Magnet Therapy, Does it work?
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Magnet Therapy, Does it work?
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Magnet therapy, magnetic therapy, or magnotherapy is an alternative medicine practice involving the use of magnetic fields. Practitioners claim that subjecting certain parts of the body t
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Forums » Open clinical » Sport and exercise medicine » Magnet Therapy, Does it work?
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Magnet Therapy, Does it work?
posted at 28/8/2012 9:10 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 270
First: 2/8/2010 Last: 21/5/2013 |
Magnet therapy, magnetic therapy, or magnotherapy is an alternative medicine practice involving the use of magnetic fields. Practitioners claim that subjecting certain parts of the body to magnetostatic fields produced by permanent magnets has beneficial health effects. These pseudoscientific physical and biological claims are unproven and no effects on health or healing have been established. Although haemoglobin is weakly diamagnetic when oxygenated and paramagnetic when deoxygenated, the magnets used in magnetic therapy are too weak to have any measurable effect on blood flow Claimed benefit :- Greater resistance to infection It helps to remove waste products from the blood ie lactic acid calcium and cholesterol It increases energy and strength It helps recovery or can prevent onset of R.S.I. (Repetitive Stress Injury)/Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Any openion ? |
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Re: Magnet Therapy, Does it work?
posted at 28/8/2012 10:53 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1790
First: 7/3/2009 Last: 24/5/2013 |
I am always at doubt when a certain method offers cure for many different disorders. However, some of the alternative therapies have certain effects, be it because of placebo effect and the urge to believe it does work, or for other obscure reasons. Little serous research was done on those methods. We know for instance that acupuncture can help reduce pain and there are also other alternative modalities. In past, there were healers who were collecting certain leaves, mixing them and applying them to wounds or making from them a potion for the sick. Science helped us to realise later that those herbs contain various active chemical substances and we learned how to manufacture those in labs and medications appeared with dosages, etc. If we think along similar lines, let us suppose that the healer using a certain magnet is actuallly like the healer who prepared potions from leaves. The healer has no idea what exactly works, but for some reason it helps certain patients. Now let us take a little dive into the subatomic world of modern quantum physics with the theories of certain energy fields at work, of matter being actually also waves, string theory and membrane theory etc, about the true nature of our reality , and let us suppose that some action actually does something on that level, altering the matter-wave in a certain way as to "tune" it differently, and perhaps there is your effect on subatomic level, creating a change on atomic- molecular level.But we simply don't know yet how to manage it, how to achieve the desired effect..Perhaps in the future we will learn how to elicit certain effects that will lead to improvement or cure on those complicated levels.Just as we learned to make the chemical substance from the leaves. Only now we are on the "leaves" level with magnetotherapy and other alternative therapies. And perhaps all these really don't work and what we witness is placebo effect. But then how far can we actually boost up a placebo effect?
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Re: Magnet Therapy, Does it work?
posted at 29/8/2012 6:06 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 3045
First: 27/3/2012 Last: 20/5/2013 |
Magnetic treatment is of two kinds, local and general, depending on whether the disease is localized or all-inclusive. The palms or the soles of the feet are placed on two magnets with different poles and the patient is exposed to them for 10 minutes a day, preferably in the morning before breakfast. Chronic cases take half-an-hour a day. The precautions are cursory: no ingestion of anything cold an hour after treatment, no bathing for two hours after. Strong magnets should not be applied to pregnant women and to the heart and the brain. One of the reasons for magnet therapy's growing popularity is that there is no paucity of therapists and teachers. A magnet can also be used without looking like an awkward prosthesis—a hearing aid, or worse still, a crutch. You can go jogging wearing a magnetic headband ("improve your memory on the run"); you can grace parties wearing magnetic necklaces made of silver and gunmetal in India, and gold in Australia—these chokers treat bronchitis and protect against an asthmatic attack. Magnetic earrings and pendants guard against an under-active thyroid. Magnetic goggles are handsome add-ons that double as cures for conjunctivitis and glaucoma, and help reduce visual defects. If you are a pretty spinster and insistent suitors are raising your BP, a magnetic ring will work like magic-ridding you of both. And magnets as gifts allow you to be idiosyncratic without being over-the-top. There is, of course, a catch to magnet therapy: outside of orthopedics, it is an unpredictable, sporadic success. It is still a system of the last resort: its patients are most often refugees from other therapies. Often chronic cases come to us after having tried all other systems and expect quick relief. What is also missing is rigor and research. Practitioners lack a scientific system of analysis. We don't document our cases, which is absolutely necessary for research. So what is missing from this therapy is not magnetic appeal but the kind of scientific zealotry that attracts both funding and practitioners. For only then will it succeed in breaking the stranglehold of modern pill popping and needle-jabbing medicine. |
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Re: Magnet Therapy, Does it work?
