News media - and the medical and
scientific communities - are displaying a growing interest in the
therapeutic possibilities of magnetic energy. That's indicated by an
article appearing in ABC News online. The story says that consumers
are now spending more than $5 billion a year on magnetic products
that are promoted for health.
But the real news in the article is a much more
exciting development. According to this report, a new research study
has yielded measurable results suggesting that magnets are effective
in treating inflammation.
Conducted at the University of Virginia, the
study offers a possible explanation as to why magnets may have this
effect. ABC News says, "Researchers have shown that a mild magnetic
field can cause the smallest blood vessels in the body to dilate or
constrict, thus increasing the blood flow and suppressing
inflammation, a critical factor in the healing process."
What makes this clinical test a landmark event
is that for the first time, scientists were able to observe and
document the changes in blood vessels when magnets were applied.
Thomas Skalak, chairman of biomedical engineering at the university,
was quoted as saying, "It's the first direct measurements that show
the reduction in swelling."
The researchers used laboratory rats, which
were anesthetized and then treated to induce swelling in their
limbs. Specialized magnets were applied shortly afterward, and the
results showed up to a 50% reduction in the edema.
One of the more interesting findings of this
study was the paradoxical effect of the experiment. The study
monitors discovered that when a magnet was applied, blood vessels
that had been constricted then dilated - and dilated vessels showed
constriction. In a report on the results that was published in the
American Journal of Physiology, the authors speculated that a
magnetic field "induced vessel relaxation in tissues with
constrained blood supply, ultimately increasing blood flow."
The implications of that idea were described by
ABC News as significant: "If magnets work that well in human trials,
the impact could be dramatic, because in many cases reducing
inflammation is essential for speedy recovery."
