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.