The following is a copy of an editorial which appeared recently in the
National Post.
Howard Fienberg Magnet therapy? Puh-leeze
National Post August 1, 2000
>
> The huckster at a carnival invites you to be instantly healed by his
> magic wand. Fifty cents? "Sure," you think, "what can it hurt?" How
> about five dollars? Or 50? "Now, wait a minute," you say, "does this
> magic work? And if so, how?"
>
> My feet hurt, so I was attracted by a similar offer of magic from a
> prominent shoe manufacturer. Its new magnetic shoe is "the first shoe
> with its own power supply," guaranteed to increase circulation, reduce
> fatigue and pain and improve my energy.
>
> U.S. sales of healing magnets last year yielded as much as
> US$300-million. Is this really every pedestrian's dream? Do magnets
> really help?
>
> The marketer of the magnetic shoe relies on the principle that the
> body can be affected by exposure to external magnetic fields." So,
> magnets can increase the flow of blood, thus boosting the healing
> process. This is a common claim that seems to be based on the
> misunderstanding of the iron present in your blood.
>
> Physicist Robert Park pointed out in his recent book Voodoo Science
> that "the iron in hemoglobin molecules is in a chemical state that is
> not ferromagnetic." In plain English, magnets don't attract your
> blood. Have you ever been scanned in a magnetic resonance imaging
> (MRI) machine? It contains magnets fantastically more powerful than
> those used in magnet therapy. According to Dr. Stephen Barrett of
> Quackwatch ("your guide to health fraud, quackery, and intelligent
> decisions"), the MRI "can cause tiny changes that the equipment can
> detect but are temporary and have no known health effect." If magnets
> had a serious impact on your blood flow, an MRI scan would probably
> blow you to bits.
>
> Proponents of quack medicine often attempt to add intellectual weight
> to their proclamations by prefacing them with the phrase "studies
> show" (a convenient way to attract interest when they haven't got a
> golf pro's endorsements to fall back on). But scientifically valid
> clinical trials have yet to discover any effect of physical effects
> from magnet therapy. Prominent in this case is a study from the
> January, 1997, Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association
> that found magnetic insoles had no effect on heel pain. But that is
> all among scientists. How are we in the public supposed to evaluate
> magnets?
>
> Well, the best way to start is to check your magnet's power yourself.
> Magnets used in magnet therapy differ little from your average
> refrigerator magnet. Physicist Robert Park found the magnetic field
> from these flimsy things can't penetrate a dozen sheets of paper
> before falling to the floor. If that is the case, how can you expect
> it to penetrate your shoe as well as the thick skin of your foot?
>
> Lacking scientific evidence, can't we rely on the wisdom of the
> ancients? Magnet therapies were used for centuries by many cultures.
> Maybe they were on to something. But wasn't bloodletting the favourite
> tool of healers for centuries as well? The length of time people cling
> to a belief gives no indication of its veracity.
>
> What about personal experience and anecdotal evidence? Why does magnet
> therapy seem to work for some people? MIT physicist James Livingston
> proposes that "the magnetic back braces used by many senior golfers
> may help ease their back pains through providing mechanical support,
> through localized warming, and through constant reminder to the ageing
> athletes that they are no longer young and should not overexert their
> muscles." None of which requires magnets, of course. In fact, the most
> recent study of magnet therapy for back pain, in the Journal of the
> American Medical Association this past March, "found no immediate or
> cumulative difference in the outcome measures of low back pain"
> between real and fake magnets.
>
> Magnets generally act as a placebo -- they change our perceptions
> rather than our reality. We can fool ourselves out of minor aches,
> pains and fatigue if we believe this pill or that magnet will help.
>
> So magnet therapy is more about imagination than physics.
> "Hocus-pocus," the carnival huckster tells you, and your pain is gone.
> The news-addled public has been driven to the belief that for each
> study pointing one way, another exists pointing in the opposite
> direction, mostly because it cannot adequately judge a study's
> meaning. But discerning science from pseudoscience does not always
> require a PhD -- just a little mental exercise. We are all capable of
> sifting through the promises of politicians and deciding between
> brands of peanut butter -- we just need to consider them skeptically.
>
> (Howard Fienberg is research analyst with the Statistical Assessment
> Service, a non-partisan non-profit organization.)
>
-------------------------------------------------------
Best,
Bob
**********************************************
Robert A. Fink, M. D., F.A.C.S., P. C.
2500 Milvia Street Suite 222
Berkeley, California 94704-2636
Telephone: 510-849-2555 FAX: 510-849-2557
WWW: http://www.dovecom.com/rafink/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
"Ex Tristitia Virtus"
*********************************************
