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How static magnets can benefit your health
This article appeared as one of three on magnetotherapy in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, January 1999.
It is clear from a number of studies that static magnets can alleviate vascular disorders such as oedema, but that isn’t the only way magnet therapy can assist in the healing process by any means. In this second article I shall describe a number of other treatment modalities with their underlying mechanisms, and in the final part I shall look ahead to some exciting treatments presently only being developed in laboratories.
Neurological diseases represent a class of disorder among the most difficult to deal with. Hippocrates himself even said the same. Yet this kind of problem has grown exponentially during this century, so that Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, atherosclerosis cerebri, and migraine have added to the increasingly common spinal cord injuries arising from road traffic accidents and the way we live.
Sandyk of the University of Thrace, Greece, has presented numerous papers in a supposedly peer-reviewed journal (Intl. J. Neuroscience) reporting individual cases of successful Parkinson’s and MS treatment by means of picoTesla alternating fields (Sandyk, 1993; 1994). He suggests that these fields influence the pineal gland and inhibit the secretion of melatonin, thereby reducing hyperglycaemia.. Admittedly these are not static, but their flux density is much lower than the earth’s half a gauss geomagnetic field, which continually oscillates around a 20 nanoTesla variation. One might even argue that such minute oscillations are indispensable for cellular processes in living creatures, though their mechanism of interaction is not understood: it is said that astronauts are now routinely supplied with an artificial earth’s field during space flights following severe mental problems arising in its absence. Surprisingly little research has followed up Sandyk’s remarkable findings, though the present NASA space program is investigating performance in aged subjects, which completes the connection with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, both being diseases of age..
If Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s result from some kind of adverse effects of synaptic neurotransmitter chemical reactions, then the role of magnets becomes clearer. McLaughlan at Oxford University has reported effects by very weak magnetic fields on chemical reactions, and suggests that they are influencing the spin state of electrons in such a way to slow down their reaction (McLaughlan, 1992). No studies on biological molecular reactions have been carried out in the same way which might support his hypothesis however.
A woman on the South coast once wrote to me that her husband, a Parkinson’s sufferer, became completely lucid for a short time immediately after his NMR scan. The next morning however his condition returned. This story suggests there may be a way of successfully treating Parkinson’s little suspected by the medical establishment, and we at the laboratory would dearly like to follow it up with more formal clinical trials. For the moment, however, we are little wiser about how alternating magnetic fields interact with organic processes. Given the early promise of magnetic treatment of Parkinson’s this is more than a pity.
Analgesic effects
Having said this, the analgesic effects of static magnets have been known for centuries, and they must have some sort of action on sensory neurones to do this. Cavapol, Wamil et al., of Vanderbilt University working in collaboration with Holcombe Technologies Inc. of Nashville in 1995 reported that the size of this neurone blocking action depended on the gradient created by arrays of magnets (e.g. four centre-charged neodymiums ). In their cell culture study two sets of arrays with different field strengths but a common gradient value (about 1mT per mm) had equally effective blocking capability: about 70 percent of the action potential firings were thereby blocked. The higher the gradient the greater this blocking effect.
We have found in our own laboratory that monobloc quadripolar neodymium magnets of much lower field strength are also remarkably effective, and have now designed these improvements into our own Supermagnet products. One can increase the gradient even more by using them in tandem but spatially separated, achieving speedy pain relief in sports injuries that way, particularly in wrist or ankle sprains.
At the Bioelectromagnetics annual meeting at St Pete Beach, Florida, in June 1998 Holcomb and McClean reported one spectacular and exquisitely painful (for the subjects) study whereby a pepper-based substance was injected into the subjects’ skin and then exposed to magnets of the type described. Those subjects given the benefit of the magnetic fields were able to withstand the intense irritation far better than controls.
Holcomb’s pioneering work suggesting that gradient effects rather than simple intensity is paramount is supported by other studies. A uniform 1.2T static magnetic field applied to voltage clamped lobster axons had no effect on conduction velocity, membrane potential, or transmembrane currents (Schwarz, 1989), indeed rats in another study changed direction to avoid regions of a maze characterised by large changes in a static magnetic field from MRI (Weiss, Herrick et al.,1992).
