Magnetic Therapy
Probably one of the largest contemporary trends in the therapeutic world is the use of magnetic therapy. However, it is also one of the least researched modalities, and has very little sound explanation for it's effectiveness. Winning over its clientele with testimonials by everyone from doctors to elite athletes, magnets are making a place for themselves in the health and therapeutic fields. This is accomplished by utilizing many different marketing strategies and very little research. "The trend is so lucrative, athletes are adding brand-name magnets to their list of endorsements" (Ruibal, p. 3C).
This method of rehabilitation and treatment dates back thousands of years to when they were used by Greek, Persian and Chinese physicians. These physicians used magnetic rocks, now called lodestones, to treat conditions such as gout and muscle spasm (Borsa, p. 150; Meyer 1997). In the early 1500s, Paracelsus, a physician in Greece, thought that magnets were effective therapeutically due to their ability to attract iron. He hypothesized that because of this capability, they would also be able to leach diseases from the body. However, Paracelsus was also very aware of the tendency the human mind has in playing a role in the healing process:
"The spirit of the master, the imagination is the instrument, the body is the plastic material. The moral atmosphere surrounding the patient can have a strong influence on the course of the disease. It is not a curse or a blessing that works, but the idea. The imagination produces the effect" (Livingston, p. 25).
This role imagination plays, known as the placebo effect, is a true thorn in the side of magnetic therapy as a practice. And this is where the debat...
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Autogenic training is a method of stress reduction developed in the early 20th century by physiologist Oskar Vogt. While working with a group of hypnotic subjects, Vogt realized that when they went into a hypnotic state, they had a significant decrease in tension, fatigue and headaches. Inspired by this newfound information, a psychiatrist named Johannes Schultz decided to expand Vogt’s research in order to learn more about the workings of autogenics (Olipin & Hesson, 2010). Schultz was able to discover that through self-directed hypnosis, subjects were able to experience sensations of heaviness and warmth, primarily through their arms and legs. From these observations, “Shultz developed a system designed t...
Scibek, J. S., Gatti, J. M., & Mckenzie, J. I. (2012). Into the Red Zone. Journal of Athletic Training, 47(4), 428-434.
The ancient Romans were the first to use electricity to treat disease several thousand years ago; however, “electrical medicine” has improved and has been utilized in the forms predating ECT in a relatively short amount of time. In the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, doctors began to notice that giving people camphor could “cure lunacy” (Abrams, 2002). The doctors noticed that when administering camphor orally, it caused seizures, and upon waking up, were “in a rational state” (Abrams, 2002). In fact, in 1798, a German scientist reported that 80% of manic patients that were treated with camphor and had seizures, were cured (Abrams, 2002). As medical and technological advances occurred, so did the use of inducing a seizure to cure mental illness. In 1934, a scientist was able to bring a schizophrenic patient, who had been on a hunger strike and had not moved in four years, to recovery through a seizure that had been brought on by camphor (Abrams, 2002). And, “thus, convulsive therapy was born” (Abrams, 2002). By the end of the year, this scientist published results of the same action given to twenty-six schizophrenics, ten patients were cured, thirteen had no re...
Compared to other areas of medicine, mental health is decades behind in finding and applying new intervention strategies that work to alleviate and sooth symptoms of mental health disorders. The use of therapy, medication and in extreme cases electroshock therapy has been used since the 1950s to aid patients in recovery. However, there are new advances in technology that are currently being developed to better understand and assist in the fight against mental health disorders such as bipolar (“Ride the Tiger, 2016). The documentary Ride the Tiger: A guild through the Bipolar Brain (2016) seeks to shed light on mental health inventions that could be used in
For the past few centuries western medicine has made significant improvements in medical technologies; however, as the pendulum swings we are obliged to remember that eastern medicine has been prevalent for numerous centuries. Eastern medicine includes many medical avenues that are slowly becoming more popularized in the western world. For example, I have noticed therapies such as acupuncture becoming much more accepted that in previous decades. Moreover, in the past year I have learned a great deal about the therapeutic effects of magnets, including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) which is also known as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS).
