Magnetized insoles don’t appear to relieve foot pain
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Magnetized insoles have no greater pain-easing effect than similar insoles that don’t contain magnets, according to a new study.
Some study participants did report pain relief, regardless of which type of insoles they were wearing, and the effect tended to be particularly strong among patients who said they believed that magnets could ease pain.
Evidence is conflicting on whether magnets have pain-relieving powers, Dr. Mark H. Winemiller of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota and colleagues note in their report in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Nevertheless, consumers worldwide have spent about $5 billion on magnetized devices touted as pain treatment.
Winemiller and his team had 83 health care employees who had suffered nonspecific foot pain for at least the past 30 days wear magnetic insoles or insoles that didn’t contain magnets for eight weeks. The magnetic strength of the insoles tested in the study was comparable to other magnetized insoles commercially available.
Study participants were asked to use the insoles at least four hours a day for four days each week, and were not told which type of insole they were using.
There was no difference in pain between people wearing the magnetized insoles and those wearing the “sham-magnetic” version, the researchers found, but there was some placebo effect.
Fifty-six percent of patients who said they believed that magnets could relieve pain reported feeling “all better” or “mostly better,” regardless of which type of insoles they actually were using, compared with 26 percent of those who didn’t say they believed in magnets’ pain-fighting potential.
But because of the small number of patients who said they believed magnets could help—just nine—the difference was not statistically significant.
In an accompanying editorial, Drs. Roger B. Fillingim and Donald D. Price of the University of Florida College of Dentistry at Gainesville point out that placebo treatments for pain have real effects that work through multiple mechanisms.
In fact, they add, understanding the placebo effect on pain more fully could help doctors include it in pain management, where it could enhance the effectiveness of “real” treatments.
SOURCE: Mayo Clinic Proceedings, September 2005.
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