Magnets are formed from an oxide of iron (Fe3O4) This substance is also known as a lodestone and is a strong natural magnet.

Magnetic healing is not new. Back about 350 B.C., Aristotle spoke of the therapeutic uses of magnets for healing. In 200 B.C., Galan, a Greek physician used magnets to bring about healing. In 1000 A.D., Persian physicians were using magnets to treat muscle spasms.

Paracelsus in the 1500s, advocated the use of magnetic therapy. Franz Mesmer "cured" his patients (usually women) by placing them in a magnetic bathtub filled with iron filings, Mesmerism (hypnotism) and what he referred to as a magnetic trance.

Elisha Perkins, in the eighteen hundreds, cured patients using "tractors," three inch nail-shaped pieces of magnetic metal with which he touched the body. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, also had a belief that magnetic therapy was a feasible treatment for numerous conditions.

When held against the skin, magnets relax capillary walls, thereby boosting blood flow to the painful area. They also help prevent the muscle spasms that underlie many forms of pain-apparently by interfering with muscle contractions. And-they interfere with the electrochemical reactions that take place within nerve cells, impeding their ability to transmit pain messages to the brain.

Of course, chronic pain can be controlled with aspirin and other over-the-counter and prescription painkiller. But unlike pain medications, magnets do not carry any risk of side effects.

See practitioner(s): Barbara