posted at 30/8/2012 9:35 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2060
First: 12/3/2010 Last: 24/5/2013 |
KA, Quote "Strong magnets should not be applied to pregnant women and to the heart and the brain." So what dos the guru of magnetotherapy think about MIR scanning of the brain or thorax? The "strongest MIR magnet in the World" is in Florida. http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/mediacenter/features/meetthemagnets/900mhz.html This acheives 21 Teslas, enough to levitate a frog, when cnventional MIRs moght have half that, a loudspeaker magnet mught have 1 Tesla and the earth's field is measured in microTeslas. Come on, magnetothereapy is up there with aromatherapy and crystal skrying. John |
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Re: Magnet Therapy, Does it work?
posted at 30/8/2012 10:30 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1181
First: 19/4/2010 Last: 23/5/2013 |
That Floridan MRI is awesome. A friend of mine's Dad used to work with a fruit MRI scanner. It was very small, very powerful, and could detect blight in a rasberry, or something. MRI scanners do seem to do odd things to folk, though - post MRI brain nausea seems pretty common. I've had 3 MRI scans, and no ill effects from any of them, yettttttttshb;svdh8we.
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Re: Magnet Therapy, Does it work?
posted at 30/8/2012 11:12 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1271
First: 13/4/2010 Last: 23/5/2013 |
If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck it's quackery. But don't take my word for it - here is Ben Goldacre's excellent critique on magnet therapy from a few years back: http://www.badscience.net/2006/03/animal-magnetism/ And while you are at it buy a copy of his excellent book Bad Science or Singh and Ernst's book Trick or Treatment. |
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Re: Magnet Therapy, Does it work?
posted at 30/8/2012 10:55 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 3045
First: 27/3/2012 Last: 20/5/2013 |
In Response to Re: Magnet Therapy, Does it work?: If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck it's quackery. But don't take my word for it - here is Ben Goldacre's excellent critique on magnet therapy from a few years back: http://www.badscience.net/2006/03/animal-magnetism/ And while you are at it buy a copy of his excellent book Bad Science or Singh and Ernst's book Trick or Treatment. Posted by skyesteve Thanks Skyesteve for an insightful & excellent article on 'bad science' by Ben Goldacre. |
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Re: Magnet Therapy, Does it work?
posted at 31/8/2012 12:25 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1288
First: 9/12/2011 Last: 24/5/2013 |
Whats the matter John, You trying to have the last best word? You just accused me of this in evolution thread, There is alwasy room for enquiring minds to research, as you said right?? DuaneF In Response to Re: Magnet Therapy, Does it work?: KA, Quote " Strong magnets should not be applied to pregnant women and to the heart and the brain." So what dos the guru of magnetotherapy think about MIR scanning of the brain or thorax? The "strongest MIR magnet in the World" is in Florida. http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/mediacenter/features/meetthemagnets/900mhz.html This acheives 21 Teslas, enough to levitate a frog, when cnventional MIRs moght have half that, a loudspeaker magnet mught have 1 Tesla and the earth's field is measured in microTeslas. Come on, magnetothereapy is up there with aromatherapy and crystal skrying. John Posted by John D |
Forums » Open clinical » Sport and exercise medicine » Magnet Therapy, Does it work?
