Bracelets For Arthritis Pains

British scientists have recently shattered another myth involving arthritis treatment. Thus far, may people were of the view that wearing a copper bracelet helped in curing this painful condition. But, the findings of a recent study undertaken by a team of British scientists have established that wearing a copper bracelet or a magnetic wrist band had no effect, whatsoever, in alleviating arthritis.

The first randomized and placebo-administered trials undertaken on humans to test the efficacy of copper bracelets and magnetic wrist bands to control pain caused by osteoarthritis - the most widespread type of arthritis, hinted that if there has been any apparent benefit from the use of copper bracelet or the magnetized wrist straps, it is essentially owing to the mental effect owing to the use of the placebo and not due to these two items.

According to Stewart Richmond of the department of health sciences at the University of York in the United Kingdom, who also led the research team, people enduring arthritis are likely to purchase copper bracelets and/ or magnetized wrist bands only when they are in severe pain and when the pain alleviates after a period of time, these people tend to ascribe these devices for relieving them from pain. In a press release, Stewart Richmond added that contrary to what many people believed, the findings of their study indicated that devices, such as copper bracelet or magnetized wrist bands, actually offered no benefit over the placebo wrist straps that are neither magnetized, nor do they contain any copper.

Although Stewart Richmond says that using devices like copper bracelets and magnetized wrist bands do not usually cause any harm to our body, he cautions people suffering from arthritis from spending too much money on magnet therapy, as eventually such measure will not yield any benefits to the patients.

Meanwhile, he said that the trial conducted by his team included 45 people in the age group of 50 years and above and everyone of them were diagnosed with osteoarthritis. Each of these participants was made to wear four different devices in an indiscriminating manner for more than 16 weeks. The four devices worn by the participants at random included two wrist straps with different intensity of magnetism, a copper bracelet and a demagnetized wrist band.

Interestingly enough, though each participant wore four different devices at random for over 16 weeks, neither they, nor the researchers were aware of the precise device worn by a participant at any given period. The authors of the study concluded saying that their findings suggest that the magnetic and copper bracelets are usually useless in alleviating pain, inflexibility as well as physical movements in osteoarthritis. In fact, during the course of the research, these British scientists found no significant difference between the four devices vis-à-vis their impact on pain, stiffness and physical function of the osteoarthritis patients who volunteered to participate in the study.

It is surprising to learn that the sale of different therapeutic devices, including permanent magnets, is to the tune of a whopping US $4 billion annually every year! This data was provided by the British scientists to conducted trials with these devices recently.

It may be mentioned here that osteoarthritis is primarily caused owing to the erosion or wearing away of the cartilage in the joints of the body resulting in acute pain, stiffness of the body as well as swelling of the joints. According to statistics released by the Arthritis Society, it is estimated that as many as 3,000,000 Canadians are affected by osteoarthritis. In other words, one in every 10 Canadians is affected by this painful condition of the joints.