The wife and I attended the Puyallup Fair today. One of the first vendors we came across was selling various types of magnetic jewelry and other doodads as a method of controlling pain and other physical ailments. The guy latched onto my wife, she had carpal tunnel surgery last week and still has a brace on her wrist. He shook a can of what he called magic magnetic balls over her wrist for a minute and to my wife’s surprise, the pain she was having went away. He claimed that if she was to have used magnetic therapy, she would have never needed the surgery. But all we needed to do now was spend $120 on his magic magnetic balls, a magnetic bracelet, and magnetic shoe inserts and my wifes pain will go away. He also called my wife an idiot for letting a doctor cut on her and claimed his magnetic therapy could put most doctors out of business. At that point I called the guy a snake oil salesman and we walked away.
What is the poop on this magnetic therapy stuff? Since we got home, I took a large magnet I have and passed it around my wife’s sore wrist and she says it helps the pain but for only short time, the pain comes back after 5 minutes whether the magnet is moving around her wrist or not. I was thinking it has something to do with drawing the iron in the blood to the area causing temporary pain relief but I don’t see how it can cause permenant pain relief that the vendor claimed. Has anyone ever tried magnetic therapy and did it work?
Magnets for health or hype?
Magnet therapy for health is making its rounds again. This is not a new therapy, and also not a proven therapy. Most scientist believe magnets have no effect on the body!
It’s all BS. Magnets have no scientifically proven effects on the body. Well, not those small little magnets they sell as miricle cures. Maybe if you stepped in the field of a giant electro-magnet you would feel something, but I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be a good thing.
This is what I would call an opportunity. Wrap up the magnet and another object of the same size and weight in a way such that it is not possible to tell which is which without inside knowledge. You’ll need an assistant who doesn’t know which is which. Mark one as A and one as B so you know which is which.
Blindfold your wife. In the absence of the assistant (so they don’t see which is the real magnet), start with an open trial. Use the actual magnet, tell your wife you are using the actual magnet, and see if she gets pain relief. Then use the other object. Tell you’re wife you’re not using the magnet. See if she gets pain relief.
Next do a completely double blinded test, in which you leave the room (so you don’t give anything away) while the assistant randomly waves one or other object over her wrist and your wife reports whether she gets pain relief or not. The assistant should write down which object they are using and what your wife reports. Do a whole series of these, I’m not sure how many, maybe 20 or so runs.
Assess the results.
My guess is that your wife will report pain relief in the open trial using the magnet (due to the placebo effect) and that the results from the double blind will be random.