Magnetism has always intrigued scholars and ordinary folk alike with its mysterious, magical seeming powers,

In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in alternative medicines or treatments. People seeking better relief than drugs can give them, or looking to treat their illness/pain without medication, are flocking to the natural alternatives being offered, including magnetic therapy. But is it a genuinely effective treatment, or simply a manipulation of the consumer's mind by slick marketing and promises that don't hold up?

Many experiments investigating the effects of external field polarization on the human body have been conducted in the last few years, trying to determine the possible benefits of the use of magnets. The pros and cons discovered by the research are being used by both sides of the argument.

The fact is that pulse magnetism has used in hospitals for many years to increase the healing of fractured bones, and many people claim that magnetic therapy has helped them. Experiments with magnetite nanopartiles were conducted in Japan with noticable reasults.

Many of those who do not believe that magnetic therapy can help tend to ignore one question:

Can you really afford not to try magnetic jewellery?

Now that you can find magnetic bracelets and other magnetic jewellery and magnetic therapy in the UK for such low prices, can you really afford not to try?

With cancer on the increase, and the increase of our dependency on pain killers, surely you should consider purchasing a magnetic bracelet or other magnetic product.

Magnetic therapy may help in the following conditions:
Arthritic pain.
Joint pain.
Knee pain.
Neck pain.
Ankle pain.
Wrist pain.
Rheumatism.
Carpel tunnel syndrome.
Tennis elbow.
Golfers elbow & injuries.
Football injuries.
Tennis injuries
Period pain.
Repetitive strain injury.
Poor circulation.
Low back pain.
Sciatica; migraine headache.
Muscle soreness.

History of magnets
and magnetic therapy

Magnets have been used to help the healing process for thousands of years in China, India, Greece and the Arabian Peninsula", and the ancient Egyptians used 'loadstones' to prolong life and improve health. Legend has it that Cleopatra wore a polished lodestone on her third eye (perhaps trying to cause the pineal gland in the brain to release melatonin), in the belief that it helped maintain her youth and beauty.

The ancient Hindus in India believed that a dying person should rest with their body aligned north and south (their head pointed north) to relieve their pain and ease their departure from this life.

The earliest written medical text, The Yellow Emperor's Book of Internal Medicine, published in China around 2,000 B.C., mentions the application of magnetic stones to correct health imbalances.

The word magnet comes from the ancient Greeks. It is thought to derive from �Magnes lithos,� meaning "stone from Magnesia," an area of Greece that was known for its volcanic rocks with magnetic attributes. The Greek philosopher Aristotle spoke about using magnets for healing therapy.

Paracelsus (1493-1541), who is considered to be the father of modern medicine, believed that the life force of the body was most influenced by the force found in magnets. He advocated using magnets to energize and influence the body's life force so as to start the healing process, treating everything from inflammation to diarrhoea to epilepsy.

In the 1600's, the use of magnetic therapy started to spread through Europe and in 1600, William Gilbert, court physician to Elizabeth I of England, published the first scientific treatise on magnetism, De Magnete. This book summarized the current knowledge about magnetism, showing, for instance, that steel holds a magnetic charge better than iron and that there is a distinction between magnetism and electricity. Gilbert was the first to describe the Earth as a huge magnet with magnetic poles close to the geographic north and south poles. He also confirmed that use of the lodestone could be "beneficial in many diseases of the human system". (The term lodestone for magnetized stones is from the Middle Ages, when the lodestone -- "guiding stone" -- was used in compasses by sailors as a navigational tool.)

Franz Anton Mesmer, an 18th-century mathematician and physician, wrote his doctoral thesis on the effects of gravitational fields on human health. He proposed that there was magnetic energy flowing throughout the universe and inside the body as well. Mesmer thought that the body had magnetic poles and that illness was caused by these poles moving out of alignment with the universal magnetic flow. He experimented with using magnets to treat seizures and other conditions.

