Magnet therapy is popular, ancient, and largely unsupported — with two important exceptions that are genuine medicine.
Lodestone appears in Greek, Egyptian, Chinese and Indian medical writing. Paracelsus wrote on magnets in the sixteenth century, and Franz Mesmer's “animal magnetism” in the 1770s caused a sensation before a French royal commission — which included Benjamin Franklin and Lavoisier — investigated it in 1784 and concluded the effects came from imagination. That commission is one of the first blinded experiments in history.
In Su Jok and in Indian magnetotherapy, small magnets are applied over correspondence points, with polarity chosen according to the effect intended. Magnetised water is also widely sold.
Static magnets — bracelets, insoles, mattress pads, knee wraps — have been tested repeatedly in controlled trials. Systematic reviews conclude they do not relieve pain beyond placebo. Water cannot be magnetised in any lasting way; it is not ferromagnetic.
The contrast is instructive. Magnetic fields strong enough and targeted enough to do something do a great deal. A magnet you can wear on your wrist does not.
Anyone with a pacemaker, implanted defibrillator, insulin pump, cochlear implant or other implanted electronic device should keep magnets well away from it. This applies to therapy magnets and to ordinary strong magnets alike.
This site is a personal account and a record of traditional practice, shared for information. It is not medical advice, not a diagnosis, and not a treatment for any disease. I am not a doctor.
If you are unwell — and especially if you have a serious illness such as cancer, diabetes or heart disease — please stay under the care of a qualified physician. Nothing here should replace or delay that care.