Sunday, February 21, 2010

Magnetic therapy getting under my skin

Introduction


Every year my family goes to the flower show in Providence. It's a nice time, seeing flowers in the middle of February, snacking on the pretzel and dip samples, and seeing all of the house and garden related vendors. It's tainted, however, by a particular vendor selling magnetic therapy items, such as bracelets, braces, and necklaces. The company is called Palmer's Global Magnetic Therapy, and I am bothered even writing their name here, giving them more exposure.

The Science


Their pamphlet has more science errors per square inch than any text I have ever read. For example,


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Given that light is electromagnetic radiation, and I believe that light has been around a bit longer than people (even by creationist standards!), this definition is flat-out wrong. Saying that low-levels are "fought off" by the body, yet "higher levels are proving to cause gradual break down in health" is at best misleading: high levels of radiation, such as high-energy x-rays, break down organic molecules, but you aren't generally exposed to this in such high dosages. Either way, it is irrelevant to magnetic therapy where the magnets used are of such low intensity that no significant effect would be expected anyway.

On the medical side, this pamphlet is just as bad.


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Let's take the last point first: "cancer cannot exist in a strong magnetic field". This is a true statement. What they left out is that, at that strength of magnetic field, non-cancerous cells also can't survive. It'd be like the statement: "cancer cells cannot exist is molten lava", which would be true...but useless and misleading.

The previous points, about the medical effectiveness of magnets, is also not correct. Although it seems to be challenging to have a blinded study of magnetic therapy, because people can easily test to see if the magnetics attract keys or other household items, careful studies have not found any effect of magnetic therapy. You can see some of them here, here, a nice wikipedia summary, and another very good summary of some other arguments against magnetic therapy.

I could go on and on with this, but I want to highlight a few things directly related to pseudo-scientific thinking. The following statement is indicative of the sort of thing, not limited just to magnetic therapy but to all forms of sham-medical treatments and much of pseudo-science as well.


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Rephrased, a bit bluntly, this reads: "if you do our treatment for your ailment, and your ailment improves, then that is proof of the effectiveness of our treatment. if it doesn't improve, then you did something wrong, and it says nothing about our treatment". It's like the psychics who complain that the room isn't right, or their abilities are hampered by skeptical treatment, but otherwise they are perfect. Heads, I win. Tails, you lose. James Randi has pointed this out many times, with the people trying for his million dollar challenge. It is the type of thinking that protects you from ever being wrong, and thus places your statements outside of the realm of science. Unfortunately, it also generally means you're wrong, and are simply trying to avoid critique to keep the comfort of your misguided ideas.

Avoiding the FDA



In order to avoid the FDA, they have to put a disclaimer in, which reads:


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However, does this disclaimer allow them to state the things above (about cancer), or these claims:


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or these?


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or these?


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I'm no legal expert, but it seems to me that this is filled with medical claims, and simply stating "we are not making medical claims" should not be enough.

What to do?



I see these people every year, and every year I wonder what should I do. What is my moral obligation, what are my legal limits, what are my options? Sometimes I ignore them, but always feel bad afterward. I have a gut feeling that I have a responsibility to help save as many people from this scam as I can, especially since it is right in my backyard. I see people at the booth, and it drives me nuts. I try to educate my students, and anyone around me who will listen, but that doesn't feel like enough.

One suggestion that someone had was to set up a booth of my own, an anti-magenetic therapy booth. I'm not sure if this would either be allowed, or might be taken as libelous or something else that involves lawyers. There is the distinct possibility that it would simply make me look like a jerk, and work against the message that I would want to achieve.

A few years ago, I did approach them, and as gently as I could asked if they ever thought to consult a physicist concerning some of the claims in the pamphlet. It's a husband and wife team, and the wife was reasonably conversational. The husband was immediately aggressive and hostile. He questioned the need for such a thing, and when I pointed out a couple of straight-forward errors (not even the efficacy errors) he did not take it well. He even admitted to me, to my amazement, that he didn't care whether the claims were correct!

Another year I gave them a folder I'd prepared about magnetism, and some of the magnetic therapy studies. I even created an email address (brianthephysicist) for any questions they had...I never heard from them.

