Articles on Magnetic Therapy

New York Times–December 1997

Study on Using Magnets to Treat Pain Surprises Skeptics
A small trial raises hope, but it is not the last word
By Lawrence K. Altman, M.D

No one was more skeptical about using magnets for pain relief than Dr. Carlos Vallbona, former chairman of the department of community medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

So Dr. Vallbona was amazed when a study he did found that small, low intensity magnets worked, at least for patients experiencing symptoms that can develop years after polio.

Dr. Vallbona had long been fascinated by testimonials about magnets from his patients, and even from medical leaders. But his interest in magnet therapy became more serious in 1994 when he and a colleague, Carlton F. Hazlewood, tried them for their own knee pain. The pain was gone in minutes. "That was too good to be true," Dr. Vallbona said.

Dr. Vallbona knew that the power of suggestion can fool both patient and doctor. But he also wondered; could strapping small, low intensity magnets to the most sensitive areas of the body for several minutes relieve chronic muscular and joint pains among patients in his post polio clinic at Baylor's Institute for Rehabilitation Research.

Valid studies could allow consumers to make informed choices. And if magnet therapy were found to be safe and effective, it could relieve pain with fewer drugs.

Endorsements from professional athletes are one reason Americans spend large sums on magnets to seek pain relief. But most doctors take a "buyer beware" attitude because many claims lack scientific proof or explanation of how they might work. The Food and Drug Administration has warned doctors and manufacturers about health claims for magnets.

Aware of the medical profession's skepticism about magnet therapy, Dr. Vallbona sought to conduct science's most rigorous type of study. Participants would agree to allow the investigators to randomly assign them to groups getting treatment with active magnets or sham devices. But neither the patients nor the doctors treating them would know what therapy was used on which patient.

First, Dr. Vallbona informally tested magnets on a few patients. One was a priest with post-polio syndrome who celebrated mass with difficulty due to marked back pain that prevented him from raising his left hand. After applying a magnet for a few minutes the pain was gone, Dr. Vallbona recalled, and, "the priest said this was a miracle."

Then a human experimentation committee allowed Dr. Vallbona to test 50 volunteers with magnets that at 300 to 500 gauss, were slightly stronger than refrigerator magnets. They were made in different sizes so they could fit over the anatomic area identified as setting off their pain.

It was difficult to design a system to prevent participants from learning whether they were being treated with a magnet or a sham.

So Dr. Vallbona asked Magnaflex Inc., a magnet manufacturer in Corpus Christi, Tx., to prepare active magnets and inactive devices that could not be told apart. The devices were labeled in code.

As a further precaution, a staff member observed the patients throughout the 45-minute period of therapy to make sure they would not try to find out by testing with a paper clip, say - what treatment they were receiving.

After the investigators identified the source of the pain and then pressed on it, the 39 women and 11 men in the study graded the pain on a scale of 0 (none) to 10 (worst). Then after the experimental treatment, the participants rated their pain in a standard questionnaire. The volunteers were tested only one time.

The 29 who received an active magnet reported a reduction in pain to 4.4 from 9.6 compared with a smaller decline to 8.4 from 9.6 among the 21 treated with a sham magnet.

The Baylor scientists emphasized that their study applied only to pain from the post-polio condition. Nevertheless, their report in last month's issue of Archives of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, a leading specialty journal, has shocked many doctors who have scoffed at claims for magnets' medical benefits.

In an article about magnet therapy for chronic pain published five months ago, Dr. William Jarvis, a professor of public health and preventative medicine at Loma Linda University in California and president of the National Council Against Health Fraud, dismissed magnet therapy as "essentially quackery."

Now, Dr. Jarvis said in an interview, the Baylor study changed his mind. "But like any other pilot study, it needs to be replicated," he said.

Dr. Vallbona's findings have let him to try to carry out a larger study in several medical centers, and they are expected to lead other investigators to conduct their own studies.

Dr. Lauro S. Halstead of the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, a pioneer in studying the post-polio syndrome, was among experts who said that further studies were needed to answer questions like: Will various strength magnets produce different degrees of benefit? how long does the pain relief last? Will the effect wear off after multiple applications? For what other conditions might magnets work?

At the University of Virginia, Ann Gill Taylor's team last month began recruiting 105 volunteers with fibromyalgia, a painful muscle condition of unknown cause, to test magnetic sleep pads.

