Copper/ Magnetic Bracelets
 

I see lots of folks, especially men, wearing these copper and or magnetic bracelets which supposedly have a health advantage. Is there science to support this? Do think this is real or just marketing of a product?

Anything lasting more than 4 hours, call your doctor...............................

I suspect most people wear them primarily as jewelry

I seriously doubt that it has any health advantage. How could it? Is the copper absorbed by your skin? And if it is, is it supposed to correct a copper deficiency? A doctor would recommend a supplement for a deficiency, not a bracelet.

As far as it being magnetic, that's not going to help anything, in my opinion. I remember many years ago when there was a trend or fad for that sort of thing. People were buying magnetic mattress pads etc.. Then after a few years everyone was offering them for sale (used) to try to get some of their money back.

Kinda like Beanie Babies.:a20:

This has been studied and verified by a branch of science called Snake Oilology.

So your saying it might work.

The marketing? Sure.

Funny!

If the illness you are treating has a significant psychosomatic component, and the patient "believes" in the treatment being offered, then there is a likelihood that the treatment will be beneficial. Placebos have been shown to not only help in psychosomatic symptom control but in "real" situations. Pain is certainly real, although there is a large component of how much the patient focuses on the pain which is reflected in the rating of its severity.
A Double-Blind, Randomized Multicenter Trial Comparing Duloxetine with Placebo in the Management of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathic Pain - Raskin - 2005 - Pain Medicine - Wiley Online Library

Here is a study showing benefit in hip and knee pain in patients wearing magnetic bracelets. The improvement was 26% and there was a placebo group wearing a non-magnetic bracelet which improved less but also improved. The benefit of magnets was equal to that which patients obtained with exercise or Celebrex.

Randomised controlled trial of magnetic bracelets for relieving pain in osteoarthritis of the hip and knee

Now there is no explanation of why this might work. And there are many studies showing absolutely NO benefit so this one might be a fluke, like flipping a penny 5 times and getting heads each time. It happens but is meaningless.

Therapeutic effects of magnetic ... [Complement Ther Med. 2009 Oct-Dec] - PubMed - NCBI
I like the conclusion of the abstract for this study:
"CONCLUSIONS:

"Our results indicate that magnetic and copper bracelets are generally ineffective for managing pain, stiffness and physical function in osteoarthritis. Reported therapeutic benefits are most likely attributable to non-specific placebo effects. However such devices have no major adverse effects and may provide hope."

Here's an interesting article about this scam. It's a $300 million a year industry.

Magnetic Therapy: Cure or Hoax? : The Consumer Warning Network

I once read about a study that discovered you can get a placebo effect even when you know you're taking a placebo. So even if you know a copper bracelet is ineffective, you can still get a placebo effect. And it doesn't have to be a pill or a bracelet.

It can be a health/diet book. These books will typically tell you, in the first chapter, that you are going to look great, feel great, and lose a lot of weight when you follow the XYZ regimen. And the book can, in many cases, work like a placebo. That's why most diets work in the beginning but eventually fail. Placebo's usually don't keep working for very long. Of course, there can be exceptions where someone continues following a certain regimen but I think it's kind of rare.

Baloney

:agree:

Despite the cries of baloney, the placebo effect is a subject of lots of interesting well designed research. One of my favorite studies was where the patients were told they were to receive a pain medication. Some were told it was an inexpensive pill, others that it was extremely expensive. JAMA. 2008 Mar 5;299(9):1016-7
Of course you know which pill worked better.

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1965 Apr;12:36-45.
" In one study that used placebos, the patients were even told openly that they were receiving a tablet without any active substance. The only additional comment that was allowed was that “it had helped many people.” Despite the objective information about the absence of any active ingredient, this positive remark ensured that the placebo administration was effective in 13 out of 14 patients and reduced their subjective symptoms by 41%"

There is even an opposite situation where the patient believes that a medication will make him worse. Give him a placebo and sure enough a significant number will have the "side effect" they expected.