Magnet therapy involves
the use of a magnetic device placed on or near the body
to relieve pain and facilitate healing. The magnetic products
on the market today come in many forms. They can be taped
to the skin, worn as jewelry or in your shoes, or slept
on as pillows and mattresses. Arthritis, insomnia, carpal
tunnel syndrome, and headaches are among the long list of
ailments for which people have tried magnet therapy. Although
no one can say how magnets work, advocates claim that they
can have a profound effect on the body, particularly in
relieving pain.
The lure of magnets for medicinal purposes is not new. The
ancient Greeks believed that lodestones (natural magnetic
rocks) had therapeutic powers. In the sixteenth century,
Swiss-born alchemist and physician Philippus von Hohenheim,
who went by the pseudonym Paracelsus, purportedly used magnets
to draw illness from the body.
Over the past decade, magnet therapy has become increasingly
popular, especially among professional athletes who use
it for aches and pains. Even so, magnet therapy remains
controversial. Scientists have only recently begun the well-designed
research needed to persuade most mainstream doctors to add
magnets to their medicinal arsenals.
How Does It Work? The theory behind magnet therapy is that
the magnetic fields produced by magnets (or by devices that
generate electromagnetic current) can penetrate the human
body and affect the functioning of individual cells and
improve the working of the nervous system and various organs.
Precisely how the magnetic fields do this remains a mystery,
but there are several hypotheses.
Some say that the electrical current created by magnets
interrupts the transmission of pain signals in the central
nervous system. Others claim that magnets increase blood
flow to an area, boosting the flow of oxygen and other nutrients,
and ultimately reducing pain and swelling.