Like the Baylor study, the volunteers and doctors are not told whether the subject will be sleeping on an active or sham magnet. Participants are told that if they try to determine whether their treatment is with a magnet or a sham one, it could ruin the study. But Dr. Taylor said there was no way to prevent cheating.

Dr. Taylor said she also planned to conduct studies of possible uses of magnets in relieving phantom limb and stump pain among amputees.

Dr. Vallbona said he did not know why magnets worked for many post-polio patients but not for others, or why some said they felt improvement in areas of the body far distant from where the magnet was applied.

Magnets' medical benefits have been proclaimed for centuries. So why has it taken so long to do studies to begin to answer the questions? The reasons involve economic, political, professional and human factors.

Many doctors criticize the lucrative magnet industry for not investing in studies the way drug companies often do. "They don't do simple research." Dr. Jarvis said, and "it is hard to imagine an easier study to conduct than a magnet one for pain."

Yet doctors share the responsibility to do such research, and only rarely have they reported undertaking the scientifically controlled studies needed to settle major disputes about reported therapies.

In many such debates, doctors demand a biological explanation for a therapy's benefits. Without documentation that satisfies them, doctors may summarily reject the claims. Yet in their everyday practices, the same doctors may use other therapies that lack scientific proof for why they work.

Scientists working in nonprofit medical schools and university hospitals are strongly influenced by economics because they need government grants to pay for their overhead. Since scientific success is measured in part by the dollar amount of their grants, doctors tend not to pay for their studies, even if they are relatively inexpensive.

The Baylor study was exceptional. It was done without a grant. Had it been done with government aid, Dr. Vallbona said, it would have cost about $50,000 dollars. Magnaflex provided the active and inactive magnets free, the doctors donated their time and insurance companies were not charged for magnet therapy.

Until recently government agencies and the scientists who judge applications to them have tended not to support studies on magnets and other therapies on the fringe.

The reluctance is well founded. Over history, so many claims for popular remedies have failed to hold up that many doctors are reluctant to put aside a promising project of their own to study something that may well turn out to be a fad.

Scientists are heavily influenced by peer pressure. Senior scientists often discourage younger investigators from replicating another group's studies because doing so is less likely to advance their careers than making novel findings.

But in an age of medical consumerism, patient demand is changing some research agendas. For instance, the National Institutes of Health has created an office of alternative medicine, which is paying for magnet studies at the University of Virginia.

In tackling fringe areas, scientists usually know they are stepping in deep water, risking scorn from colleagues who believe that what they are studying is theoretically unsound at best and quackery at worst. Even so, many with the courage may not know how deep the waters are.

USA Today–Section: SPORTS

Wed., Aug. 20, 1997

Ironclad cures for pain?
Athletes put their faith in power of magnets
By Sal Ruibal

Denver Broncos linebacker Bill Romanowski KO's quarterbacks, then sleeps like a baby on a magnetic mattress pad.

Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu throws a wicked split-finger fastball with dozens of magnets stuck to his body.

Senior PGA Tour golfer Jim Colbert swings for the greens with dollar bill-sized magnets strapped to his lower back.

Magnetic therapy is the hottest trend among professional athletes. But the idea of using magnetic fields to increase blood circulation in injured tissue and encourage healing by stimulating the nervous system goes back thousands of years to ancient Greece and Egypt. The original Olympic athletes might have used magnets.

And in the same way that today's top athletes influence fashion and language, their eagerness to embrace alternative healing techniques is influencing the public: U.S. consumers will spend more than $500 million this year on magnetic pads, bracelets, shoe inserts, back wraps and seat cushions, the magnet companies say.

The trend is so lucrative, athletes are adding brand-name magnets to their list of endorsements, along with sneakers and soda pops.

Colbert, top money winner on the PGA Senior Tour the last two years, endorses Tectonic Magnets. Pro Bowl linebacker Romanowski works for BIOflex Magnets. Former San Francisco 49er Ronnie Lott, now a football analyst for the Fox TV network, is a spokesman for and part-owner of BioMagnetics International.

Romanowski began using magnets seven years ago while a member of the 49ers but didn't take them seriously. The team trainer had recommended them, but it was not until Romanowski had offseason surgery that he adopted the idea.

``I'm a believer, definitely,'' he says. ``The first time I tried them, I got pain relief. It wasn't mental. I know it wasn't mental because I know my body.''

Because they know their bodies, it's natural that top athletes would be attracted to alternative therapies, says Dinnie Pearson, a Cranial-Sacral therapist with the Mind/Body Center in King of Prussia, Pa.

