The Use Of Magnets In Medicine

When it comes to major personal injury, a trauma to the head has to be one of the biggest. The brain is a complicated piece of machinery that we don't fully understand. It is trained from birth, receives minor injuries and repairs itself, sometimes it has even been known to repair itself after major injuries and sometimes it goes majorly wrong with no way back. Occasionally, it will go wrong without any explanation as to why. Health care for brain injuries is improving all the time yet it is still a veritable minefield of the unknown.

After a major head trauma, personal injury solicitors will secure large compensation claims for the victims because this type of injury is rarely fully recovered from. At the very least it will change the personality but will normally have much more far-reaching implications that lead to the complete devastation of normal functioning. This impacts on the life of the victim and that of his or her immediate family who quickly become carers. Income is changed beyond recognition and specialist care is limited unless there are the funds to pay for it privately.

Of course, research into brain injuries is on-going and new developments are made regularly although scientists can never predict how treatments will affect individuals so it can be a bit of a hit and miss affair.

One man who suffered a personal injury of the cranial variety through a traumatic car crash was left unable to speak. Obviously, this changed his life dramatically and alternative methods of communication needed to be found but the frustration was on-going. That is, until doctors tried magnetic therapy.

Magnets have been used to treat depression, migraines and even Parkinsons disease as it is believed the electromagnetic field sends signals to nerve endings that can rejuvenate and encourage action. The man from the car crash was left in a coma at the age of 26 for a year until doctors tried waving magnets across his head.

The technique is officially called transcranial magnetic stimulation, says New Scientist magazine, and involves placing a plastic covered wire coil next to a patient's head. A current is passed through the coil at rapidly changing levels and this creates a strong magnetic field similar to that of an MRI scanner.

This technique was carried out fifteen times on the patient in question before any changes were seen. However, the signs of improvement were to such a degree that the man began to talk. His mother was amazed that he could then turn his head and look at her in response to her talking to him. Quite soon after this, he began to follow simple instructions and answering questions with single words.

No further advancements with this patient have been made but the difference to the quality of his life, and that of his carer, are enormous. He can express emotion and make his needs known. He can respond to people when they talk to him and this is all thanks to the magnetic therapy that re-awoke the nerve cells in his brain, allowing communication.

Of course, this man would have had a personal injury lawyer that could secure the necessary funds to ensure he had life-long care but the magnetic therapy has been a god send for him. Magnets have been used for thousands of years in Chinese medicine but are only just being experimented with in the Western world. Of course, for this particular patient that is a good thing and further research may well bring hope to many more brain injury sufferers.

About the Author

Shaun Parker is a leading health expert with many years of experience in brain injuries. Find out more about personal injury at http://www.stewartslaw.com

Author Profile: Galway

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