Study confirms healing power of magnets

This story aired on NBC Nightly News Jan 6, 1999

New York, Jan. 6 - Last year, a study found that magnetic insoles seemed to provide significant relief to diabetics who suffered from a painful condition called peripheral neuropathy. However, that study was not well designed scientifically. A new study confirms the apparent benefit of magnets for diabetics.

It’s a test that measures how well nerves are conducting signals from the feet. And the results for Jeanette Castner show that her diabetes has, in fact, damaged those nerves. In her case it has made her feet extremely numb, which is much more serious than it sounds. “All of a sudden, you would see blood, because you had a blister, you don’t feel that at all. I did lose a toe because of that,” Castner said.

The problem is called diabetic neuropathy, and it is a major disabler of people with diabetes.
According to Dr. Michael Weintraub of New York Medical College, “You can have numbness and tingling like your feet are asleep, or numb or tingling or burning to the point where you can’t even put pressure on them.”

But Castner and other diabetics have gotten significant relief from their neuropathy by using an ancient alternative treatment – magnets.

Nineteen patients in a well-designed scientific study published Wednesday in the American Journal of Pain Management wore magnetic insoles 24-hours a day except while showering. They then rated their pain twice a day for four months. The trick was making sure that the pain relief was really due to the magnets.

“I created a design to have the patient test one foot as a control against a real magnet in the other foot, and then after one month, switch them so in the other month they would have a magnet in the opposite foot and a sham magnet or a sham device on the other foot, so they would not know which ones they were,” Dr. Weintraub explained.

Both the foot with the fake and the real magnet got some pain relief but when they were switched to real magnets, 90 percent of the diabetics got significantly better from their neuropathy.

Castner said, “Since the magnetic chips, it’s ironic how I don’t – I still have numbness, but it’s decreased.”

As to why magnets seem to work, there are a few theories, but the bottom line is that no one really knows.

Curiously, the magnetic insoles don’t work as well on foot pain from causes other than diabetes, such as alcohol abuse. Again, doctors are not sure why.

To better understand the benefits of magnet therapy, Dr. Weintraub is setting up a national multi-center trial, but in the meantime, there’s little downside to giving magnets a try.