Magnet Therapy

[nw843x]

An article on MSN spouting off about the benefits of magnets and pain.

/ install woo repellant device

http://healthandfitness.sympatico.m...rticles/els_Pain_Relieving_Magnets.htm?isfa=1

Quote:

Another problem is that there is no generally agreed upon explanation for how magnets might work in dulling pain. In 2004, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) of the US National Institutes of Health listed eight possible reasons for how magnets might affect the body.

These ranged from changing how nerve cells respond to pain, to increasing blood flow, to changing the brain’s perception of pain, to allowing the body to flush toxins more easily. “None of the theories or claims…have been conclusively proven,” said NCCAM.

(bolded mine)


If none of these claims have ever been proven, they why are they still so popular in modern culture? Sad to think that critical thinking is lost upon the masses.

 

[Ducky]

I've said it for years:

If all the MRI's I have had, which literally are 1000 times more powerful than those kitchen magnets sold as sCAM, did not relieve my pain then there is nothing to this crap but suggestion and placebo.

Critical thinking isn't lost on the masses, they never had it to begin with.

 

[Fnord]

Only when an accurate, scientific, and reliably consistant means to measure pain objectively is developed will there also be effective means to treat it.

Asking the patient "on a scale from 1 to 10" how much pain he/she is feeling introduces a subjective skew to the response. Men and women differ in the numbers and kinds of pain receptors in their bodies, as well as their general willingness to report pain of any kind. Age also plays a factor, as do education and religious beliefs.

Not to mention that some people will exagerate their sensation of pain in order to receive the more powerful pain-killers, like Darvon and Oxycontin.

No, what is needed is a calibrated device that can somehow measure the dispersion, intensity and "color" of a person's pain without interpretation by anyone.

"Your pain registers as 'M-3-Green' in your right knee, but only 'L-1-Amber' in your lower back ... no need for surgury ... here, take these and go lie down for a while..."

I'd much rather that a doctor knows what is going on that have to guess at what I'm trying to tell her.

 

[Soapy Sam]

I must confess, when I'm feeling down, I often play with magnets. Never fails to cheer me up. Magnets are fun. Its quantum big-kiddism.