This is a complete reprint from the

MOBILE REGISTER

Tuesday, February 26, 2002

Experts say conflicting reports about the effectiveness of this alternative therapy leave them doubtful.

By Linda H. Lamb

Knight Ridder

Magnet therapy probably wont help your health any more than grapefruit burns fat, garlic heals your heart, or vitamin C cures colds.

Oh so you think there might be q bit of medical magic in grapefruit, garlic, or vitamin C?

Well, plenty of people believe in magnets, too, convinced that they work wonders on arthritis, sports injuries, headaches, and even sinus problems.

Whats the great attraction of magnets and do they work? 

To answer that, you must have to consider magnet users testimonials, which are many, along with solid facts supporting them, which are few.

Megan Apple is a 19 year-old Clemson University student; Wayne Hance is a 42 year-old Columbia, S.C., engineer; Issie Morphis is a 65 year-old Hartsville, S.C., grandmother. They all swear by magnet therapy.

I don't know who it works, but it does seem to relieve my pain said Apple, who was diagnosed with fibromyalia while a high school student.

She could hardly get out of bed during her junior year. Then she tried the Nikken magnetic mattress. I felt better after sleeping on it just one night, she said.

Hance tried magnets when his knee became painfully swollen, making it hard for him to play golf.

The next day I was fine, said Hance, who now uses magnets for occasional pain from arthritic feet or a flare up of gout.

its an alternative to taking all the painkillers, he said.

Morphis had recurring pain from polio she developed at age 21. She tried the magnetic mattress and also taped magnets to the sore section of her back.

They really relieve me, she said. They worked right away.

Another thing these three have in common is Susan Few, The Nikken representative who sold them their magnetic remedies. A former high-school science teacher with a degree in biology, she didn't always believe in alternative medicine.

There wasn't one thing about this (magnet therapy) when I first heard about it that made one bit of sense to me, she said.

But her husband, golf pro Randy Few, tried magnetic products after he was hurt in a 1991 car accident.

Two or three days later, he started to feel better," she said, noting that he won the S.C. Open in 1998.

She said she and their two daughters also have gotten help from Nikken products.

We make no promises, she said. We loan everything out first. If it helps you, fine; you can buy it This stuff amazes all of us, too.

Not least of the amazing things about magnets is the strong pull they exert on a consumers wallet.

Nikken, founded 27 years ago in Japan, now is based in California and its annual sales top $1.5 million.

A Nikken sleep system (thick mattress pad) will set you back $1,489 for king size, $848 for twin. Elastomag wraps range from $66 (wrist) to $127 (knee). Shoe insoles range from $60 to $106 pair.

Magna-Paks offering include offering include a line of products devoted to golfers. Bracelets start at $19.95, and a $9.95 pair of Power Disks promises to power up your swing.

Neodymium products include magnetic supports for the elbow or ankle ($34.95) or knee ($44.95). Relieve pain today, Its web site declares, although the FDA forbids magnet marketers from claiming medical benefits such as alleviating pain.

We say discomfort, Susan Few said.

Magnets have largely been marketed by direct sales, like Amway or Avon, but now you can find them in catalogs, jewelry stores and sports-related businesses. And the Internet has an endless supply of magnetic products.

Helping the magnet biz have been testimonials from athletes such as Dan Marino

Hideki Irabu, David Cone, Bob Murphy, and Jim Colbert.

Golf Headquarters in Columbia, S.C., carries an array of magnet bracelets ranging from $19.99 to $64.99. The stores Charlie Weisberg said he has sold plenty to golfer with aches and pains including the bracelet he used to wear.

A customer bought it right off my wrist, he said.

Gold's Gym in Lexington, S.C., sells high protein shakes, but not magnet products. Exercise physiologist David Roberts said he has heard conflicting reports on the effectiveness of magnet therapy and has his doubts.

The only magnets I have are on my fridge,

he said.

Many share Roberts skepticism about magnetic products, though they've been around for centuries and are purported to treat everything from diarrhea to epilepsy.

There's a role for magnets in the modern medicine, of course. An MRI is a magnetic resonance imaging device. Electromagnetic therapy has been used in healing fractures. And a researcher at the Medical University of South Carolina has used electromagnetic impulses to treat depression.

But the MUSC researcher, Mark George, said his electromagnetic stimulation device is thousands of times stronger than the static magnet products.

Don't make the assumption that because they both have the word magnet in them, they're the same, he said.

George said he's an opened-minded skeptic, but has not been impressed with the numerous studies cited to support magnet users claims.

I'm amazed at the lack of double-blinded, rigorous data showing therapeutic effects, he said.

As for the more esoteric claims, such as for a magnetic necklace claimed to help sinus problems, George said dryly: I cant see the mechanism by which that would work.

Orthopedic surgeon Jeff Guy is a University of South Carolina assistant professor who specializes in sports medicine. He's open to the idea that alternative medicine might help people.

But he noted that some magnetic products, such as the wraps for knees and ankles, might be therapeutic because they support the sore joints, not because they're magnetic.

A sprained ankle will get better on its own anyway," he said.

Guy wouldn't stop a person from trying magnetic therapy; he doesn't see a downside. But do I prescribe it? No.

Studies on magnets have been done at reputable institutions such as Baylor and Vanderbilt, but there have been just as many analyses criticizing and debunking them.

James Livingston, a senior lecturer at MIT, is an expert on magnets who has studied the studies. He said that they tend to overestimate magnets therapeutic value and that most have not been replicated.

A lot of people are helped by a lot of things, he said. Its really hard to overestimate the power of the placebo effect.

The placebo effect is when people report feeling better even though their treatment had no medical value. For example, a plain sugar pill placebo might get results if you tell the patient its a new wonder drug.

In one study Livingston found questionable, subjects were not supposed to know whether they were using the real magnetic insoles or not. Later, 80 percent said they had cheated by checking whether the insole would pick up a paper clip.

But even Livingston allows for the possibility that lower-powered, static magnets might be found to have measurable medical effects. They might influence neurotransmitters, he said, or affect circulation by dilating blood vessels. (Even among those who think magnets work, there's disagreement about how.)

In a Vanderbilt research project, Livingston called the only study I've seen that really looked plausible, four magnets were used to create a magnetic field targeted to certain areas of the body. The researchers said it stopped pain by blocking the transmission of pain signals between cells.

Id like to see somebody replicate that preferably someone who's not involved in selling magnets, Livingston said.

Micki Barber of Charleston, S.C., an anesthesiologist who now is a Nikken representative, is one doctor who finds the magnet research persuasive, especially the work at Vanderbilt.

I don't discount the placebo effect, she said. There's a 30 percent placebo response to any treatment.

But she and Few said magnet products also seemed to help animals, who presumably would not be psyched out by placebo effects. (Nikken sells products for horses and smaller animals; you can buy a 48-by-30 inch pet pad for $150.)

Barber said shed never claimed magnets worked for everyone, but that doctors are increasingly open-minded about them.

If you knew how many physicians in Charleston are probably wearing the magnets products, you would be shocked, she said.

The placebo effect is something Issie Morphis considered when she tried the magnet products. Her husband is a doctor, and she knows peoples feelings can affect their response to treatment.

I thought about that, she said. I asked myself, Am I talking myself into this?

But I really don't think so. I really think they're working.

<                    body's cells need to be alkaline

<                    body's cells need to be negative

<                    body's cells need to have a high oxygen content

HOW QUICK SHOULD RESULTS BE EXPECTED?

Every human body has incredible complex systems and each human body is slightly different from the next in relationship to metabolism, likes and dislikes, reactions to foods, medication, etc. With this reasoning, every human body, also will react differently with magnetic therapy.

For some people, they will have immediate results, for others, it can take days - weeks  of applied bio-power magnets to achieve results.

Do not become discourage if the first attempt proves to be unsuccessful. Experiment with different bio-power magnet placements and/or different bio-power magnet strengths (more or less gauss rating).

Personally and in my opinion, nono-polar bio-power magnets is by far the best. Each  nono-polar bio-power magnet contains single sides of each negative and positive polarity and are guaranteed to be alive with their power and will give better results.

 THERE ARE CERTAIN PLACEMENTS OF BIO-POWER  MAGNETS THAT CAN AND WILL BE MORE BENEFICIAL THAN OTHERS.

LEARN HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR MAGNETIC THERAPY