Around 1800, Alessandro Volta constructed the first battery (made of silver, moist cardboard, and zinc), which produced a small, steady electric current. Further experiments with electricity by Andre-Marie Ampere, Michael Faraday, and others, established the link between magnetism and electricity. Faraday demonstrated that a magnet in motion could produce electricity and that the flow of electricity produces a magnetic field. This was confirmed by Scottish scientist James Maxwell, who showed that light was an electromagnetic phenomenon as well.

The publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in 1818 certainly shows that electricity was very much �in the air� during this period. This gothic romance, about bringing the dead to life, reflected an interest at this time in using electromagnetism as a therapy. Reanimation devices - using electricity in much the same way as defibrillators are used in hospitals today to jumpstart the heart - became popular and were successfully used for heart arrhythmias, angina, and curvature of the spine. Magnetic boots, rings, girdles, and caps, as well as magnetic ointments were available in mail-order catalogues. Daniel Palmer founded Palmer's School of Magnetic Cure in Davenport, Iowa, which taught massage techniques, spinal manipulations, and use of magnets in healing therapies -- this later evolved into modern chiropractic.

The discovery of the electron at the end of the 19th century moved electromagnetism to the atomic level, demonstrating that all matter is essentially electric in nature. Finally, Albert Einstein, in postulating his theory of relativity, showed that electricity and magnetism are not discrete phenomena, but different aspects of the same phenomenon. Medical textbooks at this time included magnetism and electricity as therapeutic alternatives for mental disorders in particular and other conditions as well. It was recommended for convulsions, insomnia, migraine, fatigue, arthritis, and pain. Magnet therapy fell into disfavour following World War II with the development of antibiotics and biochemistry-based medicine.

Today, magnet therapy is seeing a resurgence in use and is an officially approved therapy in over 45 countries worldwide.

How does magnetic therapy work?

The human body is electromagnetic, being composed largely of charged particles such as atoms, electrons, protons, and ions (e.g. potassium, sodium, etc.). These all perform vital life functions.

When a magnet is placed on the body there may be a temporary increase in the magnetic force on the atoms composing the cells of his/her body in the area of the focal point. The force may results in a higher velocity of some of the orbiting electrons. This increase in velocity of some electrons and not others causes precession or wobble of an atom and a higher charge on the valence electrons. Combined, the higher velocity and increased charge, leads to enhanced electron transfer. Electron transfer is the basic action in all chemical reactions in the body.

So, the magnet may act as a catalyst to improve chemical reactions occurring in the human body. This possibly improves a variety of body functions in the area under the magnet, such as oxygen carrying capacity, assimilation of nutrients, manufacture of enzymes, metabolic waste removal, reduction of free radicals, tissue regeneration, and most importantly healing. The rate of healing may be accelerated to be much faster than the typical healing rate of the human body.

Articles about magnetic therapy

Magnetic Field Therapy: Professional and Personal Observations
By Dr. Edward Friedler, MD

I use magnetic products and I recommend magnetic products to my patients. I sponsored an introductory lecture on Magnetic Field Therapy to other family physicians. Is this professional heresy, or open mindedness with the interest of my patients coming first.

My formal training in Family Practice required exposure to all the traditional medical and surgical specialties. A family physician must have a wide array of management options for his or her patients. In spite of years of training and clinical experience, it is unfortunately not unusual for my "bay of tricks " to be unsatisfactory or empty! Because it is anathema for me to tell patients "There is nothing more I can do for you," I have referred some to chiropractors and not discouraged others seeking help through other "alternative" providers. And now, I am one too!

I use magnetic products for a variety of ailments. Because I see people in the setting of a medical office, there is an expectation that any treatment is recommended after a working diagnosis is made. In other words, I listen to and examine my patients and get appropriate lab information and x-rays first. Once the data is collected and considered and a working diagnosis made, I then organized a discussion on treatment options. For the person complaining of fatigue, I treat anemia with iron and vitamins, not a magnet. For a person with achy legs and low potassium, I treat with potassium, not a magnet. Yet there are times when iron, potassium, aspirin, or a narcotic pain pill are not the appropriate remedies, or are not enough. In these cases, I encourage my patients to try a magnet. Let me share some success stories.

