December 21, 2004 – Wearing a magnetic bracelet on the wrist was found to reduce pain in subjects with osteoarthritis of the knee or hip, in a study1 made in Great Britain. The authors do not know, however, whether the relief is attributable to wearing the bracelet or to the placebo effect.
Magnetotherapy has already demonstrated its effectiveness in the context of studies on the effect of pulsed magnets, that is to say electrical devices with magnets whose magnetic field varies according to the impulse that they are given. given. However, static magnets with stable electromagnetic fields – such as bracelets – have given conflicting results.
For the purposes of their clinical trial, the researchers recruited 193 people, aged 45 to 80, who had been diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the knee or osteoarthritis of the hip. Divided into three groups, the participants had to wear, for 12 weeks, either a strongly magnetic bracelet (170 to 200 millitesla – mTesla), or a bracelet of low intensity magnetism (21 to 30 mTesla), or a bracelet without magnet. .
In subjects who wore the strongly magnetized bracelet, the authors noted an average decrease of 27% in pain between the start and the end of the study. Participants who had worn a weak magnetic bracelet also felt an improvement in their condition, but to a lesser extent. No significant change was observed in the individuals of the control group (bracelet without magnet).
Having used three separate measurement scales, the researchers are convinced that the people in the first group actually felt a significant decrease in their pain. However, they are unable to say that the bracelet is indeed responsible for this decrease.
Why? Although neither the subjects nor the research assistants knew who was wearing which bracelet (double-blind trial), participants were able to “measure” the extent of the bracelet’s magnetism. This may have influenced their expectations of treatment and caused a placebo effect in them.
However, the researchers say that regardless of the mechanism, the benefits obtained with the most magnetized bracelets are indeed real, their effect on pain being similar to that provided by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), in addition to do not cause any adverse effects.
Martin LaSalle – Proteus Network
According to Reuters.
1. Harlow T, Greaves C, White A, Brown L, Hart A, Ernst E, Randomized controlled trial of magnetic bracelets for relieving pain in osteoarthritis of the hip and knee, British Medical Journal (BMJ), December 18, 2004, Vol. 329, No 7480, 1450-4.
