Healing With Magnets

Rating:
Summary: Dubious Credentials
Review: After reading this book I started selling Nikken magnets and using them. The help they have given so many people is wonderful I'm glad to see other people getting help by using a simple thing called Nikken magnets.

Rating:
Summary: Magnets are for everyone. They do help!
Review: After reading this book I started selling Nikken magnets and using them. The help they have given so many people is wonderful I'm glad to see other people getting help by using a simple thing called Nikken magnets.

Rating:
Summary: bogus science
Review: Below, taken from a web thread, speaks for itself:

In the booklet, under the title, "About magnets and magnetic therapy," Florsheim makes a series of astonishing statements that can certainly get your attention. An unsophisticated reader might very well believe them to be well-founded. These "scientific" statements are taken from a book "Healing with Magnets," by Gary Null, Ph.D. Dr. Null is armed with lawyers and is fond of brandishing them. He endorses the use of magnets and laetrile for curing cancer, he opposes vaccination, recommends coffee enemas, and declares that "misaligned" bony plates of the skull cause a raft of medical problems - all notions that have been shown quite erroneous. The "Consumer's Guide to 'Alternative Medicine'" comments, "Gary Null is wrong so often that the average person who listens to him might be better off believing the opposite of what he says." He obtained his Ph.D. from Union Graduate School, a "non-traditional" organization in New Jersey which allows the student to decide his own title of the degree he earns as well as the content of the program he follows, which is largely self-administered. Null bills himself as, "America's #1 Health Crusader."

It is painfully obvious that the Florsheim people did nothing to check up on the scientific validity of the "facts" they published, which are simply ludicrous. A high school freshman knows better than the executives at Florsheim who passed this material as acceptable. One can only hope that it was ignorance on their part, rather than a planned deception, that led them to publish this simply astonishing document, a 28-page booklet in English, French, and Spanish. In any language, it's quackery.

Here are a few of the howlers featured.

Magnetism represents one of the most basic powers in the universe. This force keeps order in the galaxy, allowing the stars and planets to spin at significant velocities. The earth [sic] itself is a giant magnet, with north and south poles and a hot liquid core. The hot liquid core creates a magnetic field which at the earth's [sic] surface is relatively weak, but serves to keep humans attached to the earth [sic]. Without this magnetic field, we would spin into outer space.

Magnetism has nothing to do with allowing stars or anything else to spin at a "significant velocity." And there is no magnetic field that keeps us attached to the Earth, which in any case would not work unless you happened to have a large slab of iron fastened to each foot - which I'm sure that Florsheim will next consider producing as yet another scientific innovation. This business of spinning into outer space is just so juvenile and naive that one has to wonder why these booklets didn't burst into flames on the printing press.

In the latter half of the 1900s, numerous scientific journals reported the effectiveness of using magnetic fields in healing, including programs for the astronauts. 90-95% of health problems astronauts experienced after early space flights were eliminated when magnets were put in space suits and space capsules to counter the effects of traveling outside the earth's [sic] magnetic field.

This is a ridiculous statement. It's simply not true. It's a total invention. NASA information officers told us quite plainly that it is a pipe-dream.

Research indicates that in general, magnetic therapy works because of the electromagnetic nature of the body. Functionally, according to biomagnetic researchers, the brain generates an electromagnetic current that controls every motor and sensory response in our body. Every cell in our body consists of electrically charged particles that are either positive or negative ions. All are directly affected by exposure to external magnetic fields.

Sigh . . . Pardon me, but my brain just about liquified, reading that. The last two sentences are meaningless, wrong, and useless. Particles are not ions. The rest follows.
James Randii is a well-respectred researcher, he has presented obvious flaws in Mr Null's understanding of science. Moving on... Three More Little Adventures on the Voodoo Science Front. by Robert L. Park, Skeptical Enquirer November 2000

1. Null Hypothesis: Do Astronauts Suffer Magnetic Deficiency? I must tell you, I bought a pair of Florsheim MagneForce shoes this week (WN 11 August 00). I have not been sick since. More on my new shoes in a later issue. Today, I want to share another Gary Null quote from the free brochure Florsheim gave me (at $125 the shoes were not free): "90-95% of health problems astronauts experienced after early space flights were eliminated when magnets were put in space suits and space capsules to counter the effects of traveling outside the earth's magnetic field." That's remarkable, since early flights never got beyond low-Earth orbit where the field is essentially unchanged. Nevertheless, we felt obliged to ask NASA. Answer: There has never been a magnet in a space suit.
And finally Customers fall short on magnetic attraction by JP Bender, SOUTH FLORIDA BUSINESS JOURNAL 08/03/01:

NASA spokeswoman Eileen Hawley from the Houston-based Johnson Space Center said that claim has circulated since bio-magnets have been sold with claims of healing powers.

"That's untrue," she said. "We don't use magnets in space suits or space crafts. And nobody would have access to the private health information of our astronauts. That information is protected by privacy laws. Anyone who claimed this is making it up."

