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A1: It is more than placebo. Back when I was an acupuncture student, an elderly friend called. She had had a frozen shoulder for two weeks and couldn't even dress herself. I couldn't needle yet, so I stopped at a hardware store, picked up some round magnets, about a quarter inch thick, and brought some tape. I placed one on her trapezius near the muscle insertion, and tapped it for a minute before taping it on. If she had felt worse, I would have flipped it over so the other pole was down (the magnet was not labeled as many are today.) I taped another, same pole down, on the dorsal side of her wrist on the same meridian. We talked for a bit, and a half hour later she was able to raise her arm above her head. She kept them on for two weeks and it never came back. Since that time I have treated many people with magnets for pain or numbness.
Not all magnets are created equal, even of equal gauss rate. Some don't penetrate deeply and others are too strong. I buy mine from Oriental Medical Supply. I use Korean hand magnets on auricular points because they seem stronger than the ear magnets and don't get imbedded in tissue if they are on for too long. When I was doing addiction acupuncture, we used the ear magnets to calm the outpatients over Sundays (otherwise they came daily.) I use the color coded plastic-encased magnets when there is strong pain, and acupoint gold magnets for more general use when I want to continue the effect of acupuncture treatments. Flat sheet magnets are virtually inert. Ceramic magnets sometimes are more effective than rare earth magnets, but they are larger and somewhat clumsy. I prefer polar magnets to the "multipolar" ones, but Japanese research (proprietary, so possibly not objective) seems to find a slight benefit to the latter.
I have had good experience with magnetic mattress pads getting rid of tingling limbs. It may take a week or so to accommodate to sleeping over a magnetic field though. The theory is that our background magnetic levels are lower than at other times since the poles of the earth seem to be reversing. I don't know if the theory is accurate, but I personally have slept on a magnetic mattress pad for ten years without problems. I have never found a decent magnetic innersole- the hardness of the magnets seems to counteract any benefit from the fields and mostly the magnets are too small to penetrate the feet appreciably.
Have never tried the bracelets and the necklaces strike me as too diffuse- I would rather use acupoints or muscle insertions to locate magnets.
Karen Vaughan, MSTOM
Licensed Acupuncturist, and Herbalist
253 Garfield Place
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718) 622-6755
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