Biomagnetic therapy

Magnets…on your body? If you’re interested in biomagnetic therapy, this concept might not seem unusual to you at all. Biomagnetic therapy is an alternative, holistic approach to healing. The treatment was developed by a Mexico City–based doctor named Isaac Goiz in 1988, and it’s now being practiced in the U.S. The practitioners behind this treatment define it as “an internationally practiced health approach that strives to attain bio-energetic balance in the human body; the state of natural health known as ‘homeostasis.’” It involves placing two relatively strong magnets on different parts of the body. Dr. Goiz’s website makes clear that this approach is a vibrational phenomenon, “not related to standard medicine,” and that it doesn’t suppress symptoms or claim to cure any disease. Proponents of biomagnetism clearly state that it is not at all like other kinds of magnet therapy, but to nonexperts, they all seem quite similar. Products used for biomagnetic therapy seem like second cousins to the devices used for static magnetic field therapy, where magnets are placed on or near the body to create a healing electromagnetic field. You might be wondering how magnets got involved in healing in the first place. The use of magnetic fields has long played a role in medicine. Naturally magnetic stones were used in ancient cultures, including by the ancient Greeks, to induce a therapeutic effect. Today, the field of magnetics continues to make a huge contribution to human health, from MRI machines (which use a magnetic field and radiofrequency to create detailed images of the insides of the body) to pulsed electromagnetic fields (which uses short bursts of low-frequency electromagnetic energy to treat chronic pain and other health problems). So, in reality, magnets are common in health settings—you just might not have been aware of them until now! What about those “static” healing magnets you can buy to slip in your shoes, wear on your wrists, or stick on your back? They may be somewhat effective for treating some conditions, and they’re safe—unless you have a pacemaker or use an insulin pump, in which case you should never put magnets near your body. (If that describes you, you probably already knew that!)