Holcomb believes that field intensity is not the main issue. This may not be the entire picture however. Barnothy’s early work with 8000 gauss magnets clearly pointed to effects not achievable with lower field values (Barnothy, 1956), and our own unpublished cell studies confirm this. I shall be writing more about these in part three.
Brain and spinal disorders
Russian researchers have been aware of the beneficial effects of static magnets on atherosclerosis for some decades. A good idea of vascular tone and brain blood flow can be gained from the rheographic index expressed in mOhms. Using 300-400 gauss magnets Dudyreva in 1976 exposed the Sinus caroticus of 13 patients suffering from this disorder, 62 with cervical osteochondritis, and a further 47 with a combination of both. Treatment was 10-15 exposures of 20 minutes each, daily. She found that the rheoindex improved from around 51 before treatment to between 80-100 at the end of treatment, with evident improvement of vascular tone.
In another study of 104 patients with spinal cord injuries Tchach, Abileva et al., in 1989 applied 400-700 gauss static magnets for an hour 1 to 3 times daily, and reported marked functional improvement (bedridden: 83.5%; those in chairs 22% compared with only 4% among controls). There was not only a clinical improvement, but the electromyogram (EMG) also improved with magnetic treatment. Another early trial of 11 children with polyradiculoneuritis achieved complete healing in 7 of them using 28-gauss magnets applied in 10 sessions of 10-15 minutes (Deyanova, 1976).
Fighting the scourge of rheumatism
One of Britain’s most common ailments, due partly no doubt to our relatively wet weather, is rheumatism. The principal subgroup of these is rheumatoid arthritis, where fluids congregate n the joints and there is debilitating pain and stiffness. It affects women more than men, and in severe cases it causes progressive joint deformity, and eventually joint destruction and disability. The disease is believed to be caused by an infection that prompts the immune system to form damaging aggregates of antigen and antibody. Treatment is confined to control of inflammation and the relief of pain by bedrest, splintage, physiotherapy, and anti-inflammatory or pain killing drugs.
Several studies on this disorder report beneficial effects with pulsed magnetic fields in combination with conventional management (Kocian et al., 1985a, 1985b; Jezek, 1990). In a large study of cervical osteochondritis Detlavs (1987) applied static magnetic fields (100-400 gauss, 15-20 minutes duration, 10-20 treatments) to 425 patients, of whom 138 were male. The results were a significant improvement in arterial tonus and venous tonation as measured by rheography, in some patients after 3-6 exposures and in all by the end of treatment.
An earlier study on patients with rheumatoid arthritis (Aryshenskaya, 1977) used a static magnetic field (150-350 gauss, 10 minutes, 10-20 exposures) reported that patients in stages 1 and 2 responded well, not only clinically, but also as measured by laboratory parameters such as % albumin, gamma globulin and fibrinogen (gm/l). In gamma globulins a decrease of 24% was observed.
Pulmonary complaints
Another wet weather country ailment is bronchitis. Here too static magnets can play a much greater role than is currently the case in conventional medical practice. And here too I cite a properly conducted clinical trial or two to support my argument. 24 children aged 5-6 years suffering from chronic bronchitis were exposed to static magnets of 100-300 gauss for 3 hours and for 30 sessions. These were compared with a 16-child control group. In the exposed group cough and dyspnoea decreased and there was a comparable improvement as measured by pneumotachography compared with controls (Yashchenko et al., 1988). Other paediatric studies on patients with Perthes disease using static magnets of 200-400 gauss for up to 24 hours and over periods from 40 days to 6 months reported improvement in hip mobility, analgesic effects, and in the post exposure periods these improvements continued (Degen et al., 1977; Dolganova, Dolganov et al., 1985).
Skin diseases: a new treatment for psoriasis?
Underlying these successes may well lie the common mechanism of improved blood flow, consequent oxygenation and thereby a normalisation of metabolic processes. In no area is this more apparent than in the dermatological field, particularly soft tissue wound healing.
