Magnet therapy

Magnetic Jewelry Clasp

Magnet therapy, magnetic therapy or magnotherapy is described by its proponents as a form of alternative medicine involving magnetic fields. Practitioners claim that subjecting certain parts of the body to weak magnetic fields produces a noticeable beneficial effect. This belief has led to the popularization of an industry involving the sale of magnetic-based products for "healing" purposes: magnetic bracelets and jewelry clasp; magnetic straps for wrists, ankles, and the back; shoe insoles, mattresses, and magnetic blankets (blankets with magnets woven into the material); and even water that has been "magnetized". The therapy is generally considered pseudoscientific by the mainstream scientific community, and marketing of the therapy as an effective treatment is heavily restricted by law in many jurisdictions.

Magnet therapy makes use of the static magnetic fields produced by permanent magnets; the related alternate medicine field of electromagnetic therapy involves the application of electromagnetic waves to the patient. Both ferrite and rare-earth magnets, unlike earlier magnetic materials such as steels and alnicos, have great resistance to demagnetization, allowing thin disks to be magnetized. (Earlier magnets had to be long and thin to avoid being demagnetized by the internal fields produced by the poles at the ends.) This feature allows modern magnets to be mounted in a variety of thin products that can be applied to the body with the magnetic field emanating from the surface.