Stacey Grieve

Health & Wellness Guru

My name is Stacey Grieve, and I am pleased to join the FutuRéale group as the in-house health advisor. Today’s column includes some information about me, and regularly we’ll answering reader questions. I look forward to receiving your email questions with anything health-related such as sleep, weight, nutrition, health, environment or stress!

Although I have always had a fascination, (bordering on obsession!) with how the human body works, I officially entered the world of professional health care about 14 years ago when I became a Registered Massage Therapist. Here in Ontario, Canada where I live, extensive training and testing is done before one can call themself an RMT, and after a 2-year course of study, I graduated with Honours. I immediately went to work at a health clinic with a Chiropractor, Naturopathic Doctor and a Dentist. I continually picked all their brains to learn more about the different ways of looking at and understanding the body, and learned lots from their years of experience. I continued to take post-graduate studies in Acupuncture, Muscle Energy Technique, Reiki, Ergonomics, and Pregnancy and Labour Support. I also went on to teach at one of the local colleges in the Massage Therapy program, and eventually opened my own Complimentary Health Care clinic, where in addition to working with my patients, I also participated as a mentor to new massage graduates in the clinic.

I am also an author, having just released the new book “Why Are You Weighting? It’s not the food that’s making you fat!” which I wrote after many years of my own struggles with my weight. I was an overweight child who grew into an obese adult, who yo-yo dieted myself all the way up to 306 lbs, wearing a size 26! It was only after I figured out that I needed to pay more attention to my brain than my stomach that I finally got the results I was looking for, and for the last 6 years I have lived life very easily at a size 12. So you can see I have a wide variety of interests related to health, and it is my hope with this column that I will be able to help you navigate your health challenges and answer your questions.

Since this is the first column, and I don’t yet have any questions from readers, I thought today we could talk about something health related that you might not be aware of, and that is the use of magnets to improve health. Most North Americans think magnets are things you stick to the fridge, and have never thought about how they can be used on the body. Yet in Europe and Asia, magnets are a regular part of health care, and have been for centuries. In fact, Cleopatra was reported to sleep with a magnet on her forehead for it’s wrinkle-reducing effects! Magnets have been around forever.

But not all magnets are created equal, and if you are going to use one for health, be sure to seek out those that are designed to be used on the body.

Magnets have been used successfully to help people with all kinds of ailments, from headaches to muscle aches, wound healing to heartburn, back pain to sleep challenges.

One of the most exciting discoveries about the power of magnets applies to Diabetics. Long-term diabetes can result in circulatory problems, which can lead to pain, numbness, tingling and/or burning in the feet (called Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy or DPN) and some sufferers eventually lose their toes, feet or even lower limbs to amputation. Unfortunately, conventional medicine doesn’t have much to help these people, yet a simple pair of magnetic insoles worn in the shoes during the day, and inside a pair of socks while sleeping, have been proven¹ to reduce the symptoms, and even reverse the damage, saving many Diabetics from discomfort and even possible amputation.*

Magnets also help those with Fibromyalgia², another painful disorder that conventional medicine hasn’t had a lot of luck with. A study was done in 2001 at the University of Virginia involving people with Fibromyalgia and magnetic sleep pads, and found that the group of people “who slept on the pads with active magnets generally showed the greatest improvements in outcome scores of pain intensity level, number of tender points on the body and functional status after six months. The sham pad group and the group receiving only usual care did not exhibit the same improvements.”

There are many ways to use magnets. They can be worn as jewelry, as insoles, as stick-on patches, or you can even sleep in a magnetic sleep system at night and sit on a magnetic chair pad during the day, both for a full-body effect. Magnets can help bones heal faster, reduce bruising, lessen muscle tension, reduce headaches, and even help with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.³*

In “Ode” Magazine, Dr Roy Martina reports “Protect yourself with magnets. Magnet therapy is one of the best available protections against illness and the damaging effect of computers and mobile phones. I sleep on a magnetic mattress, wear magnetic insoles and have a kind of magnetic seat that can be attached to an office chair or car seat. The difference can be like night and day. Magnet therapy is specially recommended for people with arthritis, RSI, fatigue and those who easily catch viruses or have weak constitutions.”

So the next time you find yourself having some sort of discomfort, why not try a magnet instead of a pill? Magnets are non-invasive, non-toxic and all natural...after all, the earth is a big blue magnet, with a north pole and a south pole! So give it a try! After all, what have you got to lose except maybe your discomfort?

If you have a question about your health, please send an email to stacey@futureale.com, and then look for your question to appear in an upcoming column!

To your health!
Stacey Grieve
stacey@futureale.com

1. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, May 2003
2. [2001] University of Virginia study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.
3. The Journal of Back and Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation, Sept 2002.
* The brand of magnets used in both these studies are produced by a company called Nikken. www.richerlivingnow.com