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The original use of electricity as a cure for “insanity” dates back to the beginning of the 16th century when electric fish were used to treat headaches. Electroconvulsive therapy on humans originates from research in the 1930’s into the effects of camphor-induced seizures in people with schizophrenia (Guttmacher, 1994). In 1938, two Italian researchers, Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini, were the first to use an electric current to induce a seizure in a delusional, hallucinating, schizophrenic man. The man fully recovered after eleven treatments. This led to a rapid spread of the use of ECT as a way to induce therapeutic convulsions in the mentally ill. Lothar Kalinowsky, Renato Almansi, and Victor Gonda are further responsible in spreading ECT from Italy to North America (Endler, 1988). Although there is some confusion as to who exactly is credited for administering the first ECT in America, it is known that it occurred in the early 1940.
(2007). Electroconvulsive therapy. Harvard Health Publications. The Harvard Mental Health Letter. (“Electroconvulsive therapy, 2007)
Franz Anton Mesmer, a German physician in the 1700s is said to have brought animal magnetism (hypnosis) to light. However, since many people were beginning to seek out Mesmer and his fellow colleagues, King Louis of France at the time asked Benjamin Franklin and others to delve deeper into this new practice. Which led to a setback into hypnotism, brought on by the brought to light doubt surrounding this new found practice, as being a medically beneficial method. The full acceptance of hypnosis in medicine did not come about until 1847 and in 1958 the American Medical Association (AMA) approved and published a 2-year study written by the Council on Mental Health. In the report it stated that there could be, “definite and proper uses of hypnosis in medical and dental practice and the establishment of necessary training facilities in the United States” (James, 2008). Some of the multiple t...
The placebo effect has been observed in numerous studies spanning a wide spectrum of symptoms and maladies – everything from cancer to baldness and depression to sexual arousal. An early and famous story about the placebo effect is that of Mr. Wright. In Long Beach, California, in 1957, he was diagnosed with cancer and given only days to live. While in the hospital, he heard about a miracle cure called Kerbiozen, which supposedly had been effective in fighting cancer in certain cases. Wright begged to be treated with Kerbiozen in a last ditch attempt to save his own life. His doctor, Dr. Philip West, granted his request and administered an injection of this drug to Wright. Within a few days, Dr. West was amazed to find that Wright up and about, and even joking with his nurses. The tumors had spontaneously melted away. Then, a number of months later Wright read a medical report that claimed that this drug was actually a "quack remedy" with no real medical value. He immediately relapsed. Dr. West reassured him that the medicine was in fact very useful in fighting cancer and administered what he told Wright was a new, super strength dosage of the drug. Again the tumors disappeared, even though Wright had only re...
Many people live with mental disorders that seem unbeatable and unbearable. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation is changing all of that. This treatment utilizes electromagnets smaller than the palm of a hand to deliver magnetic impulses to targeted areas of the brain. These waves stimulate the neurons in that region, enhancing their performance and improving the brain’s abilities. The t...
Michli, L.J. Strength Training in the Young Athlete. Competitive Sports for Children and Youth. 96-97. 1988.
The clinical application of ES can be dated as far back as 1812 when Hartshorne used electricity to promote bone healing in a patient suffering a tibial nonunion, later described in an 1841 publication (Wienke & Dayton, 2011). Research stayed in focus with bone stimulation via ES therapy for many years leading to the US Food and Drug Administration approved labeling electromagnetic devices for treatment of nonunion and delayed union fractures. ES therapy in chronic wound healing became a major research trend in the mid 1960s with a multitude of successful clinical trials to follow (Isseroff & Dahle, 2012). Eventually ES use in treating chronic soft tissue wounds became widely accepted and in 2002 the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services approved ES treatment in a clinical setting for certain types of chronic wounds and pressure ulcers. Until 2003, research focus stayed with ES therapy on pressure ulcers but later ...
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