``Athletes use a lot of mental imagery, visualizing the correct muscle movements for their sport,'' Pearson says. ``They can use that same powerful tool for healing, contacting injured areas to focus on that tissue to help it in the natural healing process.''

Gregg Westwood, a somatic psychotherapist at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colo., says, ``Athletes are more courageous about taking the kinds of risks that lead to understanding how their bodies work.''

San Diego Padres trainer Larry Duensing says few of his players use magnets on a regular basis, but some, notably outfielder Chris Jones, have tried them to rid soreness. ``It's just another tool available to them,'' Duensing says.

Although the Padres aren't big on magnets, they have turned to acupuncture.

The Chiba Lotte Marines, Irabu's former team in Japan, attended spring training this season with the Padres. The Marines' trainers, observing the big-league operation and trainers, introduced the Padres to acupuncture.

General manager Kevin Towers became a convert when acupuncture helped alleviate his back pain, and he had an acupuncturist travel with the team earlier this year. The team credits the therapy with helping second baseman Quilvio Veras get over hamstring problems.

``I think it's great,'' Towers says. ``I know it worked on me. It blocks the nerve endings and takes the pain away. It's very relaxing. I'd go back.''

Not understanding how an alternative therapy works is no roadblock for jocks in search of relief, but it can be for the federal government.

Magnetic therapy has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but the National Institutes of Health are investigating the phenomenon.

The NIH Office of Alternative Medicine, which was created only five years ago, is funding a study of magnetic therapy at the University of Virginia's School of Nursing.

Broncos safety Steve Atwater isn't waiting for the scientists to bless his magnets.

``I don't know what it is, but it works,'' the 30-year-old, seven-time Pro Bowl player says. ``I figure it can't hurt me, and it may help me.''

Contributing: Jim Lassiter

Reporting by Sal Ruibal and Tammi Wark, USA TODAY

Natural Health Magazine, August, 1998

Natural Healing—By Sarah Fremerman

New Evidence is giving credence to this curious form of pain relief—and may be silencing long-time critics in the process.

Meet Magnet, P.I.

In 1993, a patient of Carlos Vallbona, M.D., told him that a cushion made with small magnets had cured his lower back pain. Vallbona was skeptical. “I thought it was a psychological effect,” he recalls. “There was nothing in the scientific literature that indicated magnets were helpful.”

At the time, most scientists would have agreed and some, like William Jarvis, Ph.D., executive director of the National Council Against Health Fraud, still do. “There’s a lot of huckstering going on,” Jarvis says. “Marketers are making extravagant claims for which there is no evidence.”

Physicians and scientists ridiculed magnet therapy with good reason. Until last year, there was not a speck of scientific evidence showing that magnets did what patients–and magnet manufacturers–claimed they did. In fact, one informal study, conducted at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York in 1991 by physical therapist Benjamin Gelfand, tracked a group of 24 patients suffering from bursitis, tendonitis, and lower back pain. The patients wore magnets 12 hours a day for up to six weeks and none experienced any pain relief that could be attributed to the magnets. Gelfand concluded that magnet therapy merited no further investigation.

But magnet therapy wouldn’t go away. Anecdotal evidence continued to mount, despite the inability of science to explain how magnets worked. Chronic pain sufferers like Vallbona’s patient, went on claiming that magnets worked for them. Consider these three stories:

•Golfer Jim Colbert’s chronic back pain forced him to quit playing professionally. Then a fellow player recommended magnet therapy. “When you have the kind of back I have, you try anything,” says Colbert, who returned to professional golf four years later. He now straps several magnets to his back when he plays and sleeps on a magnetic mattress pad every night. Today he is one of the top–ranked players on the circuit.

•Ryan Vermillion, physical therapist and athletic trainer for the Miami Dolphins, says he regularly treats football players with magnets, including quarterbacks Craig Erickson and Dan Marino. Vermillion says that although there’s no way to be sure magnets are helping the players’ injuries to heal more quickly, he has noticed differences since he started treating them with magnets three years ago.

“The players are saying they’re feeling better, but there are also objective things,” Vermillion explains. “After applying the magnets you will get some decrease in swelling, or changes in post–surgical swelling or hematomas. You can actually see the swelling decrease faster.”

•Gail Banta of Weymouth, Mass., suffered from bursitis in her hips and arthritis in her back for 11 years. She had fibromyalgia, a painful neuro-muscular condition whose cause is unknown. When her husband told her what he had heard about magnets from a hunting guide in Canada, she decided to order a magnetic mattress pad. The result astonished her.

