I sometimes hear from people that magnets don’t work and that any so-called benefits are just the placebo effect. There are a few ways to show that Nikken magnets are not just placebo.

Scientific Studies

One is a placebo-controlled, double-blind study. Doctors are starting to take an interest in magnets as they look for more effective ways to deal with some conditions. One such doctor is Dr. Weintraub who has conducted studies with magnetic insoles to control peripheral neuropathy in diabetics.

Benefits of Magnets on Animals

Another place to look to rule out the placebo effect is with animals. You cannot convince an animal that a sugar pill will do anything other than taste sweet on their tongue, and that is by direct experience. I know of a few Nikken distributors and customers who are using magnets with horses with excellent results.

Usually I hear about people using the Kenko Minis or magnetic insoles on the hooves or a magnetic blanket over their back. I imagine that they also like the Magboys, the MagCreator, and the PowerMag.

Thermographic Imaging

Finally, there is thermographic imagery. Thermographics has been used to find hot and cold spots in houses to show where there may be problems with insulation, wiring, mold, and so on. It is starting to be used in medical settings to find areas of inflammation for early detection of cancers and other tumors.

To show the real benefits of magnets, a thermographic image can be taken before and after the use of magnets to show what has changed. In most cases, the images will show more even warmth in the body. With diabetics with peripheral neuropathy for example, the before image may show that the feet and toes are cold, indicating poor circulation to the feet. After using magnets on the feet, usually either insoles or the Body Energizer, the image will show much more heat in the feet and toes.

Once the thermographic image starts in this video you will see that the persons toes are black indicating that they are less than 70 degrees. As the time progresses, color floods into the persons feet indicating greater warmth.

I hope you have found this informative and that you see that magnets can help. Please leave me a comment below about any experience you have had with magnets and also share this with your followers on the social networks.

Wayne Woodworth

I have received a few questions about Nikken magnets lately that I want to take a few minutes to answer.

How to Use Nikken Magnets

The first question is “how to use Nikken magnets?” When I get this question I assume people are talking about the Nikken magnetic patches, like the Kenko Mini, Kenko Flex, or Kenko Power Patches.

The Kenko Mini and Kenko Flex are typically used with the black side against the body and can be used anywhere that you need them and can get them to stay. The Kenko Flex is usually used on the lower back. The Kenko Mini can be used anywhere. I often hear about people placing a Kenko Mini in one their pants pockets or a shirt pocket. That is an easy way to hold them near where you want them.

I find the Kenko Power Patch to be easier to use because they are smaller and come already attached to a self-adhesive disk, like a circle Band-Aid. The bumpy side is intended to go against the skin and works great in most places. The smooth side is probably more comfortable against bone, like at the temples, in which case you can just peel the magnet off the adhesive and flip it over. I also think the Power Patch is a better value because you can get 30 of them for about the same price as 2 Kenko Minis.

How Do I Use My Insoles

Another common question I get is “how do I use my insoles?”

Magsteps first. Brand new they are probably too big to go into your shoes, so cut them down to the right size using a regular pair of scissors. There are faint lines at the toe and heel on the smooth side to show where to cut for your shoe size. The Magsteps are designed to go into your shoes with the bumps facing up toward your feet. If you find the bumps uncomfortable then take them out of your shoes, flip them over so that the smooth side is up, then put them back in. I recommend that you try the bumps again after 6 months or so. I don’t notice the bumps anymore even when I go hiking.

Now the Magstrides. The dark side with the Nikken EQL+FIR logo goes up toward your feet. Like the Magsteps, they will probably be too big for your shoes straight out of the box. The bottom side has the lines showing where to cut for your shoe size. Regular scissors will cut them. The dark surface has a far-infrared ( that’s what FIR stands for ) coating on it that helps to reduce sweating in your shoes.

Which Side on the Skin for Nikken Magnets

This is a common question that I receive about the Nikken magnets and I have already answered it for some of the magnets. More generally, if their is a bumpy side or a darker side, that is the side that goes toward your body. The bumps will be there to shape the magnetic field or to stimulate the skin and muscle, kind of like a passive massage. The darker side is usually dark because it is coated with Nikken’s far-infrared material that will help to regulate temperature to either gently heat the muscle or reduce sweating. Those are some good guidelines to help you out if you see a Nikken magnet that you aren’t sure about.

