Magnetic therapy is the therapeutic use of magnets to treat the pain associated with a variety of medical conditions. The documented use of magnets to treat pain goes back at least as far as the ancient Greeks. For thousands upon thousands of years, magnetic therapy has been used by alternative health care practitioners, accepted by some patients, and met mostly with skepticism by medical authorities and researchers.
Background
Third-century Greek healers were using magnets to treat arthritis and stop bleeding. In Europe in the middle ages, doctors removed iron foreign objects from the body and also treated arthritis, baldness and poisoning with magnets. Later on, in post-civil war United States, magnetic therapy was used to treat medical problems as diverse as stomachaches and kidney ailments. Today, magnets are most often promoted as a treatment for various types of pain, particularly back pain
Conventional medical experts, who generally view magnetic therapy as quackery, have always scorned magnetism as a healing science. Yet throughout the ages, many well known physicians, such as the sixteenth century German-Swiss physician Paracelsus, who introduced the science of chemistry to the field of medicine, have also been proponents of the use of healing magnets.
Claims
Based on the knowledge that our bodies have an electromagnetic nature, early practitioners of magnetic therapy claimed that some people suffer from "magnetic deficiency" because the earth has lost some of its own electromagnetic field over time. Others say magnets increase blood flow, thereby improving circulation and bringing more oxygen and nutrients to body organs.
These claims were based on the belief that the negative pole of a magnet produces magnetic fields that have the power to relieve pain from headaches, arthritis and back problems and heal certain medical conditions when placed over the diseased part of the body.
Techniques
Practitioners of magnetic therapy attach thin static magnets to the body via necklaces, bracelets, bands and belts. In modern times, magnets have also been used in patch form, shoe inserts, blankets and mattress covers.
Science
There is little scientific proof that magnets improve blood flow or alleviate pain in the ways in which they have historically been promoted. In some cases, however, the evidence is mixed.
A study from Nashville's Vanderbilt University Medical School, published in 2002 in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, found that magnetic devices reduced pain in people with rheumatoid arthritis and chronic knee pain.
On the other hand, a small study of 20 patients performed at the Prescott, Arizona Veteran's Affairs Medical Center and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2000 found no effect from magnets on lower back pain. Another study from the Mayo Clinic published in JAMA in 2003 found no effect from magnets on heel pain.
Legalities
Commercially-manufactured magnetic products labeled with claims of health benefits are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the FDA and Federal Trade Commission have filed lawsuits against manufacturers and retailers of therapeutic magnetic devices because of false or unproven health claims. The FDA says, however, that magnets used in a clinical setting for magnetic therapy are generally safe.
Warnings
Magnets may interfere with the effectiveness of medical devices such as pacemakers, defibrillators and infusion pumps. If you have had any of these devices installed, speak to your doctor before participating in any type of magnetic therapy.
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