To The Daily Mail Archive

When actress Naomi Harris was given the opportunity to star in a movie last year she feared her excruciating period pains would mean she would have to turn down the coveted part. Her monthly agony meant she could hardly move for three or four days. Then a friend mentioned a new cure using magnets.

Naomi, who had just landed a role in 28 Days Later, a new film by Danny Boyle, the director of Trainspotting, was sceptical - but she decided to give the magnets a chance. 'I knew that unless I found a way of dealing with my periods I couldn't possibly do the film,' she says.

'Typically, I would be in bed for three or four days and there was no way I could meet a gruelling film schedule like that. 'So I decided to try the magnets although I was pretty dubious about them because I couldn't see how lumps of metal could possibly cure a medical condition.'

Naomi, 25, who lives in Hampstead, North London, suffers from more acute period pain than most women because she also has a condition known as polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).

She chose a magnet which has been through clinical trials and has recently been licensed by the Government's Medical Devices Agency. About the size of a £2 coin it fits into a pouch which clips on to the user's underwear to sit over the uterus.

It is the strong contractions of the uterus as it expels the lining of the womb that causes the cramping many women experience during their periods.

Naomi started using the magnets during the middle of a particularly painful period and found that within a few days the pain simply disappeared. 'It was like a miracle,' she says, 'I didn't think they would help, although friends said they swore by them for all sorts of aches and pains.

Having polycystic ovaries really made things a lot worse than just normal pain from periods. Each month they would become inflamed.'

Naomi's condition was first identified at the age of 14 when she fainted in agony as she walked across her school playground. 'I had all sorts of tests and then they found I had PCOS,' she says.

'The doctors said they knew how to cure it and put me on a particular type of contraceptive Pill called Dianette.

'It was very effective and for years I had very little problem with my ovaries and periods. But after about eight years of taking the Pill I decided I didn't want to keep pumping my body with chemicals.

'So I came off the Pill and decided to try a vegan diet because I'd read that eating no meat or dairy foods would help. And it did. I had very little pain. The difficulty was that it made me run- down and tired and after about 18 months I had to stop.

'I went back to being a carnivore and got my strength and energy back, but it came at a price - period pain. Tablets such as Nurofen would hardly touch it. And I went through agonising times until I heard about the LadyCare magnet.'

Many mainstream medical experts remain doubtful that magnets can provide pain relief. But the company making LadyCare, Magno Pulse, points to the approval it has received from the Medical Devices Agency. It has also conducted a placebo controlled trial in which some patients received fake magnets while others received a real one.

It showed that 66 per cent of users took significantly less medication when wearing the magnet on the day of their period and as much as 90 per cent when worn one day before the start of a period. A second trial is underway to see if similar results are obtained.

When the LadyCare company sent 487 school nurses the magnet they were unsure what the response would be. 'Almost all the schools came back to us and they were all enthusiastic,' says Derek Price of Magno Pulse. 'The feedback was that in 90 per cent of cases it had eliminated the pain.'

However, nobody is quite sure how magnets work in relieving pain. Dr Nyjon Eccles, a private medical doctor who has a Harley Street pain relief clinic, says that electrical energy is discharged from magnets.

'What we think happens is that energy from the magnet penetrates the skin and dissolves the lactic acid that builds up during a period,' he says. It is well known that lactic acid causes cramps in the limbs of sportsmen. And in period pain there is a similar effect.

'When the positive electrical ions from the magnet come into contact with the uterus they help dissolve the lactic acid which raises the oxygen level of the blood and improves its flow.

'This results in the pain becoming less severe or clearing completely.' Magnets are being increasingly used in other areas of medicine, too.

Last year, researchers from the University of Iowa medical school reported how heated magnetic rods were being used successfully to destroy prostate tumours.

A study published in the Lancet in 1999 revealed how low levels of magnetic waves were helping to cut the number of fits suffered by patients with severe epilepsy.

The treatment reduced seizures by between 20 per cent and 50 per cent.

Five years ago, doctors in Texas carried out a trial using magnets on people who had suffered a polio attack when younger. They all suffered from a debilitating condition known as post polio syndrome which resulted in painful muscle spasms.
When the magnets were applied to the body as part of a placebo controlled trial, 70 to 80 per cent said they had 'significant relief'.