Remember when this ‘alternative’ treatment was considered a wacko, California thing? What’s next? Sitting under pyramids to cure hemoroids? If insurance pays for it…

NHS takes up Cherie’s magic magnets cure

[LONDON] It could be called the Cleopatra Effect. Magnetic therapy, which has held the rich and powerful in thrall from ancient Egypt to modern Downing Street, is about to be made available on the National Health Service.

NHS accountants are so impressed by the cost-effectiveness of a “magnetic leg wrap” called 4UlcerCare that from Wednesday doctors will be allowed to prescribe it to patients.

Magnetic therapy, which was pioneered in ancient Egypt, has become one of the pillars of modern alternative medicine. Its adherents include Cherie Blair, Bill Clinton and Sir Anthony Hopkins, the actor.

Critics of magnetic therapy say it is no more effective than a placebo, however. Only last month a paper in the British Medical Journal by Professor Leonard Finegold, from Drexel University in Philadelphia, and Professor Bruce Flamm, from Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Riverside, California, cast doubt on the treatment.

Patients should be advised that magnet therapy has no proven benefits. If they insist on using a magnetic device, they could be advised to buy the cheapest this will alleviate the pain in their wallet, they wrote.