Re: Snake Oil

[William Beaty <billb@ESKIMO.COM>]

On Mon, 10 Jan 2000, Robert W. Harris wrote:

> Things are not as simple as we might think (or want).  There was an article
> in the Sunday New York Times Magazine titled PLACEBOS WORK.   The title says
> it all.  Studies have shown that in many cases placebos work as well as the
> approved remedy (including knee surgery), and in a few cases the placebos
<snip>

With magnetic therapy, it goes further than that:  a physician recently
performed a double-blind study to see whether or not the "laying on of
magnets" would have any effect on pain.  The researcher was Dr. Carlos
Vallbona, Dept. of Community Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in
Houston TX, and appeared in ARCHIVES OF PHYSICAL AND REHABILITATION
MEDICINE in 1997 (maybe the November issue?)  Here's a 2nd-hand quote from
a NY Times article about the study:

   http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/freenrg/nytmag.txt



Here's some more info snipped from "ASK DR. BONES" at
http://lek.net/~fed/magnet.html

  In a new study involving 12 adults with depression, researchers led by
  Dr.  Mark S. George, an associate professor of psychiatry, neurology and
  radiology at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston,
  found that when the patients were given magnet therapy for two weeks,
  their depression improved significantly more than when they were given
  phony treatment for a separate two-week period. Nearly 80 touring golf
  pros now use some form of electromagnetic therapy for help in relieving
  back pain, arthritis, muscle soreness and other ailments. Some, wear
  cloth wraps around the waist that hold high-powered magnetic disks.
  Others also tape smaller magnets on top of arthritic fingers and joints.
  A few, go for the full-metal jacket and sleep on magnetic mattress pads.

  Researchers at the New York College of Podiatric Medicine have reported
  negative results in a study of patients with heel pain. Over a 4-week
  period, 19 patients wore a molded insole containing a magnetic foil,
  while 15 patients wore the same type of insole with no magnetic foil. In
  both groups, 60% reported improvement, which suggests that the magnetic
  foil conveyed no benefit. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in
  Houston have conducted a double-blind test comparing the effects of
  magnets and sham magnets on the knee pain of 50 patients who had had
  poliomyelitis.  The 29 who received an active magnet reported a
  significantly greater reduction in pain than the 21 treated with a sham
  magnet. Whether this finding can be repeated and whether magnets can
  relieve pain in other types of patients remains to be seen.

Before attacking pseudoscience, it pays to first give it a fair hearing.
Today's "pseudoscience" sometimes becomes tomorrow's "discovery from left
field."  If magnets prove to have more than just placebo action, and if
physicians have been scoffing at them for decades but never actually
testing the claims, then something is wrong.  Marcello Truzzi calls this
problem "pseudoskepticism."


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William J. Beaty                                  SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
billb@eskimo.com                                  http://www.amasci.com
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