How Effective Is Magnetic Therapy Bracelet?

The jury is out on whether electromagnetic waves found in the magnetic therapy bracelet, the magnetic pillow or a magnetic back brace can really cure someone of chronic pain of arthritis, osteoporosis or carpal tunnel. However, trans-magnetic stimulation (also referred to as simply "TMS") has been used by hospitals to awaken coma victims and help stroke victims speak again, not to mention it has been recently FDA-approved to treat depression!

So how do the magnetic therapy bracelets reportedly work? Developers say that magnetic pain relief products work by stimulating the iron in blood stream, causing improved circulation, oxygenation and endorphin release. They say iron is readily magnetized due to the surplus electrons. In fact, natural magnets were created during Cleopatra's time when iron-containing lava cooled and became magnetized by Earth's electromagnetic fields (lodestones). Yet some researchers say that the effectiveness of magnetic therapy products probably has more to do with "the placebo effect," meaning that people can make themselves feel better so long as they think they're taking steps to improve their health.

Generally speaking, do not buy a magnetic therapy bracelet from a company claiming that their magnetic therapy products can "heal arthritis, cancer, asthma or AIDS" because this has not been successfully proven. The FDA says it is illegal for a company to make any unsubstantiated claims and several fly-by-night operations have shut down over such claims and misleading advertising. A few quacks can really spoil it for the rest of the industry, where legitimate research might be found.

Author Michael Sherman published an article in The Scientific American, disputing the effectiveness of the magnetic therapy bracelet and other products. "Iron atoms in a magnet are crammed together in a solid state about one atom apart from one another," he explained. "In your blood only four iron atoms are allocated to each hemoglobin molecule, and they are separated by distances too great to form a magnet. This is easily tested by pricking your finger and placing a drop of your blood next to a magnet." Yet those who suffer from chronic pain will find that magnetic therapy bracelets are a cheap alternative to many of the other relief products on the market, so placebo or not, why not give it a whirl?

More about magnetic therapy bracelet

magnetic therapy

The field of medicine has advanced incredibly over the last two hundred years. In fact over the past fifty years medicine has made incredible leaps and bounds.