Magnet-therapy is the new tool available to patients and rehabilitation specialists in the United States, thanks to the growing demand for alternative medicine.
Clinicians in the US have found magnetic therapy a reimbursable medical expense in Germany, Israel, Japan and 45 other countries and became intrigued with its possibilities for American health care.
Early manufacturers produced the familiar magnet with North and South Poles, but growing numbers of investigators have realised the importance of using only one pole (usually north or negative). This allows for a much stronger magnetic field to be placed against the area of pain, which research seems to indicate the need for, especially in chronic pain or overuse symptoms.
The Office of Alternative Medicine of the National Institute of Health in Washington, DC, has even awarded a million-dollar grant to Ann Gill Taylor, RN, PhD at the University of Virginia, to study the effects of magnets in chronic pain. Prestigious centres such as John Hopkins, Baylor College of Medicine and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are also studying magnetic therapy.
Ray Cralle, a practitioner in the US, first heard of magnets in 1993 in Ireland when he met Austin Darragh, MD, a world-renowned researcher, who had been using magnets to treat pain. “The joy of finding something so simple, yet so effective in helping people relieve pain still fascinates me,” he says. “I have practised for over 24 years and never been as impressed by a technology so simple and effective in helping arthritis, back pain and even fibromyalgia (chronic fatigue) just to name a few. I am convinced that it will soon be commonplace to treat headaches, sports injuries and even allergies with magnets, and that managed care will find it on the top of its list of worthwhile expenses.”