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New York Times Article:
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Magnets Lessen Foot
Pain Of Diabetics, a Study Finds
By HOLCOMB B. NOBLE
Published: January 6, 1999
In one of the first scientific studies of the centuries-old and highly debated use of magnets for treatment of medical disorders, a New York neurologist reported today that he had significantly lessened the foot pain that afflicts millions of diabetics.
Dr. Michael I. Weintraub, a clinical professor of neurology at New York Medical College, emphasized that his study was small, involving only 24 patients, and must be regarded as preliminary to much more clinical research. But he said that the early results were clear and that the treatment ought to be put to use immediately, provided the correct magnets are used and the treatment is limited to the types of pain that have been studied.
The study, which appears in this month's issue of the American Journal of Pain Management, a peer-reviewed journal, runs counter to many previous studies that have failed to show any beneficial effect from treatment with magnets.
Dr. Paul J. Rosch, president of the American Institute of Stress, who has written about the history of magnet therapy, said the study was well designed and discounted placebo effects in patients who reacted positively to the fact that treatment was being given rather than to any real physiological change.
Dr. Rosch, whose organization is based in Yonkers, called the therapy ''a real breakthrough for treatment of diabetic pain'' in cases thought to be progressive and until now irreversible. But, noting the small size of the study, he cautioned that more research was needed.
''We have no idea how or why the magnets work,'' he said.
Magnets have been used for centuries in efforts to treat a variety of conditions, from broken legs in horses to reducing dandruff with magnetic combs and, in recent years, reducing wrist pain in people who have carpal tunnel syndrome. But until recently, no clinical studies taking into account the placebo effects have established that they actually work.
In November 1997, reporting in the Archives of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Dr. Carlos Vallbona of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston said that he applied low-intensity magnets to his own knee pain and that the pain was gone in minutes. He then did a small study of patients with post-polio-syndrome pain. One group was exposed to small magnets, the other to sham magnets. The patients with real magnets reported a 50 percent reduction in pain, while the others reported less than 10 percent.
Some 20 million diabetics are subject to painful burning sensations, numbness and tingling in the feet and hands, as are millions of others with other diseases that inflict constant and often excruciating pain to the hands and feet.
In July 1997, Dr. Weintraub began a four-month study of magnet use on diabetic and nondiabetic patients. Twenty-four patients with chronic foot pain caused by diabetes, multiple myeloma, uremia, ischemia, lupus and alcoholism were enrolled in a randomized placebo study.
In the first month, each patient was given a pad equipped with special, low-intensity magnets for one foot and a nonmagnetized pad for the other foot. Patients were not told which pad was which, and were told to wear them 24 hours a day. They were asked to quantify their pain twice daily on a five-point scale. Nineteen patients, 10 of them diabetics and 9 with other disorders, completed the four-month trial.
After the first month the pads were blindly switched, and the patients reported a slight and approximately equal lessening of pain in both feet. But differences began to appear in the next three months because of the cumulative effect, Dr. Weintraub said. By the end of the study, nine out of 10 of the diabetics reported less pain by an average of a full point. In the nondiabetic group, three out of nine reported a similar lessening of pain. The placebo effect was similar, however, in both groups, with only 22 percent overall reporting a benefit.
Dr. Weintraub said he believes the magnets target the small C-fiber nerves in the soles of the feet and that the magnetic fields create ionic flux and electric energy, which calm the small nerves made hyperactive by disease. But that theory, he acknowledged, remains to be proven.
