| Magnetic
Therapy
By Ray Cralle, RPT
A new tool is available to patients and rehabilitation specialists
in the United States, thanks to the growing demands of alternative
medicine.
Most everyone today is aware of some of the changes in medicine,
especially as it relates to finding cost-effective means of
providing care and treating ailments. Clinicians in this country
found "magnetic therapy" a reimbursable medical expense
in Germany, Israel, Japan and forty-five other countries and
became intrigued with its possibilities for American health
care.
Early manufacturers produced the familiar magnet with north
and south poles, but growing numbers of investigators have
realized the importance of using only one pole (usually north
or negative). This allows for a much stronger magnetic field
to be placed against the area of pain, which research seems
to indicate the need for, especially in chronic pain or overuse
symptoms.
The Office of Alternative Medicine of the National Institute
of Health in Washington, D.C., has just awarded over a million
dollar grant to Ann Gill Taylor, RN, Ph.D. at the University
of Virginia, to study the effects of magnets in chronic pain.
Dr. Gill Joins a list of doctors and scientists currently interested
in this European phenomenon. Prestigious centers such as John
Hopkins, Baylor College of Medicine and Massachusetts Institute
of Technology are studying magnetic therapy.
I first heard of magnets when a longtime friend and hospital
director asked me to go to Dublin, Ireland in 1993 to meet
Austin Darragh. MD, a world renowned researcher, who had been
using magnets to treat pain. The joy of finding something so
simple, yet so effective in helping people relieve pain still
fascinates me.
I have practiced for over twenty-four years and have never
been as impressed by a technology so simple and effective in
helping arthritis, back pain and even fibromyalgia (chronic
fatigue). Just to name a few, as safely and cost-effectively
as unipole (negative) magnets.
I am convinced that it will soon be commonplace to treat headaches,
sports injuries and even allergies with magnets, and that managed
care will find it on the top of its list of worthwhile expenses.
Ray Cralle, RPT is a registered physical therapist at Cralle
Physical Therapy Services.
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