Magnetic Therapy Debate

by Gregory Allen Butler

I went to a presentation yesterday about magnetic therapy and the logic made sense. Were all the claims true? I found today that there are studies from Europe and Asia that back up the claims I heard. However, a lot of the studies were tests using electromagnetic therapy, which is a lot more powerful.

Magnetic therapy research in the United States is scant compared to what you will see in Europe. If you can read Russian and German, you can read hundreds of double-blind controlled studies that will convince the most narrow-minded skeptic that magnetic therapy is of immense therapeutic value.

In the United States there have been a few controlled studies that point to benefits of magnetic therapy, but due to conditioned thinking that it is nothing but quackery has prevented its acceptance into the mainstream.

The many benefits of magnetic therapy come from the effect it has on the blood. Among other things, it oxygenates the blood, it increases circulation, and it promotes alkalinity of the blood. These changes in blood alone can lead to dramatic health improvement.

In the United States, there seems to be a prevalence of opinion that the negative field, or diamagnetic north pole is the side of the magnet you want to have exposure to. But there is some debate if you can actually create a magnetic wall that prevents the opposite polarity from leaking through.

Then there is also the argument that a bi-polar arrangement of magnets is most beneficial. That is the consensus of opinion in Japan. And there is some evidence that some conditions call for positive south pole magnetic fields or bipolar (both negative and positive) and not for negative field. More testing needs to be done.

In the September 1990 issue of the "Journal of the National Medical Association" there is a report that gives evidence that exposure to the biomagnetic north pole end is of benefit vs. the south pole end. Scientists took petri dishes full of cancer cells and put them in either the biomagnetic north pole end of a magnetic resonance imaging facility or the biomagnetic south pole end. In three weeks, the petri dishes in the north pole end exhibited a dramatic decrease in cell growth, which is what you want to see with cancer cells. The dishes in the south end exhibited a slight, but detectable, increase in the rate of cell growth.

That seems to support the arguments made by Dr. William Philpott, that the benefits to health from magnetic therapy come from the biomagnetic negative north pole and that the diamagnetic positive south pole exacerbates disease. He is a highly renowned medical professional. He was the recipient of The Linus Pauling Award in 1998 by The Orthomolecular Health Society, "for his scientific leadership and scholarship spanning the entire history of orthomolecular medicine".

Here are his findings on biomagnetic north pole vs. biomagnetic south pole:

North (Negative) Pole
· Relieves pain
· Reduces swelling
· Promotes tissue alkalinization
· Promotes sound, restful sleep
· Increases tissue oxygenation
· Calms the nervous system
· Assists in relief of addictive tendencies
South (Positive) Pole
· Accelerates growth indiscriminately
· Increases swelling
· Promotes tissue acidity
· Decreases tissue oxygenation
· Makes sleep less sound and restful
· Promotes anxiety

It is of interest that Dr. William Philpott received the Linus Pauling award, because it was Linus Pauling who really brought the relevancy of magnetism to the forefront of medical science. And it was for that that he received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1954 for his discovery of the magnetic properties of hemoglobin (the component in blood that is responsible for its red color.) This was a significant discovery because iron, in addition to its function as a carrier of oxygen in hemoglobin, plays an important role in the internal metabolism of the cell. Since it is easy to magnetize, iron in blood is a perfect carrier of energy.

Despite some studies that show magnetic therapy to be beneficial, there have been others that showed no benefit at all. Because of this, doctors in the United States have been reluctant to embrace it. So what? The last time I checked, 148,000 a year die in the United States from complications stemming from doctor prescribed drugs.

I like a common sense approach when it comes to magnetic therapy. Try it. You might like it. Gary Null, Ph.D. likes that approach too, when it comes to the use of magnets:

Even if you do not have access to the research, magnets are simple to use. So, why not give them a try? My suggestion would be to use magnets on yourself as if you were performing a single controlled study. Listen to what your body tells you. If you have had unremitting arthritis pain in your hands and apply a magnet to it, you may find that three days later you no longer have pain for the first time in 10 years. Remember, your own experience is valid.