Magnetic therapy
From RationalWiki
| B U L L "The universe is a strange and wondrous place. The truth is quite odd enough to need no help from pseudoscientific charlatans." |
Magnetic therapy is a worthless quack treatment for arthritis. Magnetic bracelets and shoe insoles are sold for this purpose. If you absolutely must have one you can find it -- where else -- at your local health food store or New Age bookstore, or advertised in the Weekly World News.
[edit] Bullshit
The general idea is that magnetic fields work miracles such as "increase circulation" or "reduce swelling". While pulsed, high powered fields have been shown to have some benefit on some wounds, the effect of exposure to very small magnetic fields is negligible to zero.[1] Hæmoglobin, for example is slightly diamagnetic, but it would take extremely powerful electromagnets or superconducting magnets to show any influence on blood flow, let alone significant or positive effect - and as MRI scanners are considered to be pretty safe, and are far stronger magnets than are available to magnetic therapists, there isn't really that much of an affect.
Most studies done on magnetic fields have yielded the result that wearing magnets has no effect above a basic placebo. For example, the pain due to arthritis - a joint condition sometimes targeted by magnetic therapy - varies from day to day or even from hour to hour; as a result, patients can find it hard to tell whether the treatment is actually working. Selective reporting and confirmation bias takes care of the rest to ensure that any scam treatments get a positive reception.
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
| Alternative medicine articles on RationalWiki | ||
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| Aromatherapy - Autism: Peddling false hope - Bee venom therapy - Chelation therapy - Chiropractic - Cleanse - Colloidal silver - Hulda Clark - Colonic - Color therapy - DMSO - Ear candling - Faith healing - Fasting - Folk remedy - Geier family - Hair Analysis - Health freedom - Heel (company) - Herbal supplement - Homeopathy - Kombucha - Laetrile - Lupron therapy - Macrobiotics - Magnetic therapy - Medical marijuana - National Health Federation - Narconon - Oxygen therapy - Q-Ray - Reflexology - Rolfing - Shark cartilage - Shiitake mushroom - Therapeutic touch - Trepanation - Kevin Trudeau - Unani Diet woo: Blood type diet - Caveman diet - Ephedrine - Fad diet - Food woo - Jesus Diet - Lemonade diet- Low-carb diet - Organic food - Raw foodism - Self help | ||
