A Magnetic personality?

Yup! Believe it or not, this is a legitimate therapeutic treatment for a virtual cornucopia of ailments. Though this treatment is considered experimental, which merely means it is not fully understood, it is none-the-less, a very effective treatment for many different ailments. How do I know? Because I use magnetic therapy for a few different problems which plague myself as well as some of those closest to me. I repeat what I have said in other Hubs. I only write about stuff I know about or have researched. This article is no different. ( Well technically, it is different because I have never done a hub on Magnetic therapy before, but it isn't different as far as writing about stuff I know about..... Never mind.)

Any way, magnetic therapy is nothing new. You may never have heard of it, but Chinese doctors, centuries ago, touted lodestone for it's medicinal benefits. Lodestone is a naturally magnetic mineral used in ancient Chinese medicine. In the early 1500's, a report on magnetic therapy was given in a prominent University for the first time. (However, in the early 1500's tomatoes were considered poisonous and unfit for human consumption, so go figure!)

Biomagnetic therapy has been studied in Japan, Europe, Russia and the United States. In fact, were you to do a search on Biomagnetic Therapy, and happened to come across the link : www.allaboutmassagers.com/app/content/biomagnetic you may discover some rather astounding information about an item that may not be farther away from you than the door of your refrigerator. Isn't that awesome?

Well, I think it is!

 Okay.  Let me begin by saying, even though I am a Naturalist, and even  though I use several alternative theraputic treatments, I don't just jump on the bandwagon, willy nilly.  Not at all.  Actually, I am quite cautious about new alternative medicines which make out of this world claims.  (In case you  haven't noticed, there are alot of con artists out there that will tell you anything to sell their snake oils.)

A lot of folks think that if medicine is proceeded by the word <Alternative>, the medicine becomes strange, stupid or uneffective.  In fact, almost anything proceeded by <alternative> is deemed, out of the ordinary, or something strange or to be feared or looked at with doubt.  Like Alternative life styles, for instance.  Some folks just can't get their head around the word.  They find it creepy!

As a kid, I remember the big thing for sufferer's of arthritis were copper bracelettes.  Some how, the copper was supposed to help with the symptoms of arthritus.  (Some even claimed it healed the disease.)  Actually, I knew someone who wore one, and over the years, I watched as their hands bent and twisted through the ravages of the crippling ailment.  Did the copper bracelette work?  I will go out on a limb and say, not so much.  Does that mean the sellers or inventors were quacks?  No, not necessarily.  Maybe it did work for some.  Just not for the person I happened to know.  Would I try it myself?  Nope, I have magnetic therapy to rely on to help me! 

But, don't take my word for it!  Let me show you something.  Close your eyes!

No, wait, don't!  You won't know when to open them again!  Just scroll down instead!

 Well, it is!  I have one on the end of each of my arms, but the one in the picture is the one I have problems with.  Oh, it does almost anything I ask of it, but there are some internal problems.  (Kinda like the rest of me come to think of it!)

This time, you will notice a pen in the pictures above. No, that is not how I hold a pen! Actually, the pen is pointing to a couple of spots on my hand. In the top picture, the pen is pointing to a very fine line. It is a scar. Several years ago I had a pretty bad accident on a bike. (No Funride, not a bicycle.) Anyway, the doctors had to place two titanium pins in there to get my thumb to stop dangling off to the side. In the lower picture the pen is pointing to my ring finger which was injured first when I was in high school. (A military school to be exact, but we will talk about that in another hub!) I was on the wrestling team until this guy I was wrestling decided to see if it would come off or not. Over the years, arthritis has set in, along with a couple of other places where my bones have been a bit beaten up.

I use magnetic therapy in these two particular places on a regular bases. Does it help? I wouldn't do it if it didn't.

I tend to get a lot of pain in the place where I have had the pins. Especially during weather changes and the cold. Usually it swells, and since I am left handed, I really have some trouble doing some things with it when it is acting up. The same is true with the ring finger. I place a large magnet (The larger set pictured at the top of the hub) under my hand, and I roll the other large magnet all around the painful area for at least 5 minutes. As the magnet is rolled around over the area, I always feel small crackles and pops, and a strange heat sensation which I have learned is actually the warmth of an increased blood flow. Seriously! (Check the link I gave you if you don't believe me!)

Akeejaho, does it really help?

