Do Magnets Help Relieve Low Back Pain?
Do Magnets Help Relieve Low Back Pain?
March 7, 2000 (Baltimore) -- Treating people with chronic low back pain with one particular type of magnet did not help relieve the patients' pain, a study in the March 8 issue of TheJournal of the American Medical Association reports. But experts say that much more research is needed on magnet therapy before concluding that it doesn't work.
Magnet therapy is an alternative medicine that has become increasingly popular for healing and reducing pain. Worldwide, $5 billion has been spent on magnets to treat everything from back pain to headaches. But very little research has been done to determine whether magnet therapy actually works.
"Magnets have been around for a very long time," says the study's lead author, Edward Collacott, MD. "There are reports that Cleopatra slept with a magnet on her forehead to help preserve her youth, and certainly we are seeing large numbers of people using them today. Even though we did not observe a reduction in low back pain with magnet use in our study, I am not prepared to say they don't work. Right now I would say that if people are having success with them in treating their condition, they shouldn't use this study as evidence to throw them out." Collacott is medical director for physical medicine and rehabilitation at the VA Medical Center in Prescott, Ariz.
The study looked at magnet use in 20 people with low back pain who had never tried magnets before to treat their condition. Study participants were asked to rate their pain using a pain scale and questionnaire. Measures of their spine flexibility were taken before and after treatment.
"The type of magnet used in this study was bipolar," says Collacott. Magnets typically have two poles, a north and a south. Some commercially available magnets have one pole facing the skin, called unipolar. Bipolar magnets' magnetic material is arranged so that both poles are facing the skin, he says.
People in the study used the magnets for six hours a day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a period of one week. After a week with no treatment, they used something that looked exactly like the magnet but was not magnetized, called sham treatment.
Do Magnets Help Relieve Low Back Pain?
March 7, 2000 (Baltimore) -- Treating people with chronic low back pain with one particular type of magnet did not help relieve the patients' pain, a study in the March 8 issue of TheJournal of the American Medical Association reports. But experts say that much more research is needed on magnet therapy before concluding that it doesn't work.
Magnet therapy is an alternative medicine that has become increasingly popular for healing and reducing pain. Worldwide, $5 billion has been spent on magnets to treat everything from back pain to headaches. But very little research has been done to determine whether magnet therapy actually works.
"Magnets have been around for a very long time," says the study's lead author, Edward Collacott, MD. "There are reports that Cleopatra slept with a magnet on her forehead to help preserve her youth, and certainly we are seeing large numbers of people using them today. Even though we did not observe a reduction in low back pain with magnet use in our study, I am not prepared to say they don't work. Right now I would say that if people are having success with them in treating their condition, they shouldn't use this study as evidence to throw them out." Collacott is medical director for physical medicine and rehabilitation at the VA Medical Center in Prescott, Ariz.
The study looked at magnet use in 20 people with low back pain who had never tried magnets before to treat their condition. Study participants were asked to rate their pain using a pain scale and questionnaire. Measures of their spine flexibility were taken before and after treatment.
"The type of magnet used in this study was bipolar," says Collacott. Magnets typically have two poles, a north and a south. Some commercially available magnets have one pole facing the skin, called unipolar. Bipolar magnets' magnetic material is arranged so that both poles are facing the skin, he says.
People in the study used the magnets for six hours a day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a period of one week. After a week with no treatment, they used something that looked exactly like the magnet but was not magnetized, called sham treatment.