BMJ: Magnetic bracelets may relieve hip and knee pain
Posted by Clark Venable on 12/16/2004
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"Wearing a magnetic bracelet could reduce the pain arising from osteoarthritis of the hip and knee. After randomising 194 people aged 45-80 to wearing a standard strength static bipolar magnetic bracelet, a weak magnetic bracelet, or a non-magnetic (dummy) bracelet for 12 weeks, Harlow and colleagues found that mean pain scores were reduced significantly more in those in the standard magnet group than in the dummy group. Although a few participants allocated to the dummy group did notice the lack of magnetic force, further analysis showed that unblinding did not affect the results."
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The result table is here.
Very interesting results. Can one ever really be blinded as to whether a bracelet is magnetic or not? Wouldn't it just be too easy to 'check' to see if you're in the placebo group or not?
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