Project Number: LCL-9902 Magnet Therapy An Interactive Qualifying Project Report Submitted to the Faculty of WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science By ______________________________________ Jay Corporon ______________________________________ Anthony M. Cruz ______________________________________ Matthew Hirsch ______________________________________ Melissa Michelon Date: May 4, 2000 Approved: __________________________________________________ Professor Lok C. Lew Yan Voon, Major Advisor Abstract Magnet therapy, the placement of permanent magnets on or near injured areas of the body, is an ancient form of treatment. Within the last decade, this alternative practice has become increasingly popular as well as profitable for many companies. The goal of this project is to demonstrate this renewed growth, via an analysis of public perception, and industry practices and regulations. Available scientific evidence will also be reviewed and a comparison of significant medical studies will be made to determine the extent to which scientists have researched the validity of magnet therapy. 2 Acknowledgements This IQP group would like to thank our advisor Dr. Lok C. Lew Yan Voon. Also, enormous thanks to Professor Joseph D. Petruccelli of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at WPI for his help with the statistical software. 3 Table of Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 3 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction 5 1.2 Objectives 5 1.3 Methodology 6 Chapter 2: Background 2.1 History of Magnet Therapy 8 2.2 Magnet Therapy Today 14 Chapter 3: Evidence 3.1 Medical Studies 19 3.1.1 Medical Study Analysis 25 3.2 Magnet Therapy Physics 29 3.2.1 Basic Magnet Physics 29 3.2.2 Increased Blood Flow Theory 34 3.2.3 Pain Blocking Theory 36 Chapter 4: Industry 4.1 The Growing Industry 39 4.2 Company Interviews 41 4.3 Magnet Therapy Regulation 43 Chapter 5: Public Awareness & Belief in Magnet Therapy 5.1 Introduction 49 5.2 WPI Survey 51 5.3 Shopping Mall Survey 57 5.4 Magnet Therapy Publicity 70 5.5 Conclusions 75 Chapter 6: Conclusions 78 References 82 Appendices Appendix A: WPI Junior Class Survey 85 Appendix B: Shopping Mall Survey 86 Appendix C: Inputting the Data 87 4 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction Magnet therapy, the placement of static field magnetic materials on or near injured or painful areas of the body, is a health practice that has been used for several thousand years. For most of this time, western society has laughed at magnet therapy, calling it „quackery.‟ However, the past several years have seen an enormous increase in the popularity of magnet therapy. New websites are popping up each day for companies selling magnetic goods, while professional athletes publicly praise the healing effects of magnet therapy. Despite the fact that there are no physical explanations or conclusive medical studies, people are giving new life to this ancient form of treatment. With the increasing mass acceptance of many holistic medicinal practices such as acupuncture, the American people may be open to alternative cures, now more than ever. Magnet therapy is becoming a major business in the United States having an economic, medical, and social impact on the entire country. 1.2 Objectives The main objective of this IQP is to study the current status of magnet therapy in the scientific community and in society. One of the key features of this is to examine the type of people purchasing these magnet therapy devices. Are these people educated, elderly, rich, or spiritual and open to alternative therapy? The way in which the magnet therapy industry markets its products will also be studied to determine what group of people are targeted to buy the products. To determine the market segment for magnet therapy, the various advertisements in magazines, 5 newspapers, internet websites, television commercials, and infomercials will be considered. Two more trends demonstrating the growing popularity of magnet therapy are the increasing profit by the magnet therapy industry as well as the industry growth from only several years ago. The technical side of magnet therapy will be examined; in this case, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and medical studies into magnet therapy. Organizations, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and medical researchers test the validity of the magnet therapy industry's claims and will directly affect magnet therapy's popularity and profits. A variety of medical studies concerned with the effects of magnet therapy will be analyzed, concluding with a comparison between the most documented and the most recent study. A final aspect of this project would be to compare the popularity of magnet therapy to that of another alternative therapy, acupuncture, which has gained mass acceptance in the last ten years. 