Senior pain nurse specialist and
qualified magnetic therapist Dee Parsons answers 4 fascinating questions from
chronic pain sufferers
Dee is pleased to receive questions via post, phone and in person. Although she
cannot answer all of these questions individually, she will answer questions
that are of interest to most newsletter subscribers.
Q1: I have been diagnosed with sciatica. I have had physiotherapy but this did
not alleviate the pain. I have shooting pains down my leg and pins and needles
in my feet. I have an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon this month. My GP
says the discs are worn and the nerve has become trapped. Would a magnetic
bracelet help the pain and offer some relief? Christine Hutchings
A: Christine unfortunately a
magnetic bracelet will not help to reduce your sciatica
symptoms because it is simply to far away from your area of pain. In order for
magnets to work they have to be placed directly over the area of pain. That
would mean that you would need to wear magnets over the damaged discs in your
back. The magnets will reduce the swelling around your worn out discs and this
will take the pressure off the sciatic nerve which is causing the pain to shoot
down your leg. The pins and needles should also resolve once the inflammation in
your back is reduced.
Because your back condition is quite severe I would suggest using a super
strength back belt that contains 2,600 gauss magnets as apposed to the standard
800 gauss magnets in the basic belt. Drinking magnetised water in-conjunction
with wearing the back belt 24 hours a day 7 days a week will speed up the
healing process as the combination of tackling the problem from inside and
outside at the same time will increase the power of your magnets by ten times.
Finally I would highly recommend you using massage in combination with the
magnets because when you have sciatica the muscles in the lower back go into
spasms and this causes even more pain around the lower back. If you apply gentle
massage for about 5-10mins just 3-4 times a day it will relax the muscles, ease
the spasm and assist the magnets to get to the centre of your pain. If you
haven’t got anyone to massage you can use an Omni massage ball which is a ball
in a cup then works just like a roller ball effect and it is so easy to use but
doesn’t put any stress on your hands or fingers because the ball is doing all
the work for you, plus you can do it yourself with out needing anyone else.
Q2: I have pain in my thigh and calf caused by peripheral vascular disease. This
is due to smoking. I am trying to give up whilst waiting for a hospital
appointment regarding treatment. Will your products help with this pain and what
type would you recommend? Knee strap or thigh strap? Samuel
A: With PVD the circulation to your legs is severely impaired because your arteries
and veins have become clogged with fatty deposits and this stops the blood from
reaching the lower leg properly. You need to be able to increase the circulation
to the lower leg and increase the oxygen that reaches the feet. This can be done
by using very high strength magnets implanted into shoes insoles. The magnetic insoles
have a total strength of 40,000 gauss so they are incredibly strong. What they
will do is increase the flow of blood down the legs and also increase the amount
of oxygen in the blood so the feet and lower legs are more perfused, that is
have more oxygen and you will not suffer with cramps and pain. The magnets can’t
cure the PVD only surgery can do that but it can help to reduce the pain and
radically improve blood flow.
You would also benefit from drinking
magnetic water as it will increase the
strength of the insoles by 10 times and boost your circulation around the whole
of your body.
Q3: I have a stainless steel bracelet and have never worn one before. How tight
does it have to be around the wrist for the magnets to be effective - at the
moment it is fairly lose and is free to move quite easily? Do all the magnets
have to be in contact with the wrist at all times? Mr Parkes
A: You need to be able to insert your index finger underneath the
magnetic bracelet when
it's on your wrist. That's what we recommend so that the bracelet does not
restrict blood circulation. The more magnets in contact with the skin the better
but obviously all the magnets will not be in contact with your skin all the
times but the magnetic field will be generated around the whole of the wrist so
you don’t have to have total contact at all times. If you have more than one
fingers width of slack in your magnetic bracelet, we can remove a link for you
so that it fits correctly.
Q4: Hi, I am a 36 year old woman and had my first child 17 months ago. About 10
years ago I had an incident with my lower back; I was just bending down to put
something in a cupboard and my back "locked". The pain was excruciating, I felt
faint, had pins and needles in my back and I couldn't move for several hours. My
GP came to the house and injected my back with muscle relaxants. I lay in bed
for a few days and it was still very tender, took about a week to heal
completely. I saw an osteopath afterwards and he said my facet joint had locked,
it was one of those things that can happen to anyone and it may never happen
again.
Anyway over the last 10 years it has twinges now and again but nothing
like that first time. However, in the last couple of months it has started
again, probably with me lifting my toddler son, which I try not to do unless I
have to (putting him in the car, highchair etc). It starts off as a niggling
twinge in my lower right back and gets worse and worse throughout the day until
I can't move. I sleep that night on my left side, with my knees bent and a
pillow between them, and in the morning it's better, but still tender. I tend to
just get it for one day at a time and after having rested for the night it's ok.
But it's happening so often now it's starting to affect what I can and can't do
with my son. Would a back support help me? The pain is on the right side, always
in the same place, right at the bottom of my back and the top of my right
buttock. Once it's gone, the pain is sudden and excruciating and I'm frightened
to move, so I just sit with lots of pillows behind me and walk around very
gingerly, holding my back.
Nurofen seem to help a bit but they're not a long
term answer. I haven't been to the doctors yet, don't have much faith in them
I'm afraid. I'm getting so down about it now as there have been days where I've
planned to take my son out and then can't and sit at home all day and can't even
lift him. I'm not overweight and am healthy other than this. I work in an office
3 days a week and have no problems there, the problems start on my days off with
my son so I know it must be lifting him that aggravating it, but I can't not
lift him. I don't do any regular exercise but walk a lot with my son and to the
office and back. I put on 4 stone when pregnant and was amazed I had no problems
then. Please help!
Mrs Nicola Smith
A: Your problem is quite common and yes it is very debilitating because your lower
back is the main support for the whole body so if you get an injury there it
affects how you stand, sit, lie, bend basically every movement you make depends
on the lower back, so when it is injured you know about it regardless of what
you do.
The good news is that yes I can help you. What you need to do is wear a
magnetic back
belt 24 hours and ay 7 days a week until it completely resolves. This may be as
long as 8-10 weeks because your injury is not resolving with other treatments.
But you should begin to feel relief quite soon maybe 1-2 weeks after wearing the
belt. But leave it on until all of the pain has gone, don’t be tempted to take
it off to soon or the pain will come rushing back.
What I would also suggest for you would be to use a
magnetic bed pad as well. This is a
pad that fits under your sheet on top of your mattress. You lie on it every
night and it has 20 x 2,400 gauss magnets which make sit very high strength. The
benefits of using a pad at night time are amazing. The body actually do most of
its healing at night time so the best time to use magnets is at night. You could
also use the magnetic bed pad during the day behind your back whilst sitting and in the car
this will boost the effects that you receive and help you to resolve your pain
much quicker that with the belt alone and it sound s like you want to get rid of
this pain sooner rather than later.