“In one week of sleeping on the pad, my backache was gone.” Banta says she had been taking 12 pills a day for pain since the onset of her condition and that she had stopped needing them within two weeks of purchasing the mattress pad. (She was so impressed that she became a distributor for a Japanese magnet company that sells products in the United States).

Facts in Favor

After hearing story after story like these from his patients, Vallbona, the director of the Post–Polio Clinic at the Institute for Rehabilitation and Research, affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, was interested enough to attend a 1994 conference on the effects of magnetic fields. What he learned led him to suspect there might be something to magnet therapy after all. He and his colleague Carleton Hazelwood, M.D., designed a double–blind study to test the effect of magnets on 50 patients suffering from pain associated with post–polio syndrome. What he found piqued the interest of even the staunchest critics of magnet therapy.

In the study, Vallbona examined the effects of one specific type of magnet known as a “concentric circles” magnet. He had some subjects hold these permanent magnets (permanent magnets have a static magnetic field) on points where they felt the most intense pain, and others hold inactive magnets. All were told to keep them in place for 45 minutes. After the magnets were removed, seventy–five percent of the patients who used active magnets reported a significant reduction in pain. Only 19 percent of the patients in the control group, however, experienced even a small decrease in pain. No side effects were reported. Vallbona published these results in the November 1997 issue of the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Vallbona’s study did not explore how long this effect might last, but he has continued to follow the progress of participants, and the preliminary results look promising. “Many patients reported that the effect lasted not only hours, but days, weeks, even months in some cases,” he says. “So we have the impression that the relief brought about by the magnets is lasting longer than relief by painkilling drugs.”

Vallbona is no the only researcher finding promising results. In a controlled setting, neurobiologist Alvaro Pascual–Leone, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School treated 17 severely depressed patients with a technique called “rapid–rate transcranial magnetic stimulation.” The treatment involves using an electromagnet–produced by running an electric current through a coil of wire–to stimulate the activities of certain areas of the brain. After five daily sessions of the treatment, 11 of the 17 patients showed a marked improvement that lasted for two weeks after the treatments and no on reported significant adverse effects. Pascual–Leone published his findings in the July 1996 issue of the Lancet.

Several related studies on electromagnetic brain stimulation, including one at the National Institutes of Health, are currently exploring the use of this technique to treat a range of neurological disorders, including epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and even learning disabilities. Ann Gill Taylor, director of the Center for the Study of Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Charlottesville, Virginia, has just begun a year–long study designed to investigate the effect of using static magnetic fields to treat 100 patients suffering from fibromyalgia.

Although intrigued by research results, Gelfand and Jarvis say they are still waiting for more scientific evidence that magnet therapy works. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which as not approved the use of permanent magnets to treat pain, has approved several independent review boards to track current research in the field.

Leading Theories

No one knows for sure how magnetic fields interact with the human body. But there are a few leading theories:

Blood flow
Experts agree that magnets probably help increase blood flow to a painful area of the body, which carries more oxygen to the region, decreases inflammation, and relieves pain. According to biophysicist Marko Markov, Ph.D., magnets probably stimulate blood flow because blood is composed of positively and negatively charged particles. Markov recently conducted a study–which has not yet been published–that found a substantially increased blood flow to an area of a horse’s leg where a magnet was applied.

Pain perception
Vallbona suggests that the magnetic field may affect pain receptors in the painful area, eliciting a slight anesthetic effect, or that the magnetic field might be transmitted via blood vessels to the brain, which then releases endorphins, chemicals that act as natural pain relievers.

Theories are one thing, facts are another, which is why Vallbona has plans for further research on magnets. In the meantime, since he completed his study with the post–polio patients, he has been successfully treating his own injured shoulder with two small magnets. And he now takes along several magnets whenever he travels–just in case he needs them.

Healthy & Natural Journal, Volume 5, Issue 5

Magnets Prove Attractive for Pain Relief–By Brenda Adderly

Not long ago, magnets were primarily used to hang kids' artwork and shopping lists on refrigerator doors. Then the alternative health movement took off, reviving interest in the centuries-old practice of using therapeutic permanent magnets for pain relief. Within a few years, thousands of magnet enthusiasts went public with stories of their own healing experiences. Top athletes, including New York Yankees' pitcher Hideki Irabu, Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino, championship golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez; Hollywood celebrities, like Anthony Hopkins, and average citizens all told of the remarkable healing power of magnets. "An hour and a half after I put a magnet on my neck, my chronic migraine headaches stopped, and I was hooked," recalls Paulette Rautio, a Washington state horse breeder, who later used magnets to alleviate the pain of rheumatoid arthritis that often put her in a wheelchair. "Magnets don't cure the condition," she explains, "but they can eliminate the pain."

