Magnets have been used in healing for thousands of years. Egyptian nobility were reported to have worn magnetic jewellery to preserve youth and beauty. African tribes used magnetic ores in food preparation. According to Minda Hsu and Chikuo Fong, two modern researchers of biomagnetism, magnetic therapy has been used in China for more than two thousand years. The oldest known medical book, the Chinese Yellow Emperor’s Book of Internal Medicine, thought to have been written about 2000 BC, mentions the use of magnets on acupuncture points.
Moving away from the Orient, Aristotle wrote in 300 BC about the use of magnets for healing. Pliny the Younger, a Greek physician, wrote about how diseases were treated in Greece in 100 AD. Galen, a third century Roman physician, observed that magnets were used to rid people of constipation.
In 400 AD, French physicians wrote about the use of magnetic necklaces. The use of magnets continued unabated. In 1530, the physician Paracelsus mentioned using the different poles of a magnet to heal.
More recently, in 1977, the French Royal Society of Medicine appointed two experts to verify the value of magnets in the treatment of disease. After careful scrutiny, the experts were convinced that magnets could really heal.
Slowly, scientific methods and rational thought started gaining ground. Even the cynics realised that magnets, when used properly, are an ideal healing apparatus.
In 1936, Albert Davis rediscovered that the two poles of a magnet have different biological effects. He carried out innumerable experiments on animals, seeds and plants. Davis’ basic finding was that one pole stimulated living organisms and the other pole calmed them. In 1948, physicians in the then Soviet Union reported that magnetic treatments could reduce pain after the amputation of limbs. In the 1960s, the Canadian Ministry of Agriculture reported improved germination after grain was exposed to magnetic forces.
The Japanese weren’t to be left behind. They began serious medical research and embarked on the large-scale manufacture of magnetic devices including necklaces, bracelets and beads. It is estimated that ten per cent of the Japanese population use magnetic devices for better health. The Japanese Health Ministry has also fully approved magnetic healing, which is a huge industry in Japan.
The Swiss physician Marcus Weber, in 1992, describes a study of the results of pulsed magnetic fields on over a thousand patients with acute and chronic problems ranging from inflammation to circulation disorders. Physicians who evaluated the results were amazed by the healing properties of magnets. No side effects were observed either.
Magnetic treatment has now spread to different parts of the world. In Europe, since the 1970s, electrically generated pulsed magnets have been in vogue in health spas. In the US, where conventional medicine has a stranglehold, mainstream medical doctors are routinely using the healing.