Magnets offer no additional pain relief

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Magnets offer no additional pain relief

http://biomech.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=180100011

By: Lori Rochelle Roniger

Foot pain sufferers who wore cushioned insoles containing magnets did

not experience a greater reduction in pain than a similar group who

wore the same insoles without magnets, according to a study conducted

by Mayo Clinic College of Medicine researchers. However, the

investigators observed a moderate placebo effect in study

participants who most strongly believed that magnets would ease their

pain.

Spenco Medical provided (at no cost) for the study its Active Comfort

magnetic insoles, which have a magnetic foil pad located under the

proximal arch of the foot, and sham-magnetic insoles that it

manufactured for the study with a nonmagnetized metal foil embedded

in the same location. The study was funded by an unrestricted grant

from Spenco, which was otherwise not involved in the research.

After both four and eight weeks, approximately one-third of the study

participants who wore either insole described their foot pain as all

or mostly better, the researchers reported in the September issue of

Mayo Clinic Proceedings.