The concept of magnetic healing or pain relief is an ancient one, stretching back as early as 2000 B.C., when Chinese healers used naturally magnetic lodestones on the body of their patients to correct unhealthy imbalances in the flow of energy. This practice circulated among several cultures across Asia as a way of treating painful diseases.

Over the centuries, the treatment of pain via magnetic lodestone became a common practice as it spread to the Greek – and later Roman – Empire and eventually made its way to Western Europe where it was regarded as an creditable, yet noninvasive, pain reliever.

In the fourth century, a French doctor, Martel, used magnets to heal hand and feet pains. In the sixth century, Alexandre de Tralles cured joint pain with magnets while an Arabian doctor, Hall Abbas, was said to use magnets to treat spasms and other seizures. In the 1600s, Sir William Gilbert, author of the first scholarly treatise to explain the nature of magnetism, allegedly used magnets to ease the arthritic pains of Queen Elizabeth I.

Magnetism: Mystical or Medicinal?

Despite its strong history, magnetic therapy practice and its credibility to the medical community significantly declined over the past few centuries.

This is largely due to the mass production of small magnetic devices, and the propaganda their peddlers dispense in order to sell them to a miracle-hungry populace. Aligned with holistic and homeopathic medicines, such as crystal or gemstone healing, thousands of magnetic healing products, from simple copper and zinc magnetic bracelets to more complex hand-held mechanical devices, are being sold worldwide with a promise to perform the impossible. Promised, although unfulfilled, benefits of magnetic products include: improved metabolism, removal of bodily toxins through better circulation, regulated digestive activity, better reception of medication, enhanced respiratory volume, improved melatonin production, stress reduction and stronger immune system.

“Magnetics, in general, has gotten a bad reputation,” says Abraham Blechman, an associate professor in orthodontics at Columbia University’s School of Dental and Oral Surgery and a supporter of magnetic therapy experimentation. “There are many medical people who don’t believe any of the claims being made.”

Stephen Barrett, MD, founder of Allentown, Pa.-based Quackwatch Inc., a corporation that combats health-related frauds, myths, fads and fallacies, says, “There is no scientific basis to conclude that small, static magnets can relieve pain or influence the course of any disease. In fact, many of today’s products produce no significant magnetic field at or beneath the skin’s surface.”

In the past six years, legal and regulatory actions were taken against three major magnetic device production companies: Magnetherapy Inc., for advertising that wearing its device near inflamed areas will relieve pain due to arthritis, migraine headaches, sciatica or heel spurs; Magnetic Therapeutic Technologies, for claiming that its magnetic sleep pads are effective against cancers, diabetic ulcers and could stabilize or increase the T-cell count of HIV patients; and Pain Stop Here! Inc., for claims that its “magnetized water” is useful against cancer, diseased internal organs, urinary infection, bed sores and dysentery.

All three companies are now prohibited from the ability to claim their products produce any beneficial effects on the body.

New Magnetic Sparks
   
Despite the overwhelming skepticism of the U.S. medical community, magnetic therapy is becoming widely accepted as an alternative method of pain relief, especially when patients are faced with the option of invasive surgery. With the development of stronger, permanent neodymium “super-magnets” in the twentieth century, magnets are now more than a hundred times more powerful than natural magnets or even steel magnets once available at the height of the magnetic healing craze of earlier years. The development of these “super-magnets” aroused application of these magnets in the next wave of magnetic field therapy.

William H. Phillpott, MD, author of Magnet Therapy: Alternative Medicine, the Definitive Guide (2000, Ten Speed Pr) says, “Today, magnet therapy is seeing a resurgence in use and is an officially approved therapy in over 45 countries worldwide.”

Remaining unsanctioned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), most companies producing magnetic healing devices say their company makes no medical claims and emphasize that their products only “comfort” the patients. However, a lack of FDA approval has only spurred more physicians and doctors the world over to investigate this possible new alternative medicine through various clinical trials.

In 1997, a group of physicians at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas studied the effect of magnetic therapy in fifty patients who had developed polio earlier in life and had muscle and joint pain other treatments failed to relieve. In this double-blind study, 29 of the patients wore a magnet taped over a trouble spot, and 21 others wore a nonmagnetic device. As is the case with most studies involving a placebo, some of the patients responded to the nonmagnetic therapy, but 75 percent of those using the magnetic therapy reported feeling much better.

Another study at New York Medical College in Valhalla, N.Y., used magnetic therapy on a group of 19 men and women complaining of burning or numbness in their feet, caused by diabetes or conditions, such as alcoholism. The group wore a magnetic insole inside one of their socks or shoes for 24 hours a day over a two-month period. By the end of the study, nine out of the 10 diabetic patients reported relief, while only three of the nine non-diabetic reported pain relief.
   