Rating:
Summary: Long Overdue Information On Magnetic Healing
Review: I bought the book after listening to one of Gary Null's guests speak on magnets for healing. I thought the book was very informative and offered the kind of information that is not yet in abundance as it should be. I began using magnets on my achellies tendon which sometimes gets very sore after playing basketball. It works. The only suggestion I have for improving the book is to provide some typical parameters on magnetic strength and magnet type for various applications, e.g., for the knee, foot, neck, elbow, etc. Specifics of these parameters were not mentioned in the book and could have been helpful.

Rating:
Summary: Long Overdue Information On Magnetic Healing
Review: I bought the book after listening to one of Gary Null's guests speak on magnets for healing. I thought the book was very informative and offered the kind of information that is not yet in abundance as it should be. I began using magnets on my achellies tendon which sometimes gets very sore after playing basketball. It works. The only suggestion I have for improving the book is to provide some typical parameters on magnetic strength and magnet type for various applications, e.g., for the knee, foot, neck, elbow, etc. Specifics of these parameters were not mentioned in the book and could have been helpful.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book. Lots of info.
Review: I found this book very informative. Null outlines so many practical reasons to give magnetic therapy a chance. I was impressed with the multitude of symptoms that can be treated. Although there are no guarantees, these treatments most certainly are worth a try! I am so impressed with these theories that I am now starting to sell these magnets, so that others may get similar help. Definitely a good book for learning the basics of magnetic therapy. I have already seen results with knee pain, and dry skin problems etc. So the author obviously knows what he is talking about.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book. Lots of info.
Review: I found this book very informative. Null outlines so many practical reasons to give magnetic therapy a chance. I was impressed with the multitude of symptoms that can be treated. Although there are no guarantees, these treatments most certainly are worth a try! I am so impressed with these theories that I am now starting to sell these magnets, so that others may get similar help. Definitely a good book for learning the basics of magnetic therapy. I have already seen results with knee pain, and dry skin problems etc. So the author obviously knows what he is talking about.

Rating:
Summary: Just The Facts, Folks!
Review: I liked this book so much that I wrote down every disease that was listed in the book and created a file for future reference. Whenever I give the book to a friend, relative or acquaintance this book to read I give them the disease glossary. That way they get even more out of the book! This author knows how to make learning exciting and interesting. Keep on writing Mr. Null. We all need to hear more voices like yours.

Rating:
Summary: Dubious Credentials
Review: Null says he holds an associate degree in business administration from Mountain State College in West Virginia, a bachelor's degree from Thomas A. Edison State College in New Jersey, and a PhD in human nutrition and public health sciences from The Union Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio. Edison State, a "nontraditional" school with neither campus nor courses, awards accredited bachelor's degrees based on career experience, equivalency exams, and courses taken at other schools.

The Union Institute is also accredited, but its degree requirements and standards for health-related doctoral degrees differ greatly from those of traditional universities. Students design their own program, form and chair their own doctoral committee, and are required to attend only an introductory colloquium and a few interdisciplinary seminars. Null's PhD committee was composed of a "core faculty member," three "adjunct professors," two "peers," and a "second core reader." The "core faculty member" is a well-credentialed academician whose expertise (in geologic sciences) is unrelated to Null's topic. One of the three "adjunct professors" was Martin Feldman, MD, a "complementary" physician (and "clinical ecologist") who has pinch-hit for Null as a radio host and helped develop some of Null's books and supplement formulations. When I asked a school official about the background or location of the other two "adjunct professors," he replied that information was in storage and was too difficult to obtain.

Traditional universities require that research for a doctoral degree in a scientific discipline make a genuine contribution to the scientific literature. Null's thesis, entitled "A Study of Psychological and Physiological Effects of Caffeine on Human Health," contributes nothing. The stated purpose of his project was to evaluate (1) caffeine's effects on "adrenal function determined by a medical examination," (2) "its perceived psychological effects as recorded in a questionnaire and daily diary, and (3) "the anabolic effect of caffeine according to a theory proposed by Dr. E. Revici." (Emanuel Revici, MD, was a physician in New York City whose methods were disparaged by the American Cancer Society. State licensing authorities placed Revici on probation in 1988 and revoked his license in 1993 after concluding that he had violated the terms of his probation.)

Rating:
Summary: healing information is very good,magnet info not so good
Review: This book must be reread two or three times before the reader understands who is saying what in the long Clinicians'Reports and in the Issues in Magnet Therapy chapters. Some of those being intrviewed seem to be making things harder than they really are. Readers must be aware that some in this book are only trying to sell there product while others are truely trying to help. I have been learning about magnets since 1954. I work in the industrail magnet field and have been healing with magnets most of my life. Every atom is a magnet. Every magnet must have equal poles. When you use a stronger magnet on a weak magnet you increase both of the poles (they must be equal). this is not in this book. I can agree with all of the healing part of the book and I have seen much more than that. You may ask why are you not in this book?? Iam but only a very small part. Everyone should have this book and use it to help themselfs with healing and balance.