Magnet Healing

Magnetism has always been a part of mankind's healing armamentarium. The earliest mention of the magnet as a healing agent is one of the four Vedas on the treatise of medicine - the Atharvaveda.

Many indigenous and ancient civilizations - including the Hebrews, Arabs, Indians, Chinese, Egyptians, and Greeks - used magnets for healing. According to Legend, Cleopatra wore a magnetic amulet on her forehead to preserve her youth; this placement put it near the brain's magnetically sensitive pineal gland.

One of the more influential figures in magnetic-healing history was the 15th century physician Paracelus, who helped to bring medicine out of the Dark Ages. Supposedly, the inspiration for Goethe's Dr. Faustus, who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge, Paracelus had visionary insights on the role of energetic forces, including magnetism, in healing. he believed that magnetic force could energize the body and promote self-healing. His work greatly influenced Mesmer.

In the late eighteenth century, Franz Anton Mesmer used bar magnets and hypnotic 'animal magnetism' (i.e., mesmerization) to treat patients. Due to the controversy surrounding this procedure, France's King Louis the XVI formed a prestigious commission composed of pre-eminent scientists, including Benjamin Franklin, to investigate Mesmer.

Although this scrutiny ruined Mesmer's career, in a paradoxical twist of fate, commission member Joseph Guillotin's invention later beheaded the King, as well as many other commission members. Mesmer died many years later.

Until relatively recently, scientists believed that life was mostly a biochemical process. The idea that magnetic fields could significantly influence living systems seemed far-fetched. Perspectives have shifted rapidly, however, and many scientists now believe that at some level we are fundamentally electromagnetic creatures.

This radical paradigm shift has profound medical implications because modern medicine has focused on biochemical processes. If these processes are influenced by our electromagnetic nature, any healing approach that focuses exclusively on them will ultimately be limited.

In America, magnet use soared after the Civil War. People could even order the devices through the Sears Roebuck catalog. Turn-of-the-century medical texts devoted chapters to the subject. However, as pharmaceutical approaches revolutionized medicine, magnetic therapy lost its appeal - until recently when the limitations of these approaches became more evident.

The magnetic healing renaissance has been remarkable. Millions of people throughout the world now use magnets, sales total more than $2 billion a year, and cost-conscious, some health-insurance companies cover the therapy.

In recent years some well-known athletes have used magnetic therapy for pain relief.

Magnetism is created primarily by the spin of electrons within a substance. If the spin of sufficient numbers of electrons is aligned, the substance becomes magnetic. Although iron is readily magnetized because of its many surplus electrons, virtually all substances can be magnetized. Natural magnets -lodestones - were created when iron-containing lava cooled and was magnetized by Earth's magnetic field.

Most magnets are now made by passing a strong surge of direct-current (DC) electricity through an iron bar. Their strength has been greatly increased by combining iron with other elements.

Magnets have two different poles - a positive pole and a negative pole. For reasons most researchers cannot explain, applying the negative side of a magnet is effective, but applying the positive side of a magnet is not.

The force (magnetic field of energy) from a magnet is measured in gauss strength. Magnets used for pain relief and healing typically measure between 300-1000 gauss.

There are two kinds of magnets - permanent and pulsating. Permanent magnets provide a consistent and steady magnetic field, and are the type used to combat pain. Pulsating magnets don't provide a steady magnetic field, but have been used to stimulate growth in broken bones.

Magnetic healing products come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from wrist and ankle jewelry to Velcro wraps to magnet-filled pads to fit on your bed.

Wraps and jewelry can be placed in several spots on your body, including feet, ankles, knees, hips, back, hands, wrists, shoulders, neck, and forehead.

Magnets are available in a wide-range of materials, strengths, and shapes - Tiny BB-size used by acupuncturists, dime-size, neodymium (a rare-earth metal) of extraordinary power, domino, rectangular block, and flexible magnets of any size and shape.

Therapeutic magnets are often cased in ceramic or embedded in an elastic patch or flexible strip. They are incorporated in wrist and back supports, seat and mattress pads, jewelry, and clothing-related items, such as shoe inserts and belts.

Many medical applications and scientific studies have used pulsed electromagnetic fields. In these fields, the electric current generating the magnetic field is turned on and off at a specified frequency.

Because magnetic fields drop off quickly with distance, the closer the magnet is to the skin the better. Although effectiveness may wear off as the body adapts, magnets may be worn as long as desired.

A magnet's therapeutic strength is a function of magnetic flux - measured in gauss - and physical size. For reference, Earth's magnetic field is 0.5 gauss, a refrigerator magnet holding a shopping list about 10 gauss, and a cupboard-door latch magnet about 400. Therapeutic magnets range from 200 to over 10,000 gauss.

Magnet size is also therapeutically important. For example, small neodymium magnets may have strength in excess of 10,000 gauss. However, because their fields can only penetrate a few inches into the body, they are used for treating localized conditions. In contrast, a large block magnet of much lower flux strength may penetrate through the body. Given the importance of size, the profound influence Earth's small 0.5-gauss field has on life is more readily understandable.

Although understudied, a magnet's poles appear to exert different healing effects. The north one (the side that attracts the north-pole-seeking end of a compass needle) calms, sedates, and reduces inflammation. In contrast, the south pole stimulates and promotes healing, growth and activity.

Scientists believe that magnetic fields perturb the body's own magnetic energy, which, in turn, triggers more conventional biochemical and physiological mechanisms.

Remember

Immediately after magnetic treatment no cold baths or meals should be taken.

Watches should be removed during treatment.

Magnets must be kept away from children.

When not in use magnets must be kept joined with a keeper in a wooden box.

High powered magnets should not be applied to pregnant woman.

Opposite poles of high power magnets must not be near each other face to face.

All bio-magnetic aids must be kept away from fire.

Magnet Healing

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