Cancer: Dr. F was diagnosed with cancer at age 41. After three months of chemotherapy, he decided that because the track record for chemotherapy was poor, it would be crazy to not add other modalities to his own treatment. Since his oncologist was concerned with chemotherapy dosing, and didn't know about other treatments, Dr. F on his own added Magnetic Field Therapy, via a magnetic mattress pad, seat pads in the office and home, and a large magnet worn against the lower spine. (Dr. F added other "modalities" over the next few months.) He experienced fewer negative side effects of chemotherapy, to the surprise of his oncologist. He lived, and still lives to tell about it, I am happy to say, because Dr. F is me!

Arthritis: I remember Mrs. R whose knee joint had no cartilage. No medicine prescribed by me or other doctors had helped her. I taped a small magnet to her knee after a physical exam, and left the room while she got dressed. When I came back to minutes later, she was bending her knee in disbelief; it didn't hurt. The arthritis wasn't gone, but the severe pain was.

Fractured rib: Mr. E had fallen and broken a rib; his oncologist had given him Percocet for pain. He came in to see me, saying the rib still hurt and the drug made him feel bad. I advised him to place a magnet where the pain was causing him discomfort. He later told me the diminishment pain was "instantaneous." The rib still broken, but he was able to discontinue the Percocet. When he broke another rib two months later, he used a magnet first.

Brown recluse spider bite: Mr. W was bitten by a brown recluse spider. He had a one inch ulcer on his lower leg that was not healing. It hurt, too. We taped a magnet over the ulcer. The pain was less and it began to heal up quickly. The magnet, while he used it decreased the pain.

Swollen eye: A boy had been hit in the face by a baseball. His eyelids were swollen. He had already used ice. I gave him a mini magnet and told him to use it where the sting occured. The swelling was gone the next day. I was surprised.

Shoulder pain: Dr. Q was experiencing a nagging pain in her shoulder for more than three months. She attended the lecture on Magnetic Field Therapy. During this event she held a magnet to her shoulder. The next morning, her shoulder was normal and the pain was gone. My own theory is she used the magnet on her own. (At that same meeting, another doctor used a magnet on a painful knee, which had been through many drugs and physical therapy. The next day, she came to my office for a second magnet, because it was helping her so much.)

Tiredness: When all the tests are normal, doctors often diagnose depression for tired people. Some respond to antidepressant treatment. For Ms. E, magnetic shoe insoles worked. She even returned to her karate class.

As a physician I prefer to understand as fully as possible the workings and applications of Magnetic Field Therapy. I study this in my own practice. I tell my patients about magnets, and I show them the Magnetic Field Therapy Handbook as a guide to usage. I have not had anyone say, "No thanks, I would rather suffer." I am grateful to have Magnetic Field Therapy as a positive intervention for helping the patients in my medical practice.

Source: The Rion Research website.

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May the Force Be With You
By Sierra Senyak

James Emerson was no stranger to pain. A lifetime of diving for volleyballs and racing around tennis courts had left the 68-year-old Del Mar, California resident with a multitude of complaints, chief among them a severe and steadily worsening osteoarthritis in his left knee. For decades, Emerson played through the pain and tried every remedy his doctors recommended. But by the spring of 2003, it wasn�t just his game that was suffering: He hurt so much he was barely able to walk, and he had trouble falling asleep. �On a scale of one to ten, my pain was at about nine or ten,� he says. His doctor told him he had no options left other than knee replacement surgery. As a last resort, Emerson went to visit integrative physician Robert Bonakdar in San Diego.. �What else have you got?� he asked.

Plenty, it turns out. Bonakdar, director of pain management at the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine, recommended several therapies, including treatment with an electromagnetic device called the Magnatherm. At the first of what would be twice-weekly sessions for three months, Emerson sat next to a machine with two long arms that, in place of hands, had two big drums. Bonakdar positioned the drums on either side of the aching knee and switched on the machine, sending electromagnetic waves back and forth through the joint at a rate of thousands of pulses per second.

