Biomedical Engineering Study Demonstrates the Healing Value of Magnets
News Source: Research News
Jan. 2, 2008 — Magnets have been touted for their healing properties
since ancient Greece. Magnetic therapy is still widely used today as an
alternative method for treating a number of conditions, from arthritis to
depression, but there hasn’t been scientific proof that magnets can heal.
Lack of regulation and widespread public acceptance have turned magnetic
therapy into a $5 billion world market. Hopeful consumers buy bracelets,
knee braces, shoe inserts, mattresses, and other products that are embedded
with magnets based on anecdotal evidence, hoping for a non-invasive and
drug-free cure to what ails them.
“The FDA regulates specific claims of medical efficacy, but in general
static magnetic fields are viewed as safe,” notes Thomas Skalak, professor
and chair of biomedical engineering at U.Va.
Skalak has been carefully studying magnets for a number of years in order to
develop real scientific evidence about the effectiveness of magnetic
therapy.
Skalak’s lab leads the field in the area of microcirculation research—the
study of blood flow through the body’s tiniest blood vessels. With a
five-year, $875,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National
Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Skalak and Cassandra
Morris, former Ph.D. student in biomedical engineering, set out to
investigate the effect of magnetic therapy on microcirculation. Initially,
they sought to examine a major claim made by companies that sell magnets:
that magnets increase blood flow.
The researchers first found evidence to support this claim through research
with laboratory rats. In their initial study, magnets of 70 milliTesla (mT)
field strength—about 10 times the strength of the common refrigerator
variety—were placed near the rat’s blood vessels. Quantitative measurements
of blood vessel diameter were taken both before and after exposure to the
static magnetic fields—the force created by the magnets. Morris and Skalak
found that the force had a significant effect: the vessels that had been
dilated constricted, and the constricted vessels dilated, implying that the
magnetic field could induce vessel relaxation in tissues with constrained
blood supply, ultimately increasing blood flow.
Dilation of blood vessels is often a major cause of swelling at sites of
trauma to soft tissues such as muscles or ligaments. The prior results on
vessel constriction led Morris and Skalak to look closer at whether magnets,
by limiting blood flow in such cases, would also reduce swelling. Their
most recent research, published in the November 2007 issue of the American
Journal of Physiology, yielded affirmative results.
In this study, the hind paws of anesthetized rats were treated with
inflammatory agents in order to simulate tissue injury. Magnetic therapy
was then applied to the paws. The research results indicate that magnets
can significantly reduce swelling if applied immediately after tissue
trauma.
Since muscle bruising and joint sprains are the most common injuries
worldwide, this discovery has significant implications. “If an injury
doesn’t swell, it will heal faster—and the person will experience less pain
and better mobility,” says Skalak. This means that magnets could be used
much the way ice packs and compression are now used for everyday sprains,
bumps, and bruises, but with more beneficial results. The ready
availability and low cost of this treatment could produce huge gains in
worker productivity and quality of life.
Skalak envisions the magnets being particularly useful to high school,
college, and professional sports teams, as well as school nurses and
retirement communities. He has plans to continue testing the effectiveness
of magnets through clinical trials and testing in elite athletes. A key to
the success of magnetic therapy for tissue swelling is careful engineering
of the proper field strength at the tissue location, a challenge in which
most currently available commercial magnet systems fall short. The new
research should allow Skalak’s biomedical engineering group to design field
strengths that provide real benefit for specific injuries and parts of the
body.
“We now hope to implement a series of steps, including private investment
partners and eventually a major corporate partner, to realize these very
widespread applications that will make a positive difference for human
health,” says Skalak.
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