Hi,
I'm just lurking here on the PN forum. I have chronic pain from Fibro. and RSD and usually post on other forums on neurotalk. However, I just looked at this fourm thinking I may get some help here as well. I have chronic pain in my lower back, face neck, feet ankles, hands, arms - you name it - I have pain everywhere and have found no relief from any meds or treatment for over 23 years. (trigger point inj. do help for face - not lower back)
I also have meralgia paresthetica and was treated for this condition several years ago with the MME machine in both PA (now closed) as well as Calgary Canada by Dr. Bonlie ( a very nice person) . Unfortunately it did not relieve the pain of the MP which was precipitated with walking a mere one quarter of a block. However, I met several people there who were definitely helped. One gentleman had Plantar faciatis (painful feet problem ). He was there for his fourth and final treatment and was healed - pain free. Also, it helped a guy with heart problems and a lady with back pain.
Unfortunately I allowed them to do an epidural for the MP and now I am much worse. The EP. caused severe chronic lower back pain - much worse than the pain of the original Mer. Par.
Since the place in PA closed I recently contacted the Dr. who has the machine in Ohio (I think). Anyway - I am considering trying the <MME for my chronic low back pain. Unfortunately, it is not covered by insurance - $50 an hour plus hotel costs.
I would really give this a try if you can afford it. Dr. Bonlie has a great facility in Calgary and he and his family were just wonderful to me throughout my 2 week stay.
Sydney

Hi Sydney, yes the The Magnetic Molecular Energizer sounds very promising, i hope it works well for your lower spine, i know for a fact that just the cheap Neodymium magnets can help lower back problems as well, my mother has a very bad lower spine, she was going to a chiropractor every week for a long time, being a pensioneer it was costing her a fortune, so i started magnetic therapy on her and she hasn't been back to the chiropractor in well over 12 months.
good luck
Brian

Brian
I have a very unstable spine due to previously ruptured disks at the L2-L3 and L4-L5 levels. But these have become "contained" herniations, and
I am becoming increasingly more unstable for the few hours after getting up, with occasional loss of sensation in the right foot. The instability is very
scary, and sometimes I actually feel the disks moving or "prolapsing".
"Contained" herniations, or bulging disks, take years to resolve, if ever.
I also urgently want to do the MME treatment, but at $50 per hour I
have no way of affording the 400 or so hours which could potentially
reverse my disk degeneration. Couldn't we start some kind of web-based fundraising effort for people who need MME, maybe a sort of charity?
What sort of magnets did you find effective on the lumbar spine, and
were the results permanent? Do magnetic belts work?
PS I heard that the Calgary MME Center is no longer operating, it has assumed the role of a coordinator for the other 6 MME centers in the US.

Hi Max, that is very expensive, i have heard some say the back magnetic belts help, but i think they act more so as a back support more than anything, i don't think they are any were near as affective as just cheap strong" rare earth magnets " or " Neodymium Iron Boron " (or NdFeb), placed directly on the affected area.
Neodymium magnets will not permanently fix back problems but can bring relief, these ones look pretty good value for money.
http://www.kjmagnetics.com/products.asp?cat=10
DX06
1" dia. x 3/8" thick
Grade N42 - Nickel Plated at $6.00 each.
Something around that range should do the job, but be carefull , they are pretty strong so when you are handling strong magnets make sure you place them down well away from each other, opposite poles attract and they can slam together with an almighty force and if your fingers are in the way
it hurts believe me.
Its also wise to place a small piece of moleskin on the skin before the magnet goes on, if you don't you can get magnetic burn, you will need some good strong waterproof adhersive tape to keep them on, leave them on for about 4 days before taking them off, if the area is still sore put them back on a couple of hours after, sometimes it may take a day or so before you will notice any real benefit from them
You can not use magnets if you have a pacemaker or any other similar device, the magnets will interfere with it.
They way i place them on, is i put the magnets on a flat table, keeping in mind the power of them, put 2 on the table and hold them flat now move them closer towards each other and if they feel the are going to attract to each other, turn one of the magnets to the other side, now try pushing closer together again and when you notice that they are pushing away from each other thats the way you place them on your lumber spine, i would probably use 3 on the spine in a line, making sure they are distanced away using that method i just explained.
If you have any problems don't hesitate to post me or even PM if you like.
good luck
Brian

Just so you know, I got Alan the magnets (the belt, the ones you put on your arms and legs, and the magnets in the feet insoles. I also bought the magnassager (which is full of magnetization).

