger site and Amazon.

Product Information

Price:	$219.00 MSRP
Manufacturer:	Valkee
Retailer:	Amazon
Pros:	Easy to use 12 minute session
Cons:	Earbuds fall out of my ears regardless of earbud tip used Not sure it's really helpful

Filed in categories: Health, Fitness, Sports, Reviews

Tagged: Medical equipment

Valkee HumanCharger light therapy LED headset review originally appeared on on April 8, 2017 at 9:58 am.

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This catheter-guided single chip may someday provide 3-D imaging from within your heart and blood vessels

Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technolgy, Atlanta, Georgia and Electronics Engineering Department, Isik University, Istanbul, Turkey, developed this tiny chip (approximately 1.5 mm) on a flexible catheter (about 430 microns) that will allow heart surgeons to view a complete real-time 3-D image of heart and blood vessel blockages and allow the surgeons to attend to them as necessary. This chip provides better imaging than current technology because it is capable of using higher frequencies to produce the images.

According to the Georgia Tech News Center website,

The device integrates ultrasound transducers [capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) arrays] with processing electronics [front-end CMOS electronics technology] on a single 1.4 millimeter silicon chip. On-chip processing of signals allows data from more than a hundred elements on the device to be transmitted using just 13 tiny cables, permitting it to easily travel through circuitous blood vessels. The forward-looking images produced by the device would provide significantly more information than existing cross-sectional ultrasound.

Researchers have developed and tested a prototype able to provide image data at 60 frames per second, and plan next to conduct animal studies that could lead to commercialization of the device.

It was February 2014 when this information was first released and I was unable to find any updates about the researchers’ endeavors. Hopefully, they have made great progress and are well on their way toward making this available in the near future.

If you are more technically inclined and would like to read about the details of this chip, the researchers originally published their information in the journal IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control: Gokce Gurun, et al., “Single-Chip CMUT-on-CMOS Front-end System for Real-Time Volumetric IVUS and ICE Imaging,” (IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control, 2014). (http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TUFFC.2014.6722610).

You can also read about the details for free from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, PubMed Central website: Coskun Tekes (corresponding author), Jaime Zahorian, Toby Xu, Muhammad W. Rashid, Sarp Satir, Gokce Gurun, Mustafa Karaman, Jennifer Hasler, and F. Levent Degertekin., “CMUT-based Volumetric Ultrasonic Imaging Array Design for Forward Looking ICE and IVUS Applications,” PubMed Central, 2014. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4123197/).

Filed in categories: Health, Fitness, Sports, News

Tagged: Medical equipment

This catheter-guided single chip may someday provide 3-D imaging from within your heart and blood vessels originally appeared on on March 31, 2017 at 6:46 am.

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This giant “ball bearing” will soothe your aching muscles

If you’re an athlete or you work out on a regular basis, you know what it’s like to have sore muscles. Even I get achy muscles with my lame attempts to keep in shape. Finding a way to soothe your aches and pains is important if you want to be ready to tackle the next game or workout pain-free. The Stinger Cold Massage Roller from Recoup Fitness looks like it could be an interesting solution worth checking out.

The Stinger Cold Massage Roller looks like a giant ball bearing, but it’s really just a stainless steel ball that has non-toxic gel inside that stays cold for up to 6 hours after being in a freezer for 2 hours.

The Stinger massager can be used by itself or in the included hand grip that keeps your hand from freezing while being applied to your muscles.

Cold therapy reduces your metabolic rate and the release of lactic acid that causes your muscles to ache. After a workout, relieve strain or inflammation by massaging the roller over your muscles.

The massager can be used in the same way foam rollers and other massagers are used by rolling over muscles and even on the bottom of your feet if you suffer from plantar fasciitis.

The Recoup Fitness Stinger Cold Massage Roller is made in the US and is priced at $39.95. You can read more about it at recoupfitness.com and order through The Grommet or Amazon.

Filed in categories: Health, Fitness, Sports, News

Tagged: Exercise, Medical equipment

This giant “ball bearing” will soothe your aching muscles originally appeared on on March 28, 2017 at 10:42 am.

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Organize your daily medications into individual packets with the PillSuite

Have you ever gone on a trip and had to pack all your bottles of medications and supplements only to find they take up too much space? The PillSuite helps eliminate that problem. This system allows you to organize your daily pills into a pill organizer which has a spout on the lid so that when the organizer is inverted, you may use the spout to pour each day’s medication into a small plastic bag (food-safe biodegradable plastic bags with soy ink panel) that can then be closed by the sealer. You can then label them with the date and time to be taken if necessary. The baggies can then be packed without taking up valuable space in your suitcase or purse. When it’s time to take your medication, you simply tear off the bottom of the bag which is perforated. The PillSuite comes with a sealer, 7-part sorter with built-in funnel, two rolls of 200 biodegradable pill bags, and 4 AA batteries. It is available from The Grommet for $34.95 and the 400 Packets Refill for Pill Pack System is also available from The Grommet for $7.95.

Filed in categories: Health, Fitness, Sports, News, Travel Gear

Tagged: Medical equipment

Organize your daily medications into individual packets with the PillSuite originally appeared on on February 25, 2017 at 8:39 am.

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