In spite of the testimonials—and the $5OO million in U.S. sales of therapeutic magnets last year—the American medical profession remained skeptical. Anecdotal evidence was not enough. For physicians, seeing was believing, and what they wanted to see were results of scientifically controlled studies using therapeutic magnets. And now they have.

A Definitive Study

In a double-blind study at Houston's Baylor College of Medicine, 50 patients suffering from post-polio pain had either half-inch sized magnets or identical-looking placebo devices strapped to their most sensitive sore spots. "The majority of patients in the study who received treatment with a magnet reported a significant decrease in pain, and most of the patients who were given a placebo, or inactive magnet, reported very little or no improvement," says principal investigator Dr. Carlos Vallbona, professor of family and community medicine at Baylor. When the study began, Vallbona considered himself a skeptic. But his curiosity had been piqued by a colleague who'd found relief for a painful knee after wearing a magnet for only a few minutes. No one was more surprised than Vallbona when the results of his study supported the colleague's experience. Of the 29 patients who wore active magnets, 76 percent reported a decrease in pain after only 45 minutes. Less than 20 percent of those with the placebos felt an improvement. None of the patients reported any side effects.

The Baylor study bears out research from other countries. Scientists in Korea, for example, selected 23 student nurses who suffered from painful menstrual periods. Eleven nurses had therapeutic magnets placed on their lower abdomens. The other 12 wore placebos. "Significant" pain relief was reported by the students wearing the real magnets.

These studies support what healers have known for thousands of years. Practitioners in Egypt, China and India relied on such things as naturally magnetic rocks known as "lodestones" and even electric eels to relieve a variety of conditions. Fifteenth-century physician Paracelsus refined many of the early practices. Three hundred years later, Franz Anton Mesmer became famous for his outlandish claims that he could cure everything from chest pains to blindness and mental illness with magnets, thus "mesmerizing" his audiences while doing it. But Mesmer's arrogance angered many powerful people. They declared him and his methods fraudulent. With Mesmer's fall from grace, magnets unfortunately became synonymous with quack cures, a belief still held in conservative medical circles.

That may change soon. After the Baylor study, the president of the National Council Against Health Fraud, Dr. William Jarvis of California's Loma Linda University, once a critical opponent of magnet therapy, said he had changed his mind about its efficacy, although he said he won't be completely convinced until the study is replicated by other researchers.

At the Medical University of South Carolina, Dr. Mark S. George, who recently had impressive results using electromagnetics to treat depression, voiced similar feelings. "I'm going to be skeptical until I see more studies," he said. "But this Baylor research was refreshing, a legitimate look at an area that's very' promising."

Dr. Vallbona is currently conducting a larger study. Additional research, funded by the federal government, is under way at the University of Virginia with fibromyalgia patients. Right now, scientists are primarily interested in determining whether or not magnets alleviate pain, rather than how. In fact, although there are several theories about the ways in which magnets work, the truth remains a mystery. "We do not have a clear explanation for the significant and quick pain relief observed by the patients in our study," says Vallbona "It's possible that the magnetic energy affects the pareceptors in the joints or muscles or lowers the sensation of pain in the brain."

The Hall Effect

Many theories of how magnets work are a variation on what scientists call the Hall Effect. Since our bloodstream is filled with positively and negatively charged ions, stimulating these ions by exposure to a magnetic field creates heat. The heat increases the blood supply to the area where the magnet is located, and with the blood comes extra oxygen and nutrients, as well as a reduced amount of toxins.

As magnet experts like to point out, magnets don't actually heal the body—they create an environment in which the body can heal itself. And magnet power isn't limited to situations involving pain. Last year, Scott Fischbach, of Frederick, MD., suffered an injury to his forearm that required four stitches. As the wound healed, a large hard lump of scar tissue formed and began pressing on the nerves an tendons in his arm, causing numbness in his fingers and hand. A relative suggested he try magnets. "I was amazed at the almost instantaneous results," he says. After only 4 hours of wearing a magnet band directly over the wound, Fischbach says his scar tissue decreased by 75 percent. By the end of that week, it was completely gone and his arm had returned to normal.

