Study: Wrist magnets, copper bracelets useless for relieving pain
Buzz up!
Like this story? Share it with Yahoo! Buzz
New research indicates that copper bracelets and magnetic wrist straps are ineffective in relieving arthritis pain.
The study, which appears in the British journal
Complementary Therapies in Medicine, finds that reported therapeutic benefits from such items "are most likely attributable to non-specific placebo effects."
Stewart Richmond, a research fellow in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York, led the study and
explains the findings on the university's website.
"People tend to buy them when they are in a lot of pain, then when the pain eases off over time they attribute this to the device," he says. "However, our findings suggest that such devices have no real advantage over placebo wrist straps that are not magnetic and do not contain copper."
The study does show that the devices have "no major adverse effects and may provide hope" for pain sufferers.
Richmond says, however, that arthritis sufferers should be "especially cautious about spending large sums of money on magnet therapy."
"Magnets removed from disused speakers are much cheaper," he says, "but you would first have to believe that they could work.”
