<p>That diet is called the ketogenic diet. At the time of its inception, it was only known that it worked among a handful of patients. No formal studies had turned up any conclusive results. It was just too new to tell its effectiveness. Besides, noone had any idea how it functioned on a biological level. Doctors were behaving soundly on both MORAL and SCIENTIFIC levels in refusing to grant the treatment as a substitute for traditional therapies. Now, of course, it is endorsed by doctors. I am a bitter cynic with no innate trust of pharmaceutical companies, but even I don’t believe that their hands were in these doctors’ pockets.</p>
<p>[Edit: The treatment is very expensive, anyway. Setting up a clinic could net quite a bit of cash for a doctor. It’s unlikely that money was a direct motivator, since endorsing the treatment could have been a good source of revenue. Health insurance, on the other hand, may have played a role in decisionmaking. But that’s a different issue.]</p>
<p>If magnetic braces work for you, so much the better. But be warned, as far as science can tell, they do nothing on a biochemical level to relieve pain. If you have arthritus and a magnetic bracelet eases your aches, you’re lucky. It’s probably all placebo effect, but why not use magnets if they work? That said, many scientifically refuted “alternative therapies” are not so benign, especially if they’re substituted for the latest treatments the medical research community has to offer. If you have cancer and the usual pantheon of treatments fail, the last thing you want to do is slap on a permanent-magnet.</p>
<p>Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on magnet therapy:</p>
<p>"Few magnet healing product manufacturers have demonstrated scientifically that they actually achieve what they claim, and most cannot even agree on what exactly the magnetic fields do. Some claim that the magnets help to circulate the blood by some interaction with the iron in hemoglobin, a major component of red blood cells. However, in its ionised form, iron is not ferromagnetic. If it were, use of magnetic resonance imaging would instantaneously kill patients. Still others claim that the magnets can restore the body’s electromagnetic energy balance. There are also claims that the south pole of a magnet acts different on the body than the north pole. The list of ways that manufacturers purport that magnetic fields affect the body is almost endless.</p>
<p>The vast majority of information sources and Web sites promoting magnetic therapy belong to people and understandably biased companies that sell magnetic products."</p>
<p>On a slightly different topic: Although I question the extreme oversimplifications Dr. Sarno seems to embody in taking the message to the masses, I do not deny that both you (NJres) and your sister benefited from the treatment. I have not researched enough to properly respond to your claims.</p>