Regardless of how magnets work, they've been approved for use in approximately 50 countries, including Germany, Israel, Russia and Japan, where they have been routinely used for decades. And in the United States, horse owners have been using magnets for more than 10 years, creating a burgeoning market in therapeutic magnet products designed specifically for horses. In fact, many supporters point to the success of magnets with horses as strong proof of their effectiveness, since the placebo effect doesn't exist with animals.

Magnets vs. Pills

For many pain sufferers, the best news of all is that magnets can eliminate the need for pain medication. Dr. Ronald Lawrence, clinical professor of medicine at UCLA, for example, estimates that the effectiveness rate of therapeutic magnets for pain relief is 85 percent, considerably higher than for any drug. And magnets are free of side effects, a claim that cannot be made for many pain-relievers. Some of these medications create serious stomach problems and other ailments, and others cause additional cartilage deterioration when used to treat arthritis, resulting in even more pain. Although magnets are very safe and side-effect free, if you are pregnant, have a pacemaker, use an insulin pump or drug patch, or have a fresh wound, magnets are not recommended, since their effect on these situations isn't yet known.

Shopping for Magnets

When purchasing magnets, invest in a real therapeutic magnet, not the kind that goes on the refrigerator door. Magnet strength is measured in a unit called a gauss. As a general rule, look for magnets with a gauss strength greater than 400. The negative field magnets are those most commonly used to alleviate the pain of arthritis and other inflammatory conditions, as well as rashes, burns and general aches. For best results, expect to spend about $20 or more.

Magnets are available in a wide variety of sizes, styles and products, including everything from little squares or circles to bracelets, necklaces and even mattress pads. One of the most popular are the modular kits whereby one product can be adapted to any part of the body.

Magnets are extremely simple to use. Just put the magnet on the painful area, hold it in place with a Velcro strap (magnets often come with these) or elastic wrap, and you're done. "Once I put it on," says Carl Sheola, a local guide in Peterborough, N.H., "I forget about it completely."

In products with multiple magnets, such as mattress pads, both north and south (positive) magnets may be used. Generally, they're arranged in one of three different ways–unidirectional, parallel or in concentric circles. In unidirectional pads, only negative poles come in contact with the body. Positive and negative poles alternate in the parallel and concentric styles. There are various theories as to which is best and why. Buy from a source who offers a money-back guarantee. Then, if one version doesn't do the trick, you can try another. But always keep magnets away from credit cards, floppy disks and computer hard drives. They can easily erase all information stored on them, and create the kind of headache that even a magnet would be hard-pressed to remedy.

Muscle & Fitness Magazine May, 1997

Muscles & Magnets - Can they positively recharge your recuperation?
By Rick Brunner

Bodybuilders who want to remain drug-free but still build a champion’s physique are constantly in search of safe, natural methods to do so. Nutritional supplements have certainly helped elevate the sport, as have better diets. One new tool being increasingly used to improve recovery from hard training and reduce the discomfort of injury is the static magnet. The magnetic strips or discs now sold via network marketing, infomercials and mail order and through stores come in all sorts of products from joint supports to seat cushions. Some are designed to be placed directly on an aching body part.

The subject of magnets in health is controversial. Most of the “proof” that magnets help speed recovery from training and allow muscles and connective tissue to heal faster has come from the personal experiences of athletes and non athletes alike. their testimonies about the beneficial, sometimes miraculous effects from magnets are encouraging and shouldn’t be discounted, yet fall short of scientific proof. Those who oppose the use of static magnets believe they’re nothing more than medieval witchcraft revised for the ‘90s. Do magnets really work, or are they just snake oil? Let’s look at the evidence.

The Science Behind Static Magnetics

Unlike an electromagnet, which sends electrical current artificially through conducting coils to create the magnetic field, a static magnet has a built-in permanent magnetic field that never needs replenishing. Examples of static magnets are those used to stick notes to a refrigerator door, a grade-school horseshoe magnet and a magnetic compass. All magnets have a north and south polarity and either attract or repel. North repels north, north attracts south and south repels south.

Reports indicate that through the magnets’ natural effect on charged particles in the blood, they help blood vessels expand, allowing a larger quantity of nutrient-rich blood to flow into an area for faster healing and growth. Blood is an electrical conductor, and electrolytes are compounds that can carry electric current within the body via the movement of ions such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. When these ions with their positive and negative charges pass by a magnetic field, a separation of ions occurs.

