Magnets have been used for hundreds of years for numerous health problems, according to the National Alternative Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). Today, magnetic mattress pads, rings, strips and shoe inserts are used to alleviate various types of pain associated with conditions such as arthritis and fibromyalgia.
History
Magnetic therapy was used as far back as the third century A.D. by Greek physicians who used it as a remedy for baldness, poisoning, gout and arthritis. Magnetic devices began to surface in the United States after the Civil War. Healers of the time touted magnets as cures for liver and kidney problems, insomnia, headaches and paralysis.
Healers theorized that magnetic fields lived in the blood, and that a reduction of magnetic fields resulted in sickness. Magnets were marketed as a means of replenishing these magnetic fields. Magnetic mattresses and other magnetic apparatus continue to be used as a potential means to reduce pain.
Claims
Some manufacturers of magnetic mattress pads maintain they may help improve blood circulation and increase the blood oxygen level to boost metabolism and help alleviate fatigue. In addition, promoters claim magnetic mattress pads are an effective means of slowing the aging process, because they can lower cellular stress levels, which in turn minimizes oxidation. They are also advertised as preventing arthritis by altering the structure of calcium molecules and keeping them from accumulating on joints and bones.
Additional Assertions
The makers of therapeutic magnetic equipment including magnetic mattress pads market their products as highly effective for healing and restoring the body to a naturally balanced state. The magnets purportedly help bring a natural charge back to each body cell, restore the pH balance and promote healthy cells. Its suggested that the use of an external supply of magnetic energy keeps the body from draining its own energy resources.
Benefits
According to Harvard Medical School, current scientific evidence suggests that magnetic therapy may offer some relief from urinary incontinence (both stress and urge incontinence), may encourage the healing of some bone fractures, include the long lower leg bones (tibia), the largest wrist bone (scaphoid) and the bones in the feet (metatarsals).
Effects
According to the NCCAM the means by which magnets help to regulate the human body remain unclear. The makers of magnetic mattresses and other magnetic apparatus as well as scientific researchers believe that magnets may work by inhibiting pain signals to the brain, returning the balance between the death of old cells and the growth of new ones and improving blood flow and transporting nutrients and oxygen to tissues.