Emerson felt little more than a deep penetrating heat, but the results were dramatic: His pain level took a nosedive, he began sleeping soundly through the night, and he reappeared on the tennis courts. He found even more relief when he tried another device Bonakdar uses called the BioniCare BIO-1000. Unlike the Magnatherm, the BIO-1000 wraps around the knee like a brace and generates an electrical field. Studies have found that it not only eases pain, but may actually build up cartilage�what Emerson and other arthritis patients so desperately need.

Emerson first road-tested the BIO-1000 treatment on a hiking trip with his grandchildren. �I�d been on the same trip the year before, and I had barely been able to take care of myself, let alone carry grandkids around,� he says. �But this time around, I was just as vigorous as I�d been ten or 15 years earlier�and these were heavier grandkids!�

Emerson was lucky to have come across a doctor who knows about tools like Magnatherm and the BIO-1000. Unlike their counterparts in Europe, most physicians in the United States either aren�t aware of electromagnetic therapies or tend to view them as moneymaking schemes hawked on late-night TV. But research suggests it�s time to start paying attention. Some of the newer technologies are performing well in double-blind placebo-controlled trials. And patients around the globe, particularly in Europe, are successfully being treated not just for pain, but for arthritis, multiple sclerosis, insomnia, depression, and migraines.

What makes these devices so remarkable is that they may eventually constitute a whole new type of medicine, according to the handful of U.S. experts who have embraced their use. �In the next decade, certain bioelectromagnetic therapies will likely replace drugs once they�re found to be safer and more effective for various conditions,� says Paul J. Rosch, a clinical professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College and senior editor of the book Bioelectromagnetic Medicine.

Admittedly, it�s a hard field to get a handle on, partly because there are so many devices out there�from the unit you buy on your own and strap around your wrist to the one as big as a washing machine you have to visit your doctor to use. Some of the devices send out pulsed fields; others, constant ones. Some emit electromagnetic fields strong enough to power a light bulb, whereas others are very mild.

And it�s true that scientists don�t fully understand how electromagnetic devices affect the diseases they�re designed to treat. Theories vary from device to device and condition to condition, but Abraham R. Liboff, a researcher in the field and a physics professor at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, says it all boils down to good communication�among cells, that is. �Communication is one of cells� key functions, and the way they talk to each other can be chemical or electrical,� he says. �Electromagnetic fields affect the nature of the way cells signal each other.�

Yet it�s still not clear exactly how helping cells communicate would trigger the many effects reportedly seen when bodies are exposed to electromagnetic fields, including increased blood flow, spikes in the levels of brain chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin, and ramped-up production of the energy molecule ATP. One theory is that the energy creates heat deep in the muscles, which gooses blood flow into the joint, improving oxygen delivery and carting off toxins that have built up in the inflamed areas.

Another reason the devices have been slow to win acceptance is the field�s unsavory reputation. Although electricity and magnets have a long history in medicine (one of the earliest references is from 46 A.D., when a Roman physician described treating headache patients by having them stand in shallow water alongside electric rays), much of it hasn�t exactly been grounded in hard science.

In one of the most infamous cases, a group of eminent 18th-century thinkers that included Benjamin Franklin exposed the popular Austrian doctor Franz Mesmer as a fraud. Well-to-do Parisians had been flocking to Mesmer�s �magnetic healing salon,� but the group�s experiments found that the doctor�s results, which he attributed to his own �animal magnetism,� were in fact due to the placebo effect.

Even today, some manufacturers of electromagnetic devices say their product can cure anything that ails you�without offering any credible support for their claims. Marko Markov, a physicist and coeditor of Bioelectromagnetic Medicine, puts it bluntly: �If you go to Google and type in �magnetic field therapy,� you�ll get hundreds, if not thousands, of websites, of which 99.99 percent offer information that is misleading or wrong,� he says. �If I had the power, I�d put all these people in jail.�

But while even Bonakdar acknowledges there are some bad apples out there, he says research supporting the good ones is starting to pile up. In studies published in reputable journals, like Sleep and Bioelectromagnetics, electromagnetic devices helped chronic insomniacs fall asleep faster and sleep longer and more deeply than those given fake treatments. A technique known as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is showing promise in treating people with severe depression that doesn�t respond to medication. In some studies, patients receiving rTMS have fared just as well as those getting shock therapy, a last-ditch treatment.