Some of our most common ailments today include skin diseases such as psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, eczema, and pruritis. These all have their origin in immune dysfunction, and fall therefore under immediate suspicion as being "modern" disorders of environmental origin. Among the more remarkable magnetic field studies 50Hz magnetic fields for 28 days achieved complete freedom from symptoms in 30 of 50 sufferers and 15 marked improvements (Tretyakova, 1985). In a study of 16 microbial eczemas, 6 neurodermatitis cases, and 15 crural ulcers, Zaerko in 1988 reported improvement in 13 of the eczema cases following 10 hours exposure to 350 gauss static magnetic fields over 10-20 sessions. 13 of the crural ulcers also improved. Granulation of tissue was also reported and epithelialisation, as well as decreased oedema in 5 of 7 patients with crural ulcers in a study by Sieron (1989).
Static fields and bone fracture repair
There have been a large number of studies using pulsed electromagnetic fields in bone fracture repair, inspired by the pioneering work of the late Andy Bassett and by Arthur Pilla of Mount Sinai Hospital New York. Not so common is this study reported by Imants Detlavs using a static magnetic field 3-4 times daily and for 50 minutes each exposure. In this study of metaepiphyseal forearm and crural fractures not only was there a marked reduction of oedema but also the usual analgesic effect. Total therapy duration was decreased by one week. In cases of bone elongation no signs of inflammatory reaction were seen.
Nothing new under the sun
Readers must by now be beginning to see that magnetic therapy has a far wider range of applications than simply its use in gout, as familiarly chronicled by Cleopatra. Henry the Eighth preferred blood letting, but this was nothing like so effective by some accounts. It is surprising that there has not been handed down any historical text detailing the various possible therapeutic uses of magnets. True, magnets are mentioned in the Yellow Book of the Chinese Emperor, but only fleetingly. Those interested in history will find absorbing the account by Dr Paul Rosch in his new book Magnet Therapy, now available in the UK via our laboratory. Those with a more professional need will find the experiments above and many hundreds of others set out in far greater detail in our Proceedings of the First World Congress, which we organised at the Royal Society of Medicine in May 1996.
Among the many treatments mentioned by Rosch is ADD, attention deficit disorder, among children. We would call it hyperactivity in Britain, and it seems to be endemic not only in British children nowadays, to the despair of many primary school teachers, but also in the US where it is branded "the disease of the year". Dr. Bernard Margolis of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, reported at the North American Academy of Magnetic Therapy in 1998 that he had treated 30 such children aged 5 to 18, of whom all but two were male. 19 reported significant improvements in the first week, as judged subjectively by their best judges, the parents, one of whom said "It was like night and day with him. He was lovable with magnets and without, he was up for adoption".
This simple study is reminded me of one I myself had carried out some years before on a small group of Bournemouth hyperactive children. I discovered that these children displayed increasing severity of hyperactivity with increasing nocturnal 50Hz. electric field exposure. One might begin to formulate the hypothesis from these observations that moving electric fields are stressors, as suggested also by Martin Blank of Columbia University, NY, (Blank 1992) and that static magnetic fields are calmant. After all, what has changed on the planet with the advent of our new and convenient technologies is the A.C. electric field. The static magnetic field has always, in the guise of the gentle geomagnetic field of Mother Earth, been with us during our entire evolution.
In the next part of this series I will describe some of the exciting new applications of magnet therapy, yet to reach the practitioner.
Written by Roger Coghill
REFERENCES
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M. BARNOTHY (1956) Influence of a magnetic field on the leucocytes of a mouse. Nature 177: 577-578
C.A.L. BASSETT Fundamental and practical aspects of therapeutic uses of pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs). Crit. Rev. Biomed. Eng. 17(5): 451-529 (1989)
BLANK M. (1992) Na K-ATPase function in alternating electric fields. FASEB J. vol 6: 2434-2438
CAVOPOL A V, WAMIL A W et al. (1995) Measurement and analysis of static magnetic fields that block action potentials in cultured neurons. Bioelectromagnetics J. 16 (3): 197-206
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