Apollo Neuro Review: A Case Study In The Wellness Wild West

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I can't confirm or deny that this wearable has had an impact on my stress levels, but health gadgets should make better use of science in their marketing.

VictoriaSong / @ Wiki song

Photo: Amelia Golawati Krales / The Verge

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The $399 Apollo Neuro is the kind of medical care that inspires skepticism. In short, it's a wearable device that claims to relieve stress through sensory therapy. Apollo Neuro founder Dr. As Dave Rabin explains in the video, it's a "nerve-friendly hug" that uses soothing vibrations to "balance" the fight-or-flight response. It is believed to make your body more resilient to stress by improving concentration, sleep quality, and heart rate variability, which is often used as a recovery measure.

I wouldn't blame you for snoring in disbelief. My eyebrows almost went up to the sky when I watched this video. Neuro is not expensive, sensory therapy is itself an alternative treatment without much good quality scientific evidence to support its claims.

Although I knew it, I had a reason to try this gadget. The last four years of my life have been incredibly embarrassing. My entire family died under tragic circumstances, and this plunged me into depression. This is not my specific story. Like most people, I was exhausted to the point where no source of help was offered. I have extensive experience with non-regulated medical devices with evidence-based requirements. I thought the Apollo Neuro review would be a good opportunity to look at the health of the Wild West from the point of view of someone who is in desperate need of a breather.

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At first glance, the Apollo Neuro reminds me of the Vape 4.0, just a little bigger and thicker. Both screenless devices have the same design and can be worn on different parts of the body thanks to different accessories. This is where the similarity ends.

At 50mm long, 35mm wide, and 14mm thick, the Apollo Neuro is lighter, but not close to the Apple Watch Ultra. You can wear it with a wrist or ankle strap, or use a clip to attach it to your waist, shirt collar, or bra anywhere near a bone or joint. The back of the device is slightly curved to better adapt to the shape of your body, while the front has a metal body that can be clipped or strapped on. On the right side, you will find a charge indicator and two buttons that adjust the vibration volume.

Depending on how close you are to the recommended three hours of daily use, the Neuro can last one to two days on a single charge. Not the best, but not the worst I've seen either. More worryingly, it uses a micro USB charger. The only two devices in my house that use micro USB right now are my old Kindle Paperwhite and my mini UV nail lamp. I just traded in my Paperwhite for a USB-C version and the UV light has been collecting dust for months. It's a little crazy, but in 2023 it's an inexpensive design.

It's not the prettiest device, but it's relatively understated and you can wear it in a variety of ways. It doesn't really fit, so I decided to wear it on my hips or ankles. (As a wearables reviewer, I don't have much room for my wrists.) When I wear it on my hip, you can't see it because the device itself wraps around your waist. It was more noticeable when I wore it on my ankle. Many colleagues and friends said that I wear ankle boots, which is not very flattering. However, the accommodation was not ideal. I tested the Neuro in the fall and winter and sometimes sent the Neuro without sweaters and coats. It would have been safer to wear it on the ankle, but unfortunately I have candles and the included strap was too comfortable for extended wear.

To use Neuro, connect it to the Apollo app. There you will find various vibration profiles that you can plan for your day. There are seven modes, each designed to help you relax more or focus on different situations. Each mode can be set for a specific time from five minutes to an hour. For example, if you want to wake up with energy, you can schedule an Energy and Wake up profile when you wake up. If you are an outgoing person, you have a "social and outgoing" profile to "avoid stress in social situations".

Vibration is adjustable. You need to adapt so that you can practice without distractions. Luckily, even if you say it out loud, others won't be able to hear your grin. And that's good, because I always had to increase the intensity to feel something.

I didn't like the Apollo tracker app. Scheduled classes often don't start even though I get a reminder on my phone. The program was unable to correctly record my sessions. Many times I have ended a two or three hour session only to find that it is not listed in the Apollo program.

It was almost like a health badge. I didn't want to see who was calling, but he was screaming. Instead, I reached for my phone, trying to remember which mode to play in. Does neurotherapy help me with my depression... it's a bit tricky.

Placebo effect

The company said in a study that people who regularly used Neuro slept better and had increased heart rate variability. Quick update. HRV refers to the time between heartbeats. It is often used as a measure of stress and how well you are resting. A higher HRV means you are recovering well. A low HRV means you may be sick or your body needs more rest to recover from stress or tension. Right now, HRV is the most tracked metric for dozens of wearables, and I have a lot of them .

I divided the test into two phases over the course of three months. I first tried an optional experience test during which I wore the device for at least an hour a day. That's less than what Apollo offers five times a week for three hours, but it's more consistent and closer to what most people actually use. I followed Apollo's instructions for the second round. I tracked my HRV trends and sleep data with the Oura ring, which I often use as a monitoring tool to test sleep tracking. (This is also what Apollo used in one of his neuroclinical trials.)