I hope that helped answer any questions you have about the Nikken magnets. If you have a question that I didn’t answer here then please leave me a comment below and I will get you an answer. I would also appreciate it if you would share this with your followers on Twitter and Facebook. There are some convenient buttons at the beginning of this post for you to do that.

Wayne Woodworth

You hopefully already know all about the benefits of wearing magnetic insoles in your shoes. You probably don’t know about the benefits of having a pair of MagSteps in your washing machine though. This isn’t one of the uses listed in Nikken’s brochure, it comes by word of mouth.

Assuming that the drum in your washing machine is metal, you take a pair of magnetic insoles and stick them to the sides inside your washing machine. I like to keep them on opposite sides, across from each other. The water, detergent, and bleach aren’t going to hurt them. I don’t know how long they will last in there, but ours have been there for 4 years with no sign of wear.

But why put magnetic insoles in your washing machine?

Because they help to soften the water. Did you know that most of the chemicals in your laundry detergent are there to treat your water, not to wash your clothes? It’s true. So, with the insoles helping to condition the water, you will need less laundry detergent. Actually, when we put a pair of MagSteps in our washing machine we didn’t use any laundry detergent for about a month because there was so much laundry detergent left in our clothing from washing with the “correct” amount of detergent.  If you try this, you will probably find the same thing.

So, the bottom line is that a pair of magnetic insoles in your washing machine will save you money in the long term because you will need maybe a quarter of the amount of laundry detergent that you currently use. This could even help people with sensitive skin because there is less detergent residue to react to.

Wayne Woodworth

I was asked yesterday if magnets can help with fibromyalgia.  I would like to be able to just say “yes” and move on, but that would be irresponsible and get me in a whole bunch of trouble with Nikken and the FDA, so I won’t.

Before I go any farther,  I want to make it completely clear that I am not a doctor, I cannot diagnose whether you have fibromyalgia or any other condition, and I cannot prescribe anything for any condition that you may have.

So, what can I say about fibromyalgia?  Well, for one, medicine hasn’t actually decided what exactly fibromyalgia is.  It is closely related to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the lines between the two conditions appear to be very blurry.  It is classified as one of the many auto-immune conditions where the immune system attacks the body as if it was an attacker.  People who have fibromyalgia usually complain that their whole body hurts all the time, and it is a chronic condition, which means that they will probably have it for a very long time and maybe the rest of their life.  People with fibromyalgia don’t usually have much hope of getting out of pain, which is a really sad way to have to live.

I read a good description of fibromyalgia on another site.  It said that it is an inflammation based condition.  For whatever reason, inflammation is triggered and it stays on, becoming chronic.

As a Nikken consultant I have heard many people report that problems with inflammation have improved after using the magnetic sleep system, insoles, and the biaxial magnetic rotation products.  I have also heard several testimonials in regards to fibromyalgia specifically.

As I said before, I’m not a doctor, so I cannot tell you that magnets will help you if you have fibromyalgia.  I will say that magnets have been determined to be completely safe, unless you have a pacemaker or some other battery-powered implant.  With that said, my recommendation is that if you want an alternative to living with pan, give the Nikken magnets a try.  Use the sleep system, insoles, and always drink plenty of water (we are 70% water and need to stay hydrated) for 3 months.  The worst that can happen is that nothing happened, and just maybe something might.

Wayne Woodworth
A good night’s sleep on a magnetic mattress pad makes me feel great.

Nikken doesn’t have any products with the extremely high Gauss ratings that you can find from some other products online. I have received questions from several people who think that the stronger magnetic fields will do better for them.  I haven’t been able to give them a good answer until now because I’m not an expert on magnetism and its effects on the body.

While not an official Nikken response, the answer comes from the man who has invented and developed several of Nikken’s magnetic products, Anthony Bove.  Basically, those high Gauss magnetic fields can generate too much electricity and heat in the body.  If you want to get more into the science and all of that then you are welcome to look up things like Faraday’s Law and Lorentz Force.

More telling for me is to look at thermographic images from before and after actually using the magnets.

