The response is unbelievable sometimes. The therapy received a shot of credibility for human use late last year when Dr. Carlos Valbonna, former chairman of the Department of Community Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston demonstrated its efficacy for a group of subjects with post-polio pain. Valbonna asked 50 volunteers to rate their pain on a scale of 1-10. A group that received magnet therapy said pain dropped to 4.4 from 9.8. He emphasized, however, that they apply only to post-polio pain and more studies are needed.
Most doctors know little about magnetic therapy or dismiss it as quackery.
But powerful testimonials from patients have begun to pique the interest of the research community. For instance, the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health is funding a study at the University of Virginia to test the effect of magnets on patients with fibromyalgia. Jarvis attributes much of the pain relief among the users of magnets to the placebo effect. Even the volunteers in the Baylor study who received sham magnets enjoyed a significant reduction in pain, he noted. Even if magnets lack healing power, the placebo effect is good enough for White.