Magnetic Attraction No one is sure how or why they work, but some - including professional athletes - swear they help relive pain By JIM O'BRIEN The idea of placing magnets on various aching parts of your body to relive pain sounds far-fetched and could be easily placed in the quackery category. Yet, their popularity as an "alternative" method of pain relief in on the rise.
Just ask professional athletes such as golfers on the Senior PGA Tour who wear belts and insoles lined with magnets. Jim Colbert, one of the Tour's top money winners, says magnets have made his back pain vanish. "I'm going on 41 months of wearing the magnets on my back and I haven't missed one day of golf that I wanted to play, " he says.
Golf showman Chi Chi Rodriguez reportedly wears magnet-lined insoles and swears they quell his aches and pains.
ARE THEY IMAGINING THINGS? Are they trying to sell us something? It turns out neither Colbert nor Rodriguez receives pay to endorse magnet companies.
A little poking around reveals there just may be a legitimate, albeit sketchy, scientific basis to the claims, says Ron Lawrence, an Agoura, California, neurologist.
"Most people think it's weird. I was a skeptic myself. Now that I've seen them work, though, I'm impressed, "he told Your Health.
"It's a very exciting therapy. Results are uniformly excellent for most people, better than a lot of the standard stuff we do. And it's harmless. It will either work for you or it won't, but it absolutely won't harm you."
Be advised: The Food and Drug Administration has not approved magnets as a pain therapy. "They are considered new or experimental devices," says Lawrence.
'It's a very exciting therapy. Results are uniformly excellent for most people, better than a lot of the standard stuff we do. And it's harmless. It will either work for you or it won't, but it absolutely won't harm you'YET THEY'VE BEEN IN USE for ages - since at least the Middle Ages, if not before. "I've found them helpful for pain of any sort. and especially helpful for arthritic conditions. Athletes endorse them for treating sports injuries," says Lawrence.- California neurologist RON LAWRENCEOK. But how and why? "No one's really sure, but there are a few persuasive theories. For one, they increase blood flow, since there's iron in the blood; hold a magnet near the body, you'll attract increased blood flow to the magnetized area. That increases oxygen delivery, thus healing. Another theory holds that magnetic force increases a chain of chemical reactions that lead to local increased action of the immune system," Lawrence explains.
Justa Smith, Ph.D., a nun and biochemist at the Human Dimensions Institute at Rosary Hill College in New York, did experiments that confirmed earlier findings that strong magnetic fields accelerate the reaction rate of various enzymes. That could help explain the second theory Lawrence mentioned.
THERE'S EVEN SOME CLINICAL evidence of their value. At Barry University School of Pediatrics Medicine in Miami, researchers used magnets to treat heel pain and plantar fasciitis ( a very painful condition of the lining tissue, or fascia, in the sole of the foot) and patients experienced a 50 percent improvement in pain and the ability to walk.
The Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health is sponsoring a study on healing with magnets, but results will be a while in coming.
CRITICS DISMISS ANY response such as Colbert's as pure placebo, if not nonsense. "It's known that people who have a bad problem who are greatly anticipating benefit, hoping or desperate for relief are vulnerable to a placebo response," says Tim Lamer, chairman of the Pain Management Division the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. "People in general have a high response to placebo (use)." Up to 50 percent of people treated with an inert substance can have a favorable reaction, so a placebo effect may be better than no effect at all.
Several companies sell magnets. They come in mattress pads or wraps for specific body parts, such as an elbow or knee.
Advocates claim they're good for jaw, head, neck and back pain, arthritis, toothaches, carpal tunnel syndrome and migraines. Some go as far as to claim they help in chronic fatigue syndrome, stress and bacterial infection.
As for how magnets work, Lamer says, "these things need to be answered... and need to be studied before people make claims."
Lawrence, founder of the North American Academy of Magnetic Therapy, agrees. "We should try to find out why and how this stuff works." Calling his own interest "academic, intellectual and practical," Lawrence says the academy receives no support from nor has any medical magnet company.
AS A PARTING THOUGHT he offers this: "What I know comes from personal experience. I've been using magnets on my patients for over four years and 85 percent notice some relief of pain of arthritis, strains or sprains. That's an incredibly good response."
EXTRACT FROM: Your Health. June 24, 1997 P.41-43,88