Magnet therapy

Magnet therapy, magnetic therapy, magnetotherapy or magnotherapy is a form of alternative medicine involving the use of static magnetic fields.

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Description

Practitioners claim that subjecting certain parts of the body to magnetic fields produced by permanent, typically NdFeB magnets has beneficial health effects. The magnetic therapy industry totals sales of $300 million dollars per year in the United States ^[1] and sells, often with explicit health claims, products such as magnetic bracelets and jewelry; magnetic straps for wrists, ankles, and the back; shoe insoles, mattresses, and magnetic blankets (blankets with magnets woven into the material); and even water that has been "magnetized".

Magnetotherapy is generally considered pseudoscientific by the mainstream scientific community. Marketing of the therapy as an effective treatment is heavily restricted by law in many jurisdictions, including the United States.

The related field of electromagnetic therapy involves the use of time-varying magnetic fields as produced by coils and enjoys a more favourable reception within mainstream science.

Efficacy

One trial of magnetic therapy for the treatment of wrist pain from carpal tunnel syndrome and chronic low back pain could not find any health benefits above placebo.^[2][3]

Blinding the patients and the practitioners to the therapy is difficult since magnetization can be easily detected, e.g., by the attraction force it produces on ferrous objects.^[4]

A randomized controlled trial has found a statistically significant effect using non-magnetic and weak magnetic bracelets as controls against strong magnets. ^[5]. However, blinding was not perfect, as patients can assess the magnetic strength of the bracelets.

Legal regulations

A number of jurisdictions prohibit the marketing of magnetic therapy products with the claim that they offer any therapeutic effects. In the United States, for example, FDA regulations render it illegal to market a magnet therapy product that claims to treat any "significant" condition such as cancer, HIV, AIDS, asthma, arthritis, or rheumatism.^[6]

Criticism

There is no scientific theory explaining the mode of action, if any, of magnet therapy, and the magnitude of its effects, as it is practiced, would be small in any case. This has led to much skepticism. Hence, as a whole, magnet therapy is lacking scientific evidence to be seriously considered.

Indeed, there are very few statistical studies that concentrate on the effects of magnetic therapy. One of them - a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled trial of 101 adults diagnosed with plantar heel pain carried out in year 2003 found no significant difference in outcome between use of active vs sham magnets. Report was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. ^[7]

A number of vendors make unsupported claims about magnet therapy by using pseudoscientific and new-age language. Such claims are often criticised on skeptical sites^[8]. Most criticism include:

• The typical magnet used produces insufficient magnetic field to have a lasting effect on muscle tissue, bones, blood vessels, or organs.
• Researchers in high-energy physics laboratories can work for hours per day with their whole body immersed in magnetic fields far stronger than those from the bracelets, and there is no evidence they are more or less healthy than their peers.^{[citation needed]} This shows that all magnetic fields do not have a noticeable health effect.
• No magnet healing manufacturer has demonstrated scientifically that its products achieve what they claim, and most cannot agree on what exactly the magnetic fields do.
• Some manufacturers claim that the magnets help to circulate the blood by interacting with the iron in hemoglobin, a major component of red blood cells. However in its ionised form, iron is not ferromagnetic and would not be subject to magnetic attraction^[9], save for magnetohydrodynamic forces due to its charge.
• Others claim that the magnets can restore the body's theorised "electromagnetic energy balance". Needless to say, there is no serious scientific theory within which such a thing as the electromagnetic balance of the body would exist.
• There are also claims that the south pole of a magnet acts differently on the body than the north pole. [1].
• Many of the websites that provide information and resources promoting the benefits of magnetic therapy belong to individuals and companies that profit from the sale of magnetic therapy products.
• Water is a diamagnetic material, and thus cannot be magnetized. However magnetic fields have physical effects on all molecules and electrons; in particular, static magnetic fields shift the proton precession frequency of hydrogen nuclei by aligning their spins. However, within the magnetic field of the earth, the relaxation times are on the order of seconds, and thus this effect does not last. Also, magnetic bodies always have two poles and it is unclear how water can be reasonably labeled as magnetized, let alone "north pole" or "south pole" magnetized.

See also

• Alex Chiu
• Electrical devices in alternative medicine
• Franz Mesmer
• Pseudoscience
• Quackery
• ionized bracelet

References