Research suggests that Magnets may help chronic tinnitus sufferers

The NY Times is reporting about the success of magnetic therapy in a new case. Suffers from the auditory disease tinnitus may soon be able to find relief thanks to magnets. Tinnitus, which is a condition that causes the sufferer to hear chronic, loud, obtrusive noises, is a relatively newly diagnosed phenomenon. Currently, the most effective treatment involves a specially designed sound file that needs to be played for long periods of time.

While this treatment shows success at a 90% clip, the process is very time consuming and expensive. Enter magnetic therapy. The scientists have shown that hey can "reset" the part of the brain that's going haywire and causing all the racket in the first place by targeting it with a magnetic pulse. Probably a little bit stronger than the jewelry that you're sporting, but magnetic therapy, none-the-less.

Read: NYTIMES.

Just in case

If you have ever held up a magnet close to a CRT (read: ancient) monitor, you have probably seen the craziness that ensues. Most notably, the really bad colors and distortions that occur post magnet.

This website has a tutorial about how to remove said discoloration. Check it out!

Craziness!

Wow, this is simply... wow! This is called "ferro fluid" I believe... It's basically a liquid metal (not that kind) that responds dramatically to magnetic fields. When put to Japanese techno, it becomes something that only the internet can contain.

Magnetic viewing paper

I love the internet because you can find cool random things like "Magnetic Viewing Paper." This stuff has microscopic pieces of iron, nickel, etc. suspended in oil, allowing the magnetic particles to align with whatever magnetic fields maybe present. Like so:


This paper can be had at the low, low price of half of a triple grande zebra $1.95.

Read. Purchase.

Kinda cool, and kinda random, but there is a doctor in India that is researching the effects of the earth's magnetic fields on sleep. In a response to a question regarding possible disturbances in brain patterns if you sleep in alignment with magnetic north, Dr. Nagarajan Venkataraman discusses the body's natural magnetism. Interesting, but not highly informing read.

Link

Significant relief from ill advised booky betting

I looked more into the infamous report from JAMA... curiously, all I can think of saying is, hurray for beer. Anyway, the FDA approved procedure of treating "ununited" fractures with magnetic fields is something like 80% effective. At the time of the report, (1982) there had been over 1000 documented cases of success since its inception in 1979.

With the rise of global temperatures and people such as Steve-O (both, who with no doubt add to the number of fractures sustained per year), I'm sure that number has grown.

So before you go picking Mississippi Valley State over UCLA in the first round, think about picking up a magnet.

A call for the rise of magnetic therapy apologetics.

This one is related to the previous posting. This one is a call to all who have had good experiences with magnetic therapy. This one draws from the collective minds of all the brilliant people out there. This one goes out to all the skeptics.

Sorry, got a little carried away there. Anyway, the reason I'm writing this post is because of blog posts like the one about neck pain and magnets. I said briefly before that things like that are why magnets get a bad rep. It's so true that when most of the articles or documentation about magnetic therapy is backed by weak or non-existent facts, the whole idea suffers.

So get out there and use some good facts to support magnetic therapy!! I will post a list of relevant supporting ideas when I get a chance.

Somewhat dubious assertion of effectiveness

Found a little blog post about magnets and neck pain today... although, it is curiously lacking in details regarding the use of magnets to reduce pains in the neck.

Well, despite the interesting grammar and meandering of the the post, its got some good stuff. Actually, I think that this post may be contributing to the negative feelings of people towards magnetic therapy.

That was a rather cool title, for a rather uninteresting post. Sorry.

Here's the article.

More proof

And from another reputable source, nonetheless! This one comes from Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2008) — A recent study demonstrates that the use of an acute, localized static magnetic field of moderate strength can result in significant reduction of swelling when applied immediately after an inflammatory injury.

There you go! Magnets are great for healing bruises, bumps, insomnia, and the like. I actually went and ordered my very own magnetic jewelry pieces this morning... I ordered mine from a friend, but they said that their site will be taking internet orders soon. I figured that So I can go back to certain extracurricular weekend activities that cannot be mentioned. A perfect compliment to soap.

This is Jack's apologetic reaction: sorry to anyone who hasn't seen Fight Club. Oops, I talked about it. I'll have pics soon of the magnet stuff when I get it!

Read the article. Tyler told you to.

What if...

All this thinking about magnets has me wondering about this one huge magnet that we all know about. That's right; Mother Russia Earth.

In case you weren't aware, we all live on a huge iron magnet. I know the magnetic field is much less pronounced than the little ones you can buy, but how much? I wonder if all of the zen spots and mystical places throughout the planet have something to do with stronger magnetic fields? You know, besides the Lost island.

Yahoo! Health (!) has an article!

Sorry about the extraneous explosions of exclamation points upon entry to this post. And the needless and most definitely unwarranted use of alliteration. What was I saying?

Yahoo Health has a great article about the benefits of pain fighting magnets. It goes into a studied regarding the use of a placebo, and how the magnets provided significantly higher reduction in injury. I won't steal the articles thunder, but most certainly check it out!

The article also mentions several studies that I am not familiar with regarding the effects of magnets. I will look into these for the benefit of you, faithful reader.

As promised...

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Ok, I found one of the articles about how there is actual proof that magnets do good stuff for your body. A fellow by the name of Thomas C. Skalak Ph.D. conducted some experiments for the University of Virginia's Biomedical Engineering program on the effects of magnets on rats. Basically, he found that magnetic fields can cause a huge reduction in the swelling of an injury.

The following is a dramatic reading of the American Journal of Physiology. Ahem.

External application of static magnetic fields, utilized specifically for the treatment of inflammatory conditions such as soft tissue injuries, has recently become popular as a complementary and/or alternative therapy with minimal investigation into efficacy or mechanism. Localized inflammation was induced via injection of inflammatory agents -carrageenan (CA) or histamine into rat hindpaws, alone or in conjunction with pharmacologic agents, resulting in a spatially and temporally defined inflammatory reaction. Application of a 10mT or 70mT, but not a 400mT SMF for 15 or 30 minutes immediately following histamine-induced edema resulted in a significant, 20-50% reduction in edema formation. Additionally, a 2 hour, 70mT field application to CA-induced edema also resulted in significant (33-37%) edema reduction.

Translation: Pain bad, magnets good. Narf.

They work!

[UPDATE: The picture to the left is relevant... fake doctors, quacks, ducks... ok, nevermind!]


Before I write anything profound, let me first clarify this entire blog. Two weeks ago, I would scoffed [scoffed I tell you!] at the thought of magnets actually doing something... You know, besides sticking plastic to cooled food storage devices.

Anyhow, I saw an article on how effective magnets actually are... Now I'm a believer! Not a trace of doubt in my mind! I'm in love, wooooooooo... oh, sorry. Didn't mean to break out in song there. I will be following this up with said proof, once I find it.

But just in case you did want to let out your inner Davey Jones, feel free.