It would be nice if I could see how neurons control everything, but I'm not a clinical researcher. I am a reviewer who also has to test other gadgets for my daily work. Also, I am sample size. I doubt my testing will match how the average person would use this tool, but it doesn't reflect anyone else's experience other than my own.

After all this, I regret that my final results are inconclusive. After 11 weeks, I have no concrete evidence that regular Neuron use positively or negatively affects my stress levels. Although I used it for its intended purpose.

During the test, my heart rate variability dropped before rising again… then falling again and rising again. The graph looks like a scientific curve. My sleep rates remained stable with the same spikes during the weeks of high HRV. I am 99.99% sure that increasing HRV and sleep quality is not “retraining” of neurons. . Secondly, I caught a cold on holidays and slept 10-12 hours a day. (That was great.) The weeks that HRV was going down coincided with the training phases of the half marathon.

If continued use of Neuro trains my nervous system, I expect some improvement over time. Instead, most of the time my HRV dropped significantly and my sleep quality remained relatively constant. It seemed to me that the nerves do not work, or work so little that I cannot even compensate for my daily stress.

There are several cases where Neuro has positively affected my well-being, that's for sure. I have mild foot pain when I work out and wearing the Neuro on my left ankle helps. The relief is temporary, but when I'm in pain, I don't know what else to call a 30-minute session. Starting a sleep and recovery session when I wake up at night sometimes helps me fall asleep. Sometimes it doesn't. I tried social and public profile in a few support calls, I hate everything because of who I am and somehow it was easy.

This is the placebo effect. Almost certainly. I put on the living slime device and the lizard's mind began to deceive itself. There is some truth in the vibrations that have a calming effect. Fun fact. The frequency of cat grooming is thought to have a therapeutic effect, so cats groom themselves when they are stressed or injured. And I have to say, who doesn't get goosebumps when a cat poops next to them? There are also baby rockers to soothe the little ones. Although there is not much concrete scientific evidence on sensory therapy, does it matter if it produces the desired results? That's a very difficult question.

The whole experience reminds me of my aunt. A few years ago, he developed severe chronic fatigue. Nothing helped, and his doctors were in shock. One day he started going for acupuncture and all my family doctors and nurses laughed at him for believing in this hockey stick. The acupuncture worked, my aunt told us all to fill it up and now we are fine.

I'm sure for some people Apollo Neuro Acupuncture can relieve stress, as it did for my aunt. As far as I know, Neuro doesn't harm anything but your wallet. It's not just for me.

Scientific coverage

The health industry has always been a challenge, but my biggest concern is how they use "science" to sell them. Apollo Neuro is no different.

The Apollo neurology and research centers are some of the best I've seen. Spend some time there and you'll find a few words like "clinical trials", "clinically proven" and "first results". There are links to studies and easy-to-read summaries of completed trials. Many "Learn More" pages have bibliographies with links to research in PubMed. It has a scientific advisory board of psychiatrists and neurologists certified by several boards. To the layman, this looks perfectly legitimate.

But none of this is definitive proof that the Apollo Neuron is effective or "science-backed." As noted in this Harvard Health blog post, most of the studies shown on the Apollo Neuro website are not related to the device. In addition, the preliminary results do not match the final, published test results. Even peer-reviewed research doesn't mean a product claim is 100% kosher, especially when many credit the co-founder as the author. Ideally, you'll have more independent reviews, although this is a problem with many portable startups.

Most reliable conclusion about experimental health products: "Here are some promising results." More research is needed." Most of your evidence is small trials that serve as clinical validation, especially if you're not talking about an FDA-regulated product. There is technically nothing illegal about Apollo Neuro and the founders' marketing. don't believe their product can help people Comment no I haven't seen worse companies.

But most people who seek help don't take the time to go through every link, read the summary, and carefully analyze the sample size and methodology of each clinical trial. You look at the number of links on a well-designed site and you think, "Oh, there's science behind this." And it's a slippery slope. Relatively harmless with Neuro, but may not be as good with other products.

I can't recommend this $400 stress reliever because it doesn't work. This is true. But as I write this review, I am more convinced than ever that something needs to change in the way science is used in the marketing of medical devices. Scientific honesty can be disadvantageous, but if your product is really good, it doesn't need to rely on gimmicks.

Agree to continue: Apollo Neuro

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a set of terms before using it; A contract that no one reads. It is impossible to read and analyze each of these contracts. But when we look at tools, we start to calculate exactly how many clicks you need to use to use them, because these are deals that most people don't read about and are certainly not negotiable.

To use the Apollo Neuron, you must pair it with an iPhone or Android smartphone. This includes the phone's terms of use, privacy policy, and other permissions you have granted. You can grant additional permissions for things like Bluetooth, notifications, background app updates, cellular data, and integration with Apple Health or Oura Ring. If you choose to share information with the service, you agree to its terms and privacy policy.

By installing Apollo Neuron, you agree to: