Magnetic Jewelry Therapy

Magnetic jewelry therapy?

My Mom & I went to a specialist 'Magnetic Therapy' place in town, thats meant to releave all kinds of pain by wearing magnetised jewelry. My Mom's friends recommend this as they have used them for various neck and back pains so she brought a little clasp bracelet (which is meant to help her migranes), which she has let me borrow since I have bruised my coccix. Could anyone explain the scientific side of these magnets?; how they work on the pain? I'd like to hear some kind of theory, I personally think its too good to be true! Thankyou :) Thankyou for your opinions so far, I agree that the jewellry could also work on the reassurance that the pain will stop because you are wearing it, if that makes sense I also don't know how to spell jewellry, haha?

Public Comments

1. It is nonsense. Magnetic jewelery will not re-direct brain signals to stop pain. It is not powerful enough at all.
2. They work by the placebo effect. Edit: I'd love to know how magnets help blood circulate. And don't say it's because of the iron in the blood, because the iron in hemoglobin is in the +2 oxidation state, which is diamagnetic and is weakly repelled by a magnetic field. Iron 3 is paramagnetic and is attracted by a magnetic field, except when hemoglobin has iron in this state it turns brown and becomes useless methemoglobin. People with this condition develop cyanosis and have low blood oxygen levels (because methemeglobin can't transport oxygen). They either get treated or they die. Still think it helps blood circulate. Edit: First of all, he's an ex assistant professor at Hopkins (check below if he's listed there), and there's a reason he's an ex member of the faculty. I attend Hopkins medical school. Pawluck is apparently either lying his as$ off for money (most likely), or is a complete moron who slept through chemistry (not so likely). Read into the article where he says it acts on blood because it contains iron, ignoring the facts of oxidation states and plenty of research that says magnetic fields do squat to promote blood flow. You have no clue who you're talking to, what my credentials are, or how to interpret actual research. William Pawluk may be a doctor, but who gives a crap. What he says is relevant, not his degree. What he said was tripe; tripe that isn't backed by one shred of credible research. Don't get pissy because you can be suckered by a degree. Edit: I said PAWLUK. On the bottom of that "credible source", it says that the authors name is William Pawluk and that he's on the faculty of Johns Hopkins. That's a blatant lie. There is nobody with the name of PAWLUK employed at Hopkins in any department. If you call what you've provided credible, then you have the reason why I don't waste my time searching for free journal articles for you to fumble over. BTW, I would love to hear the con artist's response to my statements. Nothing would please me more than to hand his lying as$ to him. I read through that article, it contains NUMEROUS scientific inaccuracies that no person who successfully completed an MD program could be unaware of. That means he's either lying, or he's really stupid and magically came to possess a doctorate of medicine. I will discredit the claims of anybody spreading misinformation, regardless of the medium. If you can't handle it, stop posting this trash.
3. Here is an example of some university scientific studies on magnet therapies for pain. http://www.bioflexmagnets.com/cgi-bin/shop/sc_loadpagez.cgi?user_id=id&file=studies.htm Magnets get blood circulating, and that is how they help pain. Any company that is worth while will let you know how to use them correctly. The adverse reactions are usually small symptoms like headaches, though I have personally never misused them so I don't know if they could cause any real pain. However, to say they are placebo only is ignorant.
4. My mom also got me to try magnets when I had a lot of lower back pain. They did help but they weren't jewelry they weres magnets she strapped on. Looks like a lot of links above but all I know is they helped my back and I needed less tylenol. Seems like everyone I've lent them to says they help with aches and pains. Better than that tylenol. Made my stomach hurt.