Saturday Quack – Magnets

Save us from nationalized medicine. The British National Health Service (NHS) has just made a ‘magnetic leg wrap’ called 4UlcerCare® available for physicians to prescribe for their patients. Until now, the chief users of magnetic wraps in Britain were Tony Blair and Anthony Hopkins .

Here’s what the UK Sunday Times had to say:

The NHS Prescription Pricing Authority has ruled that 4UlcerCare is not just good for patients but also a good use of NHS cash. It believes the magnets will save money on bandages and nurses’ time by healing the wounds. . . last month a paper in the British Medical Journal by Leonard Finegold, from Drexel University in Philadelphia, and Bruce Flamm, from Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Riverside, California, cast doubt on the treatment. “Patients should be advised that magnet therapy has no proven benefits. If they insist on using a magnetic device, they could be advised to buy the cheapest — this will alleviate the pain in their wallet”.

At least magnets aren’t reimbursed by HMOs here (yet – they do represent a cheap alternative to expert medical care).  The UK Guardian newspaper also weighed in, in their Bad Science section.