Are There Medical Benefits of Wearing Magnetic Bracelets?

For several years magnetic therapy has been gaining popularity but is there truth behind the claims? I will attempt to prepare you with information throughout this article to help you answer that question. First let's take a look at what the claims of magnetic therapy are.

• Magnetic Therapy relieves pain in joints, (arthritis pain) bones, and muscles.
• Magnetic Therapy relieves migraine headaches.
• Magnetic Therapy relieves pain caused by Fibromyalgia.
• Magnetic Therapy relieves pain throughout the body regardless what the pain is caused by

These are the main claims that many people including some in the medical profession have reported.

The way the magnetic therapy works in theory is that by placing the magnet on the body it increases blood flow to the area of pain to help with healing. It is also believed that the magnets close pain receptors in the body which in effect stop sending messages to the brain that let the brain know that you have pain. Sometimes an injury such as a broken bone could be healed but pain continues due to the pain receptors in the injured area not closing, or turning off once the bone is healed. The same effect occurs when a patient experiences amputation and the brain still feels that part of the body. The brain continues to receive the message that pain exist. The magnets turn off those electric impulses and in effect relieves the pain.

Some Doctors or Alternative Medical Practitioners have used magnets by taping the magnets in the area of pain to turn off the pain receptors. In many cases this has proved to be effective, however it has also been tested with non-magnetic disks where patients have said the pain was relieved, creating a result of the Placebo Effect, where your mind believes what the outcome will be and therefore it happens. In other words, if you believe something is going to work it will work even if a substitute is used in place of the cure. The patient believes the magnets are going to take away the pain and even though the disks were not magnets, the patient stopped feeling the pain. This is not to say that magnets do not work to relieve pain, but in some or possibly all cases the patient stops feeling pain due to a strong belief in the process no matter if magnets were used or not.

Today you can find many people wearing magnetic bracelets for relief of many of the pain symptoms listed above. The style of the bracelets vary from Copper bands with round disk type magnets placed in the inside so when worn they are placed closet to your arteries. There are other styles as shown in the photos in this article that are stylish yet have the magnets placed throughout the bracelet for the benefits. Many beaded bracelets are being produced for the variety of styles and colors.

Another form of magnetic therapy is by the use of much larger magnets similar to a large coin, or disk shape. These type magnets are used by practitioners for more serious pain and are taped to the body in the area of the pain.

Today many people prefer wearing a bracelet for the style and the benefits. They are easy to get but prices do vary from $5.00 to hundreds of dollars depending on how elaborate you want to get. Many hobbyist jewelery makers create the beaded magnetic bracelets for a reasonable price. They are very effective both for the style and the benefits.

Several years ago I was without health insurance and I broke my upper arm and dislocated my shoulder. I could see the separation in my arm and the pain was incredible. I couldn't move my arm more than a few inches and could not reach behind me at all or raise my arm above my head. Since I did not have medical insurance and I was unemployed, I could not afford going to the doctor or the hospital so I splinted it myself with the help of my wife. I immobilized my arm so I could not move it in hopes that it would heal and the pain would go away. For about 2 weeks I continued to take over the counter pain medicine with little relief. I heard about wearing a magnet bracelet to help with pain so I bought a bracelet for $10.00 at Walmart. Three days after wearing the bracelet, I finally had pain relief. After another day I stopped taking all pain meds but continued to wear the bracelet. My arm took several weeks to finally heal but the pain was relieved after wearing the bracelet. Was it just the belief that I had that the bracelet would work or did the bracelet really work? I am a strong believer that the bracelet worked because I had more faith in the pain meds than what I did in the bracelet but the pain meds did not take the pain away. I don't care if it was a placebo effect or not, the fact is my pain was relieved and to this day I continue to wear a magnetic bracelet for other pain ailments and it works for me.