MEDICAL INQUIRY: Magnetic Healing

"Perhaps magnets heal through a beleif in their therapeutic abiility...rather than through actual physical manipulation of the body."

Magnets have captivated the human mind for centuries. Because they cause metal obects to react from some distance away, they were believed to be magical. The superstitious throughout many cultures concluded that an object with such strong magical properties could naturally also be used to heal the sick. Thus, the use of magnets in a medical capacity was inevitable.

But can magnets really help heal? One scientist speculated that every cell in the human body has a positive and negative force which allows magnets to manipulate tissue at their very core. Another idea was that since our blood contains iron, a magnet could then draw more blood to the site of injury greatly speeding up the healing process.

Although intriguing, the theories have been found to be false. Our cells do not have a positive and negative force...therefore it is biologically impossible to alter the body. Second, the iron in our blood is in a chemical state; it will not respond to magnetism.

Another discovery was that magnets sold in kits for home use has only 1mm of penetration power. Our skin ranges from 0.5mm thickness at the eyelids to 4mm on the bottom of our feet. Common sense would say that most people do not use magnets on their eyelids. And every other location on the body is thicker than 1mm. Magnets therefore can not possibly work on a physical level.

What about a placebo effect? A placebo is a treatment that causes a person releif due more of a "belief" in its healing ability rather than through true physical changes. Often the patient is not aware that the method really has no physical influence...therefore any changes in their physical state comes from a mental level.

I figure if a magnet can heal through a "beleif" in it's ability...then in a round about way...it "does" have the power to heal. I beleive that mental healing is just as important as physical healing.

One more theory that I would like for you to consider is that all things, living or dead, is made up of energy. A small group of people are capable of seeing traces of this energy; they call it an "aura". The theory of aura is still a mystery to science, and so far is only accepted on a more spiritual level. Again, we are left with no evidence that can offer insight into how a magnet might affect our physical makeup; instead, perhaps we should be looking on a spiritual level.

Ultimately, until proven by science, the choice to beleive in the healing power of magnetism is yours.