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Yes

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Yes, magnets work, but I have only anecdotal evidence.

Fifteen years ago I learned about the healing qualities of magnets thanks to my friend Paulina who was receiving training in Hand Acupuncture with a Korean doctor. I am a physician and I have a scientific mind, so when she talked about magnets, I demanded her to provide research references, statistics. She was a math teacher, not a health care professional and she went mute; she couldn't offer me anything to quench my thirst for facts. But because I had started to get curious about alternative practices I decided to give them a try.

It seemed that at least they would not do harm. I used magnets to treat an old neck pain. She gave me two types of magnets. Tiny pellets that I taped over certain acupuncture points in my hands and face, and dime sized magnets that I used over trigger points and sore muscles. She explained that magnets have been used in Chinese medicine for centuries.

My faith in magnets grew from there, when I experienced that they worked nicely. However, when they became so popular that they would be sold in food marts as bracelets, insoles, knee bands, neck braces, pillows, mattresses and earrings, I said to myself that it was about time to research them seriously.

I found all sorts of explanations that went from saying that magnetism was the underlying principle in all the laws of the universe, mistakenly equating magnetism to gravitational force, to really scientific explanations on the effects of magnets in our body. Unfortunately, many studies about magnets were published in alternative medicine magazines, and very few in peer reviewed medical journals. Medicine argued that the studies published lacked credibility because they usually didn't follow the strict protocols that are accepted in mainstream medicine. But I also know that medicine doesn't step out of the box when it comes to researching a novel therapy.

I've read articles listing theories on how magnets work, some postulating that they would affect the iron in our blood, and articles saying that magnets would not have an effect on our bodies because the iron in our blood is not ferromagnetic. In my opinion, in order to be valid, research on magnets needs to address the idea that there are magnetic and electric fields in our bodies and this is no longer so difficult to prove.

It is also important to say that in my experience, magnets are not as harmless as I thought. After a tooth extraction and a bone graft, I presented neuralgia and detected several trigger points in my neck. I went to sleep with a couple of strong magnets taped over the sorest trigger points. During my sleep one of the magnets went loose and was pulled over the other magnet. When I woke up, most of the inflammation was gone but my skin had a burn under the place where the magnet was.

Science is not based on anecdotal evidence, but science should research thoroughly those devises and elements that popular wisdom deem therapeutic. All of our current pharmacopoeia derives from the knowledge that common people had on herbs.

Learn more about this author, Silvia Casabianca.
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