Yes! Yes it does! What it does not do is heal the arthritis, but it gives relief. Relief that lasts quite a while. Surprisingly, it also does something else. For a long time, I have not been able to bend the joint in my ring finger more than say, 30 degrees. I now, after repeating magnetic therapy regularly, can completely bend the finger all the way into a closed fist, without any pain. Quite an accomplishment if you ask me!

By the way, don't pay any attention to the pinkie in the picture! Magnetic therapy does work, just not on cut tendons!

Now, when I first started experimanting with magnets, I was so impressed by the results, I talked one of my close friends into trying it. He is a plumber who works himself hard since he owns his own business. (To hard I sometimes think!) He is hard on his body and his hands and suffers arthritis. Let me tell you this also. This is not someone who will waste their time doing something that is of no benefit. He tried my first set of magnets. A few days ago we presented him with his own set of magnets.

Now here is some more information about biomagnetic therapy. I have used them to calm lower back pain, knee pain, elbow pain, menstrual cramping, (Not my own.), headaches, and for just general circulation problems!

The magnets I use are round magnets made of Hematite. (I am absolutely positive that I spelled that incorrectly. Don't tell anyone though!) The largest set we have are about 3/4 of an inch in circumference, and the smaller set about half. The magnetic field on the large ones is strong enough to  penetrate my hand, and will hold in place when one is on top of my hand and one underneath.

Now this is an interesting subject. Any ideas as to what happens when the two merge?  Let me tell you.  Some pretty amazing things!

Like, MRI's for one thing!  That's right!  Because of the lowley magnet, doctors can stuff you into a narrow tube and go right through your body, layer by layer without even cutting into you!  Now I know this has been around for a bit, but amazing just the same, and the merge of alternative and conventional medicine! 

Researchers are working at this moment (well, maybe not right this moment) on ways biomagnetic therapy may be used to treat mental illness.  In the not so distant past the only way to treat or relieve the symptoms of certain types of mental illness were extremely invasive or archaic in character, bordering on the cusp of torture!  I am talking about Frontal Labotamy and electro-shock therapy!  Tests and research are being done that will allow magnets to do what scalpels and high voltage electricity used to do, and much more cleanly and humainly.      

Yup, magnets are way cool. They have been acredited with pain relief, increase of blood flow, detoxafication, and asthma treatment to just name a few.

How they do these things is not quite clear, but popular theory suggests that since the planet we live on is covered in a magnetic field, and indeed the earth itself is more or less a big magnet, it is not all that surprising that passing a magnetic field over an individual may have some kind of affect. And, indeed it does. Some believe that by realigning an individuals own magnetic field places that individual in a prime position for the most effective healing of an array of ailments. Most of this information is listed in the link I provided above, so I won't further bore you by writing it all here.

I am more interested in the fact that magnets work on relieving symptoms of many physical problems which affect folks everyday, and less interested in how they work. I will leave that to the experts.

I do know they work. Surprisingly, so does the conventional medicine community.

There are times when magnetic therapy should not be used. Here are a couple times when you should refrain from magnetic therapy.

• Do not use during pregnancy. (Experiments with labratory rats revealed that when the fetus is exposed to magnetic therapy, the increased blood flow cause rapid growth to the point that natural delivery was impossible. Ouch!)
• Do not use magnetic therapy on open wounds, or if there is a suspected internal injury. (The increased blood flow will make you run out of blood really, really fast!)
• Do not use on the abdomen for at least two hours after eating or the digestive system may slow or stop all together.
• Refrain from using negative polls on someone suffering an asthma attack because the negative polls can cause muscle spasm in the Brachia, thus complicating matters rather than improving them.

These are just a few contraindications concerning the use of magnetic therapy. Several more are listed in the link above.

Some news I ran across really excited me. The first piece of news I find exciting is the use of magnets in the treatment of depression, and other mental disorders. The second is that there are medical insurances which recognize biomagnetic therapy as a legitimate therapy. Would it further surprise you that one in particular is Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Regence?  Yup.  It is true.  Check it out for yourself.

So, if you have a few aches and pains, and you are tired of the old oral painrelievers (which attack the liver and stuff), go out and get yourself some magnets.  I purchased mine at a neat little shop in Minneapolis called <Present Moments>.  (Boy, I hope they don't mind a bit of publicity!)  It is a neat little place which offers all kinds of alternative medicines, herbal remedies, books on all subjects of natural healing as well as a bunch of other really cool stuff.

So, give it a try.  You have nothing to lose but a bit of time, and maybe some unwanted pain!

Until next time,

Happy Bipolaring!  Magnetic or not!