When was magnetic therapy discovered

Many sufferers wear magnetic bracelets to get relief. It's certainly an alternative to taking lots of drugs to cope with arthritis and other conditions.

Research published in in BMJ previously called the British Medical Journal looked at people suffering from osteoarthritis in the knee and hip who wore magnetic bracelets for a period of 12 weeks.

After that time, it was found that their mobility had improved compared to those who were wearing a placebo bracelet. Many people are now using them for a variety of reasons, and reporting overall improved wellbeing. There's no doubt that our lifestyles today are hectic and lead to high levels of stress that can often be debilitating, and that's why some people opt to wear a magnetic bracelet to try and relieve their stresses and live a more enjoyable life.

Even something as seemingly simple but fundamentally important to good health as sleep can be improved by wearing a magnetic bracelet, according to people who have worn them. Working theories We all know magnetism is a force — we can feel how strong it is when we push two like poles together as they repel each other. Pass a magnet through a coil of copper wire and the latter's electrons are moved — and we have electricity.

Is it any wonder, therefore, that magnets have the inherent power to influence processes in the human body and bring about healing and health? One of the theories about how magnetism works with the body is that the fields surrounding such devices as magnetic bracelets stimulate areas where there pain occurs because of conditions or diseases.

This is thought to trigger the release of the body's own painkillers, thereby providing natural relief for the person instead of having to take medications over long periods that may have bad side-effects. The use of magnetic fields for healing is not modern.

Long before the reasoning for their benefits was understood, ancient medicine was incorporating magnetic therapies into their medical therapies. Around BC Hindus refer to treatment of disease with magnetized stones lodestones. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates was reported to use magnets for pain, and even had people in his healing centers lay their heads on lodestones to alleviate their headaches. In the early s, Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus, credited as the founder of toxicology, appeared to have used lodestones to treat seizures and psychiatric disorders.

He used the then-undiscovered or otherwise misunderstood principles of magnetism to guide his practices in chemistry and symptom management. This theory was later used by the Scottish physician James Brain to develop hypnosis and is sometimes equated with the Qi of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Mesmer treated his patients with magnets, particularly in an effort to help psychiatric disorders. In the 19th century, the science around magnetic fields and electromagnetism began to come into focus.

English scientist Michael Faraday contributed a great deal to the study of electromagnetism, including the discovery of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and electrolysis. Faraday went on to create the first electromagnetic rotary device, forming the foundation of electric motors. His work in electromagnetism established for the first time that a changing magnetic field produces an electric field.

Shortly before his death, he proposed the concept of electromagnetic fields — forces extending into the space around a conductor. He did not live to see the eventual acceptance of his theory. Late in the 19th century, Russian engineer Georges Lakhovsky became the first to posit that each cell had its own frequency oscillating at a specific amplitude. The device produced a wide range of therapeutic frequencies, from ELF all the way up to gigahertz radiowaves.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla contributed to the development of the alternating current AC electrical system we use today, and discovered the rotating magnetic field now the basis of most AC machinery. Tesla had an intimate understanding of the relationship between electricity and magnetic fields, and developed ideas for a huge number of inventions we use to this day: dynamos, induction motors, radar, X-Rays, and remote control being just a few.

This is the standard magnetic loop coil seen in all PEMF systems today. In the 20th century, sophisticated static magnetic therapies were being developed in the Czech Republic, including checkerboard-designed magnetic foils. PEMF devices began there as well, and were introduced in Hungary in the early s. Soon thereafter, PEMF therapy spread to other parts of Europe, with a wide variety of devices being made available through a growing number of manufacturers.

Simultaneously, Eastern European use and research began to blossom. The s also saw the introduction of the first FDA-approved PEMF system, intended for use as a bone stimulator to treat nonunion fractures.

Robert Becker and Gary Selden. This book is important because it was one of the first descriptions of the body as an electromagnetic apparatus and therefore very susceptible to magnetic field therapies.

With the wide variety of devices available in Europe, by the late s, much of Europe was already familiar with PEMF therapy. The s also saw a discussion about the use of PEMF devices in space. It remains a common misconception that PEMFs were or are used in space. As such, there really is little necessity for the application of external magnetic fields to maintain a functional biomagnetic field. There continue to be exciting new developments in the study of magnetic field stimulation of the body.

There is a rapidly growing body of evidence to support the use of high intensity PEMFs, especially for the brain. This technology was developed primarily to avoid the need for electrical stimulation, which was effective, but incredibly uncomfortable and widely considered barbaric. Even so, electroconvulsive therapy ECT had been used for decades to treat psychiatric disorders.

High intensity PEMF stimulation has been shown to have similar beneficial effects without the invasive or otherwise unbearable components of ECT, such as convulsions. A high intensity coil is placed at the side of the head.

The intensity of the magnetic field produced by the coil is increased until it is sufficient enough to cause a muscle contraction of the hand. Then the intensity is either maintained or lowered slightly, and the coil is moved to the part of the brain requiring the treatment, depending on the psychiatric indication of interest. In addition, discussions were held with curators of medical history museums and supplemental searches were made of Internet sources through various search engines.

Study selection: Primary references were used whenever possible. In a few instances, secondary references, particularly those requiring translations of early texts, were used.

Data synthesis: The use of electric and magnetic forces to treat disease has intrigued the general public and the scientific community since at least the time of the ancient Greeks. The popularity of these therapies has waxed and waned over the millennia, but at all times the popular imagination, often spurred by dynamic and colorful practitioners of pseudoscience, has been more excited than the medical or political establishment.