Magnet debate heats up

No massage conference these days is complete without magnetic items—bracelets, back braces, insoles, or wrist or knee brands—for sale. Whether for personal use or sale to clients, magnets have grown in popularity among massage therapists just as they have with the general public: Annual sales of magnetic products are estimated, by the authors of a new article, at more than $1 billion globally.

The article was published in the Jan. 7 issue of the British Medical Journal, the United Kingdom's counterpart to our Journal of the American Medical Association. The authors, physics professor Leonard Finegold and obstetrics and gynecology physician Bruce Flamm, claim in their article that "magnet therapy has no proved benefits, and that any healing effect is likely to be small." They claim that many studies of magnet therapy are suspect because it is difficult to blind subjects to the presence of a magnet. More importantly, they warn, self-treatment with magnets may result in an underlying medical condition being left untreated.

But according to magnet therapists, the new study is simply a review of previously published, and flawed, research.

"Quite simply, the two esteemed gentlemen who wrote this report have merely reviewed much of the research that has been published in recent years and given their own opinion on the results," said Debbie Shimadry, a nurse specialist, magnetic therapist and the author of an upcoming book on magnet therapy, in a BBC interview.

"Qualified and trained magnetic therapy practitioners do not make such outrageous claims which are highlighted in the report," she added. "Magnets are not a cure for anything. They simply provide symptom control, i.e. the reduction of pain and inflammation for people with joint and inflammatory diseases."