A $15K Prevention for Addiction in 4 Minutes a Day

Even though it looks like an Eskimo wheelchair designed to be pulled by a sled team, the ROM exercise machine is purportedly the most effective fitness device available in the free world. Makers of this $15,000 machine claim that just 4 minutes a day on this device is equitable to a 45 to 90 minute normal workout. Sounds a little too good to be true to me, but I’m here to talk about alcoholism not to debunk fitness claims. I’ll get back to the ROM after commenting on a story from Newsweek that discusses how exercise can prevent addiction.

Newsweek has put out several good features on addiction this year and this week they have once again brought out my favorite heavy hitter of addiction science, Dr. Nora Volkow.

Volkow knows — from her own 6-mile daily runs and from her scientific experiments — that the brain literally likes physical activity. Exercise seems to invigorate neurochemicals that sense and reinforce pleasure. "In children, it's innate," she notes. "Children want to move… Why do we lose the ability to experience pleasure from physical activity?" asks Volkow. ~ Newsweek

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I guess it’s fairly common knowledge that exercise produces “feel good” brain candy, but wouldn’t take it so far as to say that the act of exercising itself is a prophylactic for addiction. My thought on the subject is that it is not so much the exercise is that it is the lifestyle and discipline necessary to adhere to a structured fitness program. An exercise routine involves discipline: a schedule, goals, and the corresponding self confidence and physical rewards are all polar opposite to an addictive lifestyle. Yes the exercise plays a role, but it is the total positive lifestyle that guards against addiction.

Just because spending fifteen grand on an exotic exercise machine and doing my 4 minute work out everyday won’t prevent the extra pounds if I watch TV eating snickers for the remaining 23 hours and 56 minutes. Ditto for addictions. The best exercise machine in the world will not ward off an addiction or relapse without a healthy lifestyle or a change in people, places, and things.

Back to the ROM. I have a theory about extremely expensive solutions that sound too good to be true. People who make these grandiose claims are either selling the product or are so embarrassed for dropping that kind of money that they refuse to admit they’ve been duped. I am sure the ROM is a quality product that works very well, but they have their target market right where they want them. There will be those that lead a healthy lifestyle, eat and do all the right things, and work out religiously that will always look good- while swearing allegiance to the ROM. Then there will be those that don't have any of these positive lifestyle habits, and because of this they will not be able to legitimately dispute the machine’s effectiveness.

Sounds as if the makers of Prometa copied their marketing plan!