by Eva Gizowska

Fitness • Health • Beauty

Worried that your mobile phone could be frazzling your brain, or that your computer is sapping your energy? According to the manufacturers of a small black pendant embedded with what looks like a mini circuit board, wearing a QLink could be just the protection you're looking for.

U2's Adam Clayton, the England rugby star Jeremy Guscott and Hollywood veteran Dennis Hopper, are apparently QLink fans. All believe their sci-fi looking pendants may offer natural protection against harmful electromagnetic fields (EMFs) produced by computers, mobile phones and other sources of man-made electromagnetic radiation. Each pendant contains a specially encoded resonating cell, tuning board and a copper coil.

According to the manufacturers, the QLink strengthens the body's natural energy field so that it can counteract the potential negative effect of EMFs, including headaches, fatigue, nervous tension, even jet lag. Wearing a QLink is also supposed to help concentration and energy levels.

Does it all sound too good to be true? Well, professional opinion on its efficacy is divided. "The best way to explain how the pendant works is to compare it to a tuning fork." Says Soo Chin, head of research and development at QLink in San Francisco. "Imagine two tuning forks. If you strike the first one, it will begin to vibrate. This is called sympathetic resonance. In the case of the QLink, your body acts like the original tuning fork. It vibrates and sends out energy. The QLink is like the second tuning fork. It balances and strengthens the personal energy field, causing it to expand and create a bigger field of protection."

There's certainly plenty of anecdotal evidence to support the pendant's potential benefits. Take Ben Wallace, an investment analyst who used to take 12 Nurofen a day. "Up until two years ago, I used to suffer from truly terrible headaches, which I believe were caused by sitting in front of two computer screens all day. Then a friend suggested I try wearing a QLink," he said. "I must admit I was extremely doubtful at the time, but I thought I might as well give it a try. Since wearing it, I have had only one headache. I haven't a clue how it works, but it seems to have worked for me."

Rose Montgomery, operations manager at Eidos Interactive, in London, is another convert. "My job entails sitting in front of the computer for up to 12 hours a day. I also use two mobile phones. I had constant headaches, ringing in my ears and my whole body felt wired al the time. I've been wearing the QLink for three months and my energy levels and concentration are back, and I no longer get headaches."

Dr Tykeeta Reye of the Whole Health Clinic in Denver, Colorado recently carried out a study using a computron — a machine used on acupuncture points to measure energy fluctuations. The study showed that after using a hair dryer, the EMF stress response exhibited by the body reverted to normal when a QLink was worn for two minutes, and in some cases the body's base energy level improved noticeably. However, many scientists remain unconvinced that there is a problem with EMFs emitted from everyday appliances as mobile phones and microwaves. In Britain, the National Radiological Protection Board, for example, maintains that the evidence for a link between electromagnetic fields and health problems such as cancer is weak.

On the other hand, revolutionary research by Roger Coghill, a biologist based in Wales who has been studying the effects of EMFs for more than 20 years, and his wife, Tamara Galonja-Coghill, a microbiologist, shows that every living creature has a unique electromagnetic field. "All living creatures emit electrical living fields," says Coghill. "Scientists are just beginning top realize how important these are for wellbeing. Unfortunately, as a result of modern technologies, we're being increasingly exposed to all kinds of radiation that can disturb and weaken our electromagnetic fields. This interferes with and lowers immunity."
According to Coghill, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that certain devices, such as QLink may have the capability of negating the effects of EMFs. However, hearsay is not enough. "In order to prove that a device like QLink works, you need to carry out controlled studies," says Coghill.

Dr Anthony Barker, a consultant scientist at the department of medical physics and clinical engineering at the Royal Hallamshire hospital, Sheffield, remains highly skeptical. He carried out several tests on the QLink in 1998 — a visual inspection, an xray, an electrical conductivity test and finally he took it apart with a Stanley knife. He was not impressed and dismissed it as a high-tech-looking gadget with no quantifiable benefits. "I can conceive of no technology that you would wear around your neck that could stop the radio-frequency energy from a mobile phone getting into your head," he said. "And if you did stop that energy, then surely the mobile phone wouldn't work."