More research is needed, agree the physician who conducted the small study and an outside observer.
Dr. Michael Weintraub, a neurologist at the New York Medical College in Valhalla, said a group of patients with chronic foot pain reported improvement after wearing pads equipped with low-intensity magnets. His study in this month's American Journal of Pain Management run counter to studies that had failed to show any beneficial effect from magnets, which have been used for centuries on various ailments but without scientific proof they actually did any good. Weintraub began his four-month study in July 1997, using 24 patients with chronic pain caused by diabetes as well as other ailments. The tests were conducted at his office in Briarcliff Manor and at Phelps Memorial Hospital in Sleepy Hollow. Nineteen patients completed the study.