Many people use magnet products to relieve pain. Several hundred million dollars' worth of these items is sold in the United States every year. The question remains, however, what effect magnets have on your body. No standard scientific theories support magnet therapy. The human body contains no appreciable amounts of substances that a small magnet can affect. For pain relief, however, the placebo effect explains magnetic therapy.
Magnets
Iron, nickel, and rare-earth metals such as neodymium may be both drawn to magnets and become permanently magnetized themselves. According to magnet expert Rick Hoadley, the Earth's magnetic field is .00005 tesla, a standard unit of magnetic strength, while an average therapy magnet measures about .01 tesla.
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine's powerful magnet measures 1.5 to 3 tesla. Though the MRI has 200 times the strength of therapeutic magnets, no studies suggest that it, by itself, cures a patient or relieves her pain.
Hemoglobin
An important component of blood, hemoglobin, is a molecule that contains iron. The blood uses iron to absorb oxygen in the lungs and release it in all the tissues of your body. Important as it is, iron is a tiny part of blood, constituting about .04 percent by weight.
If you take a drop of blood and hold a magnet, even a strong one, near it, you won't see any influence on the blood. Though magnetic therapy supporters suggest that magnets work by stimulating blood flow, no physical influence exists between blood and magnets to support this idea.
Studies
Several medical studies have been conducted on the ability of magnets to relieve pain. For example, the study, "Bipolar Permanent Magnets for the Treatment of Chronic Low Back Pain," in the March 8, 2000 "Journal of the American Medical Association" or JAMA, E.A. Colecott and others conclude that the magnets they used had "no effect on our small group of subjects with chronic low back pain."
On the other hand, an oft-quoted Baylor College study published in the November 1997 "Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation," found a "significant and prompt relief of pain in post-polio subjects." Most of the studies undertaken on magnet therapy find no evidence that magnets alleviate pain, and offer no solid reasons why they would.
Placebo Effect
In an observation that came out of studies on pain, the placebo effect is tied to a person's belief that a treatment will help. In the May 1994 issue of JAMA, Dr. Judith A. Turner writes, "Placebo effects influence patient outcomes after any treatment, including surgery, that the clinician and patient believe is effective."
A person's mental state affects their perception of pain. People taking sugar pills, after being told they're being given painkillers, experience pain relief. For this reason, studies involving people must be carefully screened for the placebo effect, otherwise results will be misleading.
Adverse Effects
Because magnets affect the human body very weakly, they are not believed to cause a person any harm. The American Cancer Society, for example, says that magnets are safe. On the other hand, a strong magnet may make a pacemaker or other medical implant malfunction. Also, reliance on magnetic therapy may cause serious conditions to worsen, since the user isn't getting effective treatment. Because of this, always get a doctor's advice before trying magnetic therapy.
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