1.3 Methodology Several surveys will be performed to determine public opinion about magnet therapy. Also, medical studies and physical explanations as to the functioning of magnet therapy devices will be analyzed. Various businesses that sell therapeutic magnets will be contacted in order to get a clearer view of their own customer focus groups and how and where they advertise their products. Here is an outline form of the methodology that will be applied to this project. - WPI mail survey and shopping mall survey will be conducted to find what types of people buy, believe, and use magnet therapy. 6 - Contact magnet therapy industry and research important industry numbers such as industry growth and sales. - Find, analyze, and compare medical studies and physical explanations of magnet therapy. - The FDA and NIH will be contacted to determine the extent of magnet therapy regulation and funding and information concerning current medical studies. - Examine the publicity of magnet therapy: the advertisements in magazines, web sites, and on television as well as magazine and newspaper articles to determine the type of people targeted by the magnet therapy industry. - Research and compare magnet therapy to more accepted forms of holistic medicine. 7 Chapter 2: Background 2.1 History of Magnet Therapy Magnet therapy has been used by human civilization for more than 4000 years. The earliest evidence of this has been found in ancient Chinese writings dating back to around 2,500 BC (Hutchins, 1955). Over the last 4000 years, the use of magnet therapy has been determined by several distinct factors. These factors include the time period in which the magnets were used, which cultures used magnet therapy, and the social, governmental, and religious views on magnet therapy. With these factors in mind, it is possible to see why the acceptance of magnet therapy has flourished in areas of the world such as Asia and why it also has been a slow moving progression in countries such as the United States as well as countries in Europe. It is not known when Asian and other oriental countries discovered magnets, or when the population started to use them in conjunction with their daily lives. The first known written paper can be found in the Yellow Emperor's Book of Internal Medicine (Hutchins, 1955). It has been estimated that this book was written between the years of 2600 BC and 2500 BC (Hutchins, 1955). The material in this book is still being used to this date. The duplication of this book, along with the expansion of Buddhism, spread the concept of magnet therapy. To understand why the ancient oriental people thought magnet therapy relieved pain, it is first necessary to understand their view on the human body. For the last several thousand years, oriental people have made the correlation that the internal energies, qi (also called ch‟i or chi), affect people's lives. They believed this qi came from two opposing influences or poles, yin and yang, and that illness results when the 8 two forces are out of balance (Whitaker, 1998). They believed that the placement of magnets in certain position on the body would cause the energies to once again attain equilibrium. Figure 2.1 illustrates the specific points for the placement of magnets (Gilbert, 1958). Figure 2.1: Diagram showing the correct placement of magnets. The black dots on the body indicate where magnets should be placed in order to balance one's internal energies. Based on a person's symptoms, magnets were placed at strategic points on the body that would correspond to the ailment. An example being that if a person was having problems with arthritis in their knees, magnets should be placed above, below, and around the knees. The Egyptians used magnet therapy, but what they used it for and how they used it is very limited in detail. What is known, however, is that the Egyptians made 9 trade routes to Ethiopia in order to obtain magnetic stones for the royalty and elite of Egypt (www.homewatermagnet.com). It has been stated in several sources that Queen Cleopatra wore a magnet on her forehead, while she slept, to prevent aging (Whitaker, 1998). Little is known about the other uses of magnet therapy because most of the knowledge was only passed on by word of mouth and not committed to written text. Due to the migration of people from western Asia to Europe and the expansion of the Greek and Roman Empire, magnet therapy has been in parts of Europe for the last 3000 to 2500 years. This knowledge of the use of magnets for medicinal purposes was passed from the oriental countries to countries located around the Mediterranean Sea. Magnet therapy was known in India, China, Egypt and other countries hundred of years before the Greek or Roman empires had even begun to develop (Hutchins, 1955). The word magnet comes from the Romans, who found a large deposit of magnetic material in Magnesia, a location in Asia Minor (Adderly, 1998; Macklis, 1993).