Magnetic Chickens

[QUALTHWAR]

Scientists say magnet therapy is a waste of money

http://www.vascularweb.org/_CONTRIB...s_say_magnet_therapy_is_a_waste_of_money.html

“They said the many studies that purport to show magnets do work are suspect because a magnet's main characteristic -- to be attracted or repelled by metals -- would betray it compared with placebos.”



I’m thinking about making magnetic chickens that people can let run around their houses to help with make them feel better. Maybe even magnetic car chickens. The chickens could either wear the magnets, or maybe have magnetic implants.

 

[Evil_Cope]

bit of a fact-light story that, imo.
"Two scientists said it was kinda silly, and that it's unproven."
Yeah, it's unproven. it's also un-dis-proven, too. And I've known several people who have felt better for magnetic bracelets/etc, so, well. What was the phrase? Burden of proof?

 

[Nachimir]

Yep. Burden of proof. It lies on the people who claim more than a placebo effect for magnetic bracelets.

 

[QUALTHWAR]

Actually, the burden of proof is on the people who say it has some benefits, it’s not the other way around. If someone brings a product to the market, they’re the ones who have to stand behind their claims.

Any intelligent person should know that there are people who feel better when they are told that something is helping them, even though the item provides no real help. That’s why we have tests with placebos to see if something really works or if people just think it works.

What do you think the magnet is supposed to do? Magnets only interact with ferrous materials, or other magnetic fields. Is it supposed to align the miniscule amount of iron in your blood for a split second as it passes by the magnet…at just one limb of the body? Even if it did that, which it doesn’t, why would that do anything for us? The iron would be free to move around after it passed by the bracelet. Why would the brief alignment help us? Blood only has about one tenth of one percent iron in it by mass.

It’s like these people who say the gravity of the full moon makes people go ape****. I gotta tell yeah, the entire moon is always there all the time. It doesn’t lose mass, some of it is just in shadow sometimes. Besides, the moon exerts about as much gravitational pull on our body as a pea floating 20 inches over your head. Your clothes, or car keys, or your chair, or your watch, or your glasses, or your soda, or your ball point pen has more gravitational influence.

But if you tell people the gravity of the full moon will make them crazy, they will act crazy. If you tell them a bracelet will help them feel better, they will feel better. People might as well tell them a Michael Jackson glove will help them feel better and let them wear that. Or give people shoes that generate a huge amount of static electricity so it interacts with the magnetic field of their body.