According to a recognized expert on biomagnetism, Ted Zablotsky, MD, new research over the past five years has pointed to three specific actions of static magnets on blood vessels. “First, we’ve seen a slight liberation of heat as the ions separate. Second, the ions crisscross back and forth between north and south poles of the magnet. Third, small eddy currents occur in the bloodstream, just as the eddy currents in a river push the banks outward. These effects collectively contribute to widening the blood vessels to allow more blood to pass through,” he says.

All Magnets Are Not Created Equal

Most magnets in use today are inefficient, which may be why magnet users have reported mixed results. As more research is conducted, static magnets may yet prove to be the new recovery tool of the 1990s and beyond, but beware–not all magnets are created equal. Choose the wrong type and you’ll get little or no benefit.

While any static magnet, even the horseshoe type you played with as a kid, may influence blood flow, the design of the magnet determines just how great the effects are. The force of the magnet and how far this force penetrates into muscle tissue are key factors.

The strength of a magnet can be measured in gauss. For example, the magnetic field of the earth is less than 10 gauss, while the magnets discussed in this article usually fall between 300 and 500 gauss. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), used in medicine to view structures inside the body, introduces a strong magnetic field in excess of 10,000 gauss.

Though the strength of the magnet is important, two magnets with exactly the same strength can perform differently. Ordinary bar magnets that use standard parallel alternating north and south poles (see "The Standard Magnet") aren't the most efficient at penetrating muscle tissue, even if their gauss rating is high. Standard magnets are maximally effective only if the blood passes directly perpendicular to them; they're less influential if the blood vessel crosses at an angle or runs parallel to the magnet's poles.

The most effective magnet design is one using concentric circles of alternating polarity. The concentric design allows for the maximal penetration to, and action on, the capillaries bringing blood to muscle tissue in almost any direction the capillary travels. When tested with a gauss meter placed a quarter of an inch away, the magnetic "reach" from the concentric-circle magnet is approximately double that of a checkerboard pattern, and much greater than the standard bar-type magnet. The concentric-circle magnet has more magnetic field lines to spare, which can then penetrate the muscle tissue and make contact with ions within the blood vessels to cause an increase in blood flow.

One expert with several years of experience using concentric-circle magnets is Jack Scott, PhD, adviser to the U.S. Track and Field team for the past four Olympic Games. “Athletes with low-back tightness and pain can benefit from concentric magnets," he says.

Improved recovery may be another benefit. Because the muscle-growth process occurs right after training and into long-term recovery, helping the capillaries deliver more nutrient-rich blood to a muscle may give that muscle a greater chance to recover and grow. In addition, metabolic toxins that are produced during high-intensity training might be removed from the target tissue faster, reducing muscle soreness. "In theory, the magnets applied to muscles after a hard workout should increase blood flow and speed recovery," Scott adds. 'Any elite athlete will recognize the importance of faster recovery."

A double-blind study on the use of concentric-circle magnets in health has been conducted at Baylor University Medical Center in Waco, Texas, and is scheduled to be published this year. Flexible concentric-circle magnets or placebo look-alikes were placed on the muscles of 50 post-polio survivors who then rated the relief from pain the magnet or placebo gave them. A statistically significant number of patients reported less pain when using the magnets vs. the placebo.

Getting The Most From Magnets

From experience, athletes know that if you increase blood flow to a muscle, the muscle recovers faster. In addition, recovery from hard training is improved by stimulating blood flow. Hot tubs, saunas, ultrasound, microwave diathermy, electric heating pads and moist heat packs are often used to speed healing and improve training recovery. All these methods use heat to increase blood flow and reduce pain.

The application of heat to a training-stressed body part may sufficiently overload the neurological processes responsible for pain. Additionally heat applied to tissue increases metabolism, which causes a relaxation of the capillary system and results in vasodilation, where the blood vessels open up. When an increased amount of blood moves to a heated area in an attempt to cool it, nutrients are delivered and waste products are removed at an accelerated rate. Compounds thought to stimulate the pain-spasm-pain cycle—such as histamines and prostaglandins — may be flushed from the area by increased blood flow, effectively interrupting the pain cycle.

The proper use of any magnet seems to be a contributing factor in its success or failure. one chronic sufferer of lower-back pain, three-time Mr. Olympia Frank Zane, first hurt his back as a punter in high school, then experienced numerous low-back injuries during his bodybuilding career. In addition to back pain, Frank has been plagued with discomfort in his deltoid-biceps-triceps area. Today he finds relief with static magnets.