Nothing helped him. So, (and this only applies to him), magnet therapy did not help. What helped him temporarily (and believe me, he danced all the way home) was acupuncture. But after a few months, it stopped helping him.

I never understood why. It did relax him. He slept through most of the treatments. The guy would close the lights and leave him for 30 minutes and he snored away. He felt so good after these treatments, we thought WE FOUND THE MAGIC BULLET!!!!

But, no such luck.

So we still are on a journey, Him with the IVIG (which by the way, no one contacted us after the first home infusions last month),(we had to reschedule the one for May but no one calls us back) how on earth is he supposed to continue these things when no one calls us back?).

And I do the methyl b-12.

Melody

Hi Mel, there is so many magnetic gimmicks out there thats its really not funny, they really do give magnetic therapy a bad name, they promise the world and are not frightened to charge an arm and a leg for them either, but all of the ones i have actual seen for myself, are a complete joke.
My mother brought one of those magnetic belts and it did nothing for her too, the same as Alan, no wonder, i checked the strength of the magnets and even though there was lots of small magnetics in them they were terribly weak magnets.
When i first got PN and desperate for relief i seen some inner soles that advertised great, but when i got to the shop and tested them with a bit of metal they were as weak as water and they wanted around $70 for a pair, probably made in china for a dollar or so.
I also can't see how that magnetic massager could possibly work either, because once the machine has is turned off there is no more magnetism.

The only way they have a chance of working is they have to be really strong for a start and left on the area for at least over night and be applied directly on the skin [with moleskin first] exactly were the problem area is, so really Alan hasn't had any real magnetic therapy [in the true sense] yet.

I am a big believer in the old needle & lazor accupunture, i have nearly fell a sleep a few times myself, the guy who does my accupunture is also a doctor as well, this guy really knows his stuff, and he was telling me that he had a school of magnetic therapy going at one time, and he has used magnetic therapy on a horse of all things and successfully, i tried to buy some of his magnets off him but he wouldn't be in it, he said he still uses them.
He agree's with me about all the rubbish out there claiming to be magnetic therapy, he said its real deception and shouldn't be aloud to happen.
all the best
Brian

Dr Bonile is working on a Southern California center to open this fall.

I have been considering the MME treatement but it is expensive.

I've seen it [magnets]used on race-horses and other 'performance' horses for over 3 decades! It took a bit of 'refinement' to humans however...As for horses, I've seen it help really 'impossible' cases, ease the creature's pains and help them be above 'useful pet' status for quite a time...Same for chondrointin and MSM ...Animals were used as guinea pigs, results spoke all in the performance animals...
I for one can attest to the Tens 'accupoint' in that it 'woke up' some nerves- at times it's a wonderful thing, others, well-either disturbing or at best 'confusing'? I am beginning to appreciate that the NIH in our country is beginning to truly test and see if alternative treatments -such as magnets and the 'rebuilder' type apparatus are viable... Apparently their prelims are that they 'seem to work'...Can they explain HOW? Well, can they explain HOW aspirin works? DUH....Proof is in the numbers and the viability/standards of the tests...WHO CARES if it WORKS and they've no clue? IF IT WORKS.. try it and as YOU caution, go for the good brands, suppliers to assure some quality controls in the whole shebang.. IF it works, GREAT, If NOT, OH well?
As long as we can complain in complete sentences,...well, I think we are doing well! - HUGS - j

Yes Joan, i too can only say what i know as fact and i know what they have done for others that i have helped with them, one being a real skeptic about magnets beforehand, but now swears by them, because he was walking like a cripple with terrible sciatica pain from a bad lumber spine, he now walks normal again and it hasn't been that long now that the scientific world are now really taking notice of the potential use of magnetic fields, only now after being around for hundreds or may be thousands of years, the more i read about the origin of magnetic fields, the longer it becomes, this is very, very old therapy.
all the best
Brian