Multiple studies have shown that a technology known as Pulsed Signal Therapy can decrease the pain of arthritis, perhaps by rebuilding cartilage. And another device, known as the EnerMed, has eased symptoms of migraine and multiple sclerosis in five studies involving a total of more than 700 people.

Unfortunately, what sets these devices apart from the ones that make quack watchers� lists isn�t easy to determine. The only way to evaluate safety and efficacy, says Rosch, is to study a particular device for a particular condition. So acceptance of this approach to healing will likely happen on a case-by-case basis.

One researcher who�s studied the EnerMed extensively, radiology professor Todd Richards of the University of Washington in Seattle, says he�s been impressed with study findings, but was even more convinced by his own experience with the device. Ten years ago, Richards began getting migraines, particularly after eating certain foods, or when he sat under various types of lights (especially fluorescent ones), or worked near particular pieces of computer equipment.

The migraines announced themselves with flashing, swirling lights in one corner of his field of vision, or sometimes with a sudden darkening of half his range of vision. �I would be looking at somebody and all of a sudden I could only see half the person�s face�the rest was black,� he says. �I knew what was coming. I would excuse myself and go take massive doses of medication.�

The anti-migraine drugs he took would dull the pain, but they did nothing to quell the nausea. As soon as he felt a migraine coming on, Richards would hurry home to ride out the worst part of the headache, which lasted four or five hours, in the privacy of his own bathroom.

Richards tried changing the lighting and computer equipment in his home and office, and avoided his trigger foods, but nothing seemed to work. Then, several years into his battle with migraines, he came across an ad for the EnerMed, a wristwatch-size device programmed to emit certain frequencies tailored to each individual patient. Richards was curious and decided to give it a try.

For him, it turned out to be a cure. �In the first month I noticed a change,� he says. �My migraines didn�t go away all at once, but each month they�d get a little bit better the headaches would be less frequent and less severe.� He continues to wear the EnerMed, and now says he hasn�t had a migraine in two years. What�s more, he�s no longer allergic to his office: �I�m sitting under a fluorescent light right now.�

But Is It Safe?

To those worried about power lines outside their homes or whether or not cell phones cause brain cancer, exposing oneself to electromagnetic fields for the sake of health sounds absurd. Long-term safety studies are indeed needed to prove that electromagnetic treatments are completely safe, but experts note that they�ve been used in Europe for decades, with no reported increased risk of cancer in patients who use them regularly. And physician Robert Bonakdar notes that electromagnetic therapies are quite different from the �electropollution� that surrounds modern humans. �These therapies tend to be at an intensity that penetrates just a few inches,� says Bonakdar. �It�s not something that�s going to go ten feet, bounce off a wall, and gather strength until it becomes a perpetual force. It�s focused and short term.� In other words, not to worry.

Tracking Electromagnetic Devices

Experts warn that effective electromagnetic treatments are outnumbered by unproven�but well-advertised�devices. Finding out which is which will take research and some guidance from a health professional. If you�re interested in a particular device, physician Robert Bonakdar advises asking the company the following questions:

� How long has the device been on the market?
� Is it FDA approved?
If so, for treating what condition?
� Has the device ever been used in a scientific study? Have the results been published in a scientific journal? (If yes, ask the company to send you a copy.) Once you�ve done some research, ask your doctor to give you an opinion. Even barring direct experience with electromagnetic treatments, he or she may be able to give you feedback on the quality of the research, or refer you to someone who can.

Devices to know about:

NeoControl: A seat emits pulsed magnetic fields to treat certain types of urinary incontinence. It�s available only by prescription, and you must go to a doctor�s office to be treated with it.

Source: The Alternative medicine website