"I don't know how they work, but they do," Frank says. "For two years now, I've placed two magnetic discs on my lower back, on each side of my spine, and also apply them to my arms. They've become an important addition to my bag of recovery tricks, such as ultrasound, massage and relaxation methods. Their main benefit, as I see it, is I can put the magnets on after a workout and go about my business."

Magnets can be used at any time during training and in recovery. For example, after a set of heavy squats, you can apply a magnetic strip or disc right onto each quad. Shoulders are often stressed when pressing or benching heavy. After performing a military-press workout or a heavy bench routine, you can place small magnetic discs right on your deltoids.

Along with traditional methods such as ultrasound, massage and hydrotherapy, magnets may also prove useful in helping speed the healing of injuries like tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, muscle strains and ligament or tendon strains. You can apply the magnet to the affected area and leave it on as long as it's helpful.

The only case where a magnet may not be recommended is right after an injury has occurred. Sports-medicine physicians suggest using ice to reduce the swelling by restricting blood flow immediately following an injury such as a muscle tear or sprain. once the swelling is under control, magnets can be used to bring more blood to an area for faster healing.

Rick Brunner is an expert on Russian restoration and training methods and the president of Atletika Sport International in Bozeman, Montana. Additional information on the practical use of magnets in sports and health is available by calling 1-8OO-621-2602.

This information is for educational purposes only. It is not advice and is not intended to replace the advice or attention of health-care professionals. Consult your physician before beginning magnet therapy especially if you have a medical condition or medical implants or use any other medical device. Pregnant women should not use magnetic field therapy

REFERENCES

1. Barnothy M.F Biological effects of magnetic fields, vol. 1 and 2. New York: Plenum Press, 1969.
2. Nakagawa, K. Magnetic-field deficiency syndrome and magnetic treatment. Japan Medical Journal 2745:1-11, 1976.
3. Mizushima, Y., Akaoka I., Nishida, Y. Effects of magnetic fields in inflammation. Experimentia 21:1,411-1,412, 1975.
4. Mourino, M.R. From Thales to Laterbur, or from the lodestone to MR imaging: magnetism and medicine. Radiology 18O:593-612, 1991.

Selecting A Magnet

What should you look for in a therapeutic static magnet? Get answers to these three questions before making your purchase:

1) Is the magnet a concentric-circle design with alternating polarity, or some other pattern?

2) Is the magnet backed by an unconditional guarantee?

3) Is the product backed by scientific research?

Once you get the answers to these questions, you can make a more educated decision and purchase the magnet that best meets your needs.

Concentric-circle magnets can be used just as you would a heating pad or other heat-producing device. Their most common form is a thin flexible strip or disc that you place on the skin above the targeted muscle and hold with tape or an elastic bandage. Magnet suppliers offer numerous elastic and neoprene supports for the back, elbow, knee, wrist and ankle that contain the concentric alternating-polarity magnetic strips or discs. Concentric magnets are also available in shoe insoles, seat cushions and mattress pads. An extra benefit of the concentric-circle flexible-foil magnets may be their relatively low cost; they range from about $20 - $120, depending on size and magnet strength.

Will concentric-circle magnets help you recover from hard training faster and ease the discomfort of injuries and chronic pain? You'll have to judge this new tool for yourself. Just remember that magnets aren't miracle cures, and results may vary from individual to individual. Magnets won't regrow hair on the top of a bald head or cure a disease, but they may allow your body to perform more efficiently, improving your quality of life.

The History Of Magnetism

The use of magnets to improve health isn't new. For more than 2,000 years, the effects of magnets on biological systems have been investigated and debated. The term “magnet" was probably derived from Magnes, a Turkish shepherd who discovered iron deposits that were attracted to the nails in his sandals. These deposits, now called magnetite (a form of iron), were known to the ancients as lodestones ("leading stones").

During medieval times, lodestones were thought to have strong aphrodisiac powers, and magnetic "cures" for afflictions such as gout, arthritis and baldness flourished. By the middle of the 18th century, durable high-power magnets were available throughout Europe. One young researcher, Franz Anton Mesmer, used magnets to treat patients with various illnesses, which led to a medical review in Paris that denounced his work as medical quackery. By the late 1800s, magnets became popular in America, with the Sears Roebuck mail-order catalog advertising magnetic boot insoles for 18 cents a pair.

Fast forward to 1997. While most consumers today won't stand for the dog-and-pony-show mentality that prevailed in earlier times, they'll still do almost anything to find relief from pain. Magnets are being used to ease discomfort associated with arthritis, fibromyalgia, post-polio syndrome and migraine headaches.