In 2000, a federally funded study was launched at the University of Virginia, to evaluate the effectiveness of magnetic mattress pads in easing the muscle pain, stiffness and fatigue normally associated with fibromyalgia, an illness affecting nearly four million Americans.
   
Medical scientists have developed two theories to explain possible beneficial effects of magnets on the human body. One theory maintains that magnets produce slight electrical currents, and when applied to a painful area of the body, the nerves are stimulated and release natural painkillers. When magnets are placed on a painful area of the body, the second theory asserts, all the cells in that area react to increase blood circulation, ion exchange and oxygen flow to the area. Magnetic fields attract and repel charged particles in the blood stream, increasing blood flow and producing heat. Increased oxygen in tissues and blood stream is believed to make a significant difference in the rate of bodily healing.

The Bridge to Accepted Science
   
Although magnetic therapy remains an unsubstantiated science in the US, several aspects of magnetic field manipulation yield proven results and some even received FDA approval for general usage. One such advance is the discovery of pulsed magnetic fields, or resonating the magnetic field at a particular frequency to penetrate and stimulate the body.
   
The process of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) was first introduced in 1985 as a noninvasive method of stimulating the brain. Involving the placement of a small coil near the scalp, a rapidly alternating current is passed through the coil, producing a magnetic field that passes through the brain. TMS was initially used to investigate nerve conduction, but its capabilities to deliver rapid, repetitive stimulation showed promise of treating depression. The TMS device is believed to precisely stimulate the left prefrontal cortex, an area associated with antidepressant properties. While, no TMS device has received FDA approval, one device called NeoPulse has received approval in Canada and Israel as therapy for depression and other psychiatric disorders.

Pulsed magnetic fields have also shown considerable advancements in the field of bone healing. Barrett says, “Pulsed electromagnetic fields – which induce measurable electric fields – have been demonstrated effective for treating slow-healing fractures.” When a bone is broken and left to heal naturally, the fractured ends resist one another and the bone does not heal together smoothly because the fracture site is slightly misaligned. A powerful magnet placed over the fracture site overpowers the weaker rival magnetic fields of the bone; the fracture comes together without resistance, and speeds up the healing process by months.

Beverly Rubik, PhD, a leading spokesperson for research in alternative medicine, says “…the bone healing device has been on the market for about 20 years, is FDA approved, yet is used in only about 20 percent of the cases for which its use is indicated.”

Pioneer on the Magnetic Frontier

In recent years, several physicians and magnetic therapy companies have explored the uncharted benefits of the magnetic field on the human body. While many of these companies may be offering worthless “miracle” equipment to the public, a few physicians are taking the medical world by storm, showing there is still untapped potential for magnetic field therapy on the horizon.

Jerry I. Jacobson, PhD, founder and chairman of Nassau, Bahamas-based Jacobson Resonance Enterprises Inc., has cut a pathway through a skeptical U.S. medical community in recent years. With his invention of the Jacobson Resonator, a device utilizing low-level magnetic fields to treat chronic pain, Jacobson is demonstrating remarkable advances in treatments against nerve degenerating diseases, as well as several unexpected ulterior results.

Two studies conducted at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in Manhattan, N.Y. and Farleigh Dickinson University in Madison, N.J. tested the effect of Jacobson’s magnetic resonance therapy (MRT) on the restoration of forelimb grip strength and radial nerve ultra-structure in mice.

Administering a neurotoxin into the drinking water for nine days induced motor neuropathy. Forelimb grip strength declined to 47 percent compared to the non-poisoned group. The poisoned group without any MRT treatment continued to show a 56 percent decrease in grip strength, while the group treated with MRT showed an 87 percent recovery of grip strength.

“These results are the first to demonstrate a biological effect of electromagnetic fields on the restoration of sub-cellular structures required for nerve impulse conduction and metabolism in recovery from motor neuropathy, under controlled experimental conditions,” says Anjali Saxena, MD, professor emeritus at Farleigh.

Scientific studies from Cardiac Arrhythmia Research Institute, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, have shown a promising new development in MRT usage. Through several studies, scientists found that the effects of MRT could control the heart rate, rhythm and conduction of the canine heart. Canines are often used because their hearts share many biochemical and physiological characteristics of human hearts. This research opens doors for many of those afflicted with irregular heartbeats and slowing ventricular responses in patients with atrial fibrillation.

“Considering the various background science and clinical studies that have been conducted throughout the world, it appears that utilization of very weak, extremely low frequency physiologic magnetic fields represents a non-invasive, painless and remarkably safe approach to medical therapeutics,” says Jacobson. “[It] should be thoroughly studied to assure safety and efficacy, and to fulfill a vast and untapped potential for ameliorating human suffering.”


Bob Stott is a Philadelphia-based freelance writer.