Could a copper or magnetic bracelet help ease symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis? U.K. researchers recently published the first detailed, scientific report on the alternative medicine devices, deeming the products of a billion dollar industry "useless" placebos, the Telegraph reports.
A research team from the University of York published the new report in the journal PLOS ONE, in which 70 patients, between the ages of 33 and 79, with rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, were given four different devices to wear over a five-month period while regularly reporting on their levels of "pain, disability and medication use."
In order to monitor their levels of inflammation while using the devices, the patients provided blood samples after each five week period over the course of the study.
After analyzing their findings, the researchers concluded that both the copper and magnetic bracelets had the same effect as a placebo, or an ineffectual medical treatment intended to deceive the patient.
"It's a shame that these devices don't seem to have any genuine benefit," Dr. Stewart Richmond, a Research Fellow in the Department of Health Sciences at York, who led the study, told the Telegraph. "They're so simple and generally safe to use. But what these findings do tell us is that people who suffer with rheumatoid arthritis may be better off saving their money, or spending it on other complementary interventions, such as dietary fish oils for example, which have far better evidence for effectiveness."
Dr. Richmond believes two main reasons exist as to why people buy and use the otherwise ineffective devices.
"Firstly, devices such as these provide a placebo effect for users who believe in them; secondly, people normally begin wearing them during a flare up period and then as their symptoms subside naturally over time they confuse this with a therapeutic effect," he said. "Pain varies greatly over time in conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, and the way we perceive pain can be altered significantly by the power of the mind".
Magnetic therapy devices have an estimated annual sale of at least a billion dollars worldwide, and the practice of wearing copper bracelets to ease arthritis symptoms has been popular since the 1970s. While they may seem harmless, Richmond warned that those who suffer from arthritis also need to seek medical treatment to help "avoid long-term joint damage resulting from uncontrolled inflammation."
Click here to read the full report from the researchers at the University of York.
