Magnets to the Rescue

I do not understand the public’s fascination with magnets.  People sleep at night on magnetic mattresses; they wear magnetic bracelets, necklaces, and back braces.  I am not sure if they are making a fashion statement, attempting to ward off evil spirits, or healing an injury.  If you talk to a believer, you hear a litany of reasons why magnets are beneficial.  Our bodies are basically one big electric circuit.  The travel of nerve impulses and cellular communication require positively and negatively charged particles.  Even the iron in our blood carries a charge.  It doesn’t take much stretch of the imagination to see that magnets might be able to impact all of this polarized activity. Of course, my fear is magnets might screw up the well worked out balances of protons, electrons, muons, and so on.  Proponents of magnet therapy certainly don’t seem too concerned about throwing their electrical balance out of whack.  Quite the opposite appears to be the case.

            The proposed health benefits of magnets are many.  A quick online search reveals magnets have been used for thousands of years to treat various ailments ranging from exercise-induced muscle soreness to schizophrenia.  Although the exact mechanism by which magnets exert their healing influence remains poorly elucidated, alternative practitioners embrace their potential healing powers.  There are various types of magnets used for healing.  The most widely used and available to the average user are “static magnets.”  They are called static because their magnet field is constant.  This contrasts with other modalities such as pulsed electromagnetic field therapy which, as one might surmise, provides variable magnetic impulses and generally requires professional application.  Being a do-it-yourselfer, I start my investigation into the miracle of magnets with some store-bought static magnets.

            My research reveals that several companies sell “static” magnets for home use.  I log onto Amazon, my preferred shopping portal, and decide to buy two magnet arrays sold by Bioflex.  Bioflex is the self-proclaimed “original magnet manufacturer” with magnets designed “specifically and exclusively for human and veterinary medical use.”  Wonderful - if it doesn’t work for me, I can use them to heal my dog.  The Bioflex website claims its concentric circle magnets are able to modulate the body’s normal production of anti-inflammatory chemicals within affected tissues and thereby promote pain relief.  Despite my well-chronicled visits to multiple health practitioners, I continue to suffer from chronic lower back pain, periodic headaches, and insomnia.  With these ailments in mind, I order the Bioflex Deluxe Lumbar Back Support and the Bioflex Magnetic Head Band for $59.99 and $29.99 respectively.  My plan is to wear both of these as much as possible during the next four weeks.  I can wear the back brace, which is embedded with the static concentric magnets, throughout much of the day and the head band to sleep at night.  I am not sure how my patients would react to my wearing the head band to work.  Perhaps I will find out.  Needless to say, I will keep away from the MRI machines at the hospital and avoid curious children carrying paperclips and needles.

Next week . . . did the magnets work?