This year I submitted their website to the FDA website on "Reporting Unlawful Sales of Medical Products on the Internet". I have to admit that that felt good, but I doubt that in reality it will affect very much, if anything at all.

So I am still left with the questions: what should I do with this case? What is my moral obligation, what are my legal limits, what are my options?

Unfortunately, I don't really know.

8 comments:

  1. Fantastic post, Brian!

    Those claims are funny (reminds me of the E=c^2 video) but at the same time disheartening. I'm happy you chose to take some actions to combat this spread of nonsense.

    With regard to libel concerns, I am no law guru, but I think you are safe making the sort of arguments you made here in a public forum as long as you are not attacking the people personally or making claims about their intentions (not that you would do that). I'm not sure the same could be said if you (or they) were in England, however :) Maybe someone with more legal knowledge would care to comment on this...

    I wonder if these people follow their own recommendations? If he had a laceration across his head, for example, would he really prefer a magnet over sutures? I am doubtful.

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  2. Unfortunately, there is such a lot of ill-knowledgeable people "slapping magnets" whereas when used properly and I really mean properly - a whole science versus just slapping them on - some remarkable issues can take place. For example, when the parallel capacitance of the membrane and the cytoplasm is so weak, the cell can remain stuck in not being able to get enough nutrients to increase its voltage to become un-stuck. The proper increase of electromotive energy from a magnetic field can help increase the pico Farads of the membrane and cytoplasm to un-stick the cell to start nutrient transfer, detoxification and progress immune fuctions. Peter from BiomagScience.net

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  3. I, of course, a newcomer to this blog, but the author does not agree

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  4. I have read your article and can tell you that for many years I wear now a magnetic bracelet. In fact I had personal difficulty with a strong lombalgia for which I had try everything as regular treatment for at least 5 years before one friend told me to try the magnetic bracelet. At first, useless to say that I was more than skeptical. The results have been immediate. Just 3 days after I could feel much better and the week after I had no more lombalgia. This is my personal real experience. Since then I am trying to help others in preaching the magnetic therapy. Good luck for you also.

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  5. @Phillipe - I'm very happy that you're feeling better! Although I am certain this will not change your mind, I do want to respond to your experience. All of the studies have shown that any results claimed by people with respect to pain reduction due to magnets are just as impressive if the magnets are replaced with non-magnetic equivalents. A back-brace is effective because it is a back brace, not because of extra magnets. Further, when pain is involved, the placebo effect can be pretty strong.

    You could do a rough-version of this same experiment on yourself. Get two bracelets that are identical, except replace the magnets in one with something of the same weight and density (like metal pieces). Make sure they are identical! Have a friend flip a coin, and give you one every day. Keep records on how you feel, and have your friend keep records of which bracelet. It's important that your friend doesn't know which is which (she can know the label, 1 and 2), and it is important for you to not know which one is being given. After a month or so, compare notes. I'd be curious to hear what the result is.

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  6. @Peter - you say " the cell can remain stuck in not being able to get enough nutrients to increase its voltage to become un-stuck." That is total rubbish, and is unsubstantiated. It sounds "sciencey" but it isn't really science: your terms don't make sense, the physical mechanism you propose is both ill-defined and implausible. Perhaps I'm wrong...point me to the data on this, please.

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  7. Nice article. Though i tend to believe in these treatments. I have not personally tried them but have met numerous people who got cured by this where no other treatment could. Not everything could be a placebo effect right? Im sharing an experience which my friend has gone through. Here it is

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  8. I, too, have met people who have claimed improvements due to magnets. Still, there is no evidence that they actually work. Notice, even in the last paragraph they say: "Magnets were placed on biomagnetism pairs relating to fungus and an underlying virus resonating with the fungus. This case highlights just how quickly the body can heal itself if given the proper conditions with regards to pH balance, magnetic energy, and nutrition as he had also been told to limit his sugar intake and improve his nutrition."

    So, they did magnetics, *and* they did nutrition changes, reduced sugar intake, and he had waited at least 8 months doing many other things. Finally, he improved. Given that there is no plausible mechanism for the magnets working, you ask if it has to be placebo? No (but it could!). It could have taken a while for the steroids and creams to work. It could have taken a while for the fungus to be fought off by his body. It may have been dietary. Those explanations are far more likely than the magnets.

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