New Way of Relieving Pain?

The new thing in relieving pain are magnets. No, they're not just for your fridge any more. Ok, I said a new thing, but really magnet therapy has been around since the late 70's.

Approximately ninety percent of Americans are in pain at least once a month. Fifty percent of Americans are in nearly constant pain, out of which nearly thirty-five percent are in chronic pain. These thirty-five percent would do nearly anything to end their pain, wouldn't you?

Well as I said before, people are starting to do anything to end their pain, including using magnets. These magnets are quite different looking than your regular refrigerator magnets. They come in all different shapes and sizes and can be purchased in health food stores, drugstores, as well as online.

Some people that have used them say they help reduce swelling, bruising and pain. Nowadays it's not enough to know whether or not it worked for yourself. You have to have a scientific approval stamped on it. Well here is your scientific stamp, in 1997 a study was demonstrated. The Mayo Clinic and Brown University have used magnets to help recalcitrant fractures to heal, possibly by bone cell growth.

There have been quite a few studies done since 1997 that have proven magnets may also offer relief with muscle pulls and other injuries not just chronic pain. Know one is really sure how exactly they work, but their have been a few theories developing over the years.

For starters, Magnets may block cells from sending pain messages to the brain, they speed up healing by increasing blood flow to the injured area, restore the body's electrical balance, or even stabilize membranes in cells affected by pain and injury.

The first actually successful study was conducted by Carlos Vallbona, M.D., which is a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. There he works with patients with post polio syndrome. Post polio syndrome is the chronic muscular or arthritis-like pain that can develop decades after contracting polio.

Dr. Vallbona, being a skeptic, wasn't to keen on trying the so called magnet therapy. He first tried it on a knee he injured years before, within minutes he said the pain was completed gone. That is what started him wondering how well it would work on his patients.

Proper placement is important to get the full benefits from the magnets. They should be placed on the spot(s) where the pain originates. Such sites may include areas such as your neck, lower back, knee, hip, head, and shoulder.

All Magnets aren't the same, respectfully anyway. What makes them the same are the fact that they both have two poles. One projects a magnetic field away from the magnet, the other pulls it in. The difference is how the poles are arranged. On a "bi-directional" magnet, they're on the same side, while on a "uni-directional" one they're on opposite sides. No one is really sure if this really affects the magnets ability to help or not. Although, the trend seems to be toward uni-directional magnets.

The next question is will magnets work for me? Unfortunately there is no way to tell until you try it. Even though it has worked on over seventy-five percent of the people that tried it, doesn't necessarily mean it will work for you. Also, just because it worked on one part of your body doesn't mean it will work everywhere or for every condition for that matter.

I say to you, if you are one in the thirty-five percentile that is in chronic pain and your current pain management isn't working, why not give magnet therapy a try. Some, not all, insurances will even pay for it.