Magnet Therapy - Shorts - Book Review

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  Feb-March, 2003  by Jule Klotter

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Magnet Therapy, an Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide by William H. Philpott, MD, and Dwight K. Kalita, PhD, with Burton Goldberg, explains magnetic field therapy and gives examples of its therapeutic use for 35 health conditions.

According to the authors, some interesting hypotheses about magnetic fields have developed during the past three decades. The Earth, weather, and electrical devices are known to produce magnetic fields. The human body also produces and maintains subtle magnetic energy; the pineal gland, the ethmoid magnetic organ (a bone forming the nasal cavity), and neurons contain magnetite, magnetized crystal containing iron and manganese. Bones also retain a magnetic field.

In the Japanese Medical Journal (December 4, 1976), Kyoichi Nakagawa, MD, proposed that the documented weakening of the Earth's magnetic field is affecting the energy system of the human body. According to the authors of Magnet Therapy, Dr. Nakagawa believes that the weakening field is responsible for a magnetic field deficiency syndrome in humans. Stiffness in the shoulders, back, and neck; chest pains, headache and heaviness of head; dizziness; insomnia; habitual constipation; and general lassitude are signs of magnetic deficiency, according to Dr. Nakagawa's 20 years of research. Long-term magnetism deficiency appears to decrease the body's innate healing ability and make a person more vulnerable to infectious organisms and environmental toxins.

Magnetic fields exhibit two polarities: positive in which electrons spin clockwise and negative in which electrons spin counterclockwise. In 1974, physicist Albert Roy Davis and W.C. Rawls published Magnetism and Its Effects of the Living System [sic]. They said that magnetic polarities have opposing effects on biological systems. Negative magnetic fields are said to normalize pH, oxygenate, resolve cellular edema, slow infection, reduce pain and inflammation, increase relaxation, slow brain electrical activity, and evoke anabolic hormone production. In contrast, positive magnetic fields have the opposite effect, promoting disease and increasing pain.

Doctors who work with magnet therapy have also noticed a difference in the polarities' effects. In his practice as a neurologist, Dr. Philpott, one of Magnet Therapy's authors, has noticed that positive magnetic energy stimulates neurons. He states, "The higher the gauss strength of the positive pole, the higher the level of stimulation. In fact, a sufficiently high positive magnetic field can even evoke seizures and precipitate psychosis in those so predisposed." Robert O. Becker, MD, also observed differences in the polarities' effects. He found that, at first, bodily injuries or tumors have positive electromagnetic energy; then the body draws negative healing energy to the site. In some cases, the body cannot generate and maintain enough negative magnetic energy to heal the injury; hence the reason for using an external magnet to supply a negative static magnetic field, i.e., magnet therapy.

The authors of Magnet Therapy warn against using magnets containing both polarities when cancer or any type of infection is present because the positive polarity can encourage tumor growth and increase microbe replication. In addition, people with pacemakers should not put magnets on their chest, and pregnant women should avoid putting magnets on their abdomen since the effect on the fetus is unknown.

Philpott, William H., MD & Kalita, Dwight K., PhD with Burton Goldberg. Magnet Therapy. AlternativeMedicine.com Inc., 2000; ISBN 1-887299-21-1

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