Notice that when the thermographic image first shows up, the subjects toes are cold (black) and by the end they are warm (white). That’s what really matters, and this is just from a pair of magnetic insoles (MagStrides in this case).

Wayne Woodworth
My feet are happy with my MagSteps

Do you lose a day when you travel by plane because you feel jet lagged?

Mark had to fly across the country a lot for work and preferred to travel the day before so that he’d have time to recover from the jet lag before having to start a job.  He borrowed a pair of magnetic insoles to see if they would help.  For his next job he had to fly out from Alabama to Nevada, drive 3 hours more to the job site, then get to work immediately.  He said that he didn’t experience anywhere near the level of jet lag that he normally felt.  The insoles helped a lot.

The idea behind this is that the Earth is a very big magnet and we depend on the Earth’s magnetic field to function properly.  Magnetic field strength, like sound, drops off by the square of the distance.  For example, at 10 feet away from a magnet you will experience one quarter the affect that you experience at 5 feet away.  When you fly in a plane you are 25,000 to 30,000 feet away from the earth.  Magnetic insoles and other items supplement the magnetic field around the body to help it function better.

Wayne Woodworth
Walking on magnets

Have you heard that the benefits that people get from magnets is just the placebo effect?

placebo – a substance containing no medication and prescribed or given to reinforce a patient’s expectation to get well.

placebo effect – a reaction to a placebo manifested by a lessening of symptoms or the production of anticipated side effects.

I recently saw an episode of the old TV show M.A.S.H. where the doctors didn’t have any morphine to give their patients for their pain after surgery.  They decided to make sugar pills to give the patients and hope that the placebo effect would get them through until a new shipment of morphine arrived.  The mind can do amazing things if we let it, or cause it to think it should.

When talking about magnets I sometimes hear that they don’t really do anything.  Any supposed benefit is just the placebo effect.  If I have a headache what do I care if the  “lessening of symptoms” is because of a placebo effect or because of drugs masking the pain?  I just want the headache gone.  The thing with the magnet, placebo or otherwise, is that there aren’t any side-effects either.

So, the next time you use your magnetic patches or magnetic insoles to take care of a problem and someone tells you that it is a placebo, just say “So what!”.

Wayne Woodworth
Magnets are a placebo? The pain is still gone.

Have you used magnetic insoles, magnetic jewelry, or any other magnetic products?

Most of the people I have talked to use them to take care of a particular condition, which I think is great.  As a massage therapist, I recommend Nikken magnetic products to my clients to help with sore muscles and to promote relaxation.  Did you know that they can be a great preventative too?

The Earth’s magnetic field is not uniform.  It varies from one place to another so that one place can have a positive magnetic field and others, not even too far way, can have a negative field or a neutral field.  The earth’s magnetic field shifts constantly as well.  NASA has reported that the magnetic north pole moves every year and reverses on average every 300,000 years.

Nikken’s magnetic products are static earth magnets that can help balance the magnetic field that you are immersed in every day.  It is my belief that staying in this supportive magnetic field can help prevent a lot of the every day issues that we all face, things like fatigue, lack of energy, mild discomfort, and other similar issues.

Sleeping on a magnetic sleep system, like Nikken’s Ultra Kenko Pad or KenkoAir mattress, far-infrared comforter, and magnetic pillow will help balance your energy while you are sleeping and allow your body to make the best use of the few hours it has to energize and restore itself.

Wayne Woodworth
Independent Nikken Wellness Consultant
Magnetic Insole Wearer

Disclaimer: I am an Independent Nikken Wellness Consultant and massage therapist. None of my statements have been approved by either Nikken or the FDA. I do not diagnose conditions and I do not prescribe any product to treat a particular condition.

magnetic insoles are probably the most obvious and well known of Nikken’s products.  They are the first product that Nikken released when they were founded back in the mid 1970′s, so the insoles have been around for a long time.  The magnetic insoles have been improved over the years and they still represent the core of what makes Nikken famous.

The first question people ask when talking about magnetic insoles is “do they work?”.  The great thing about magnets is that it is easy to prove that they do.  You put them in your shoes and either you feel something or you don’t.  It’s that simple.

When demonstrating the insoles to people I usually do one of two things.  To show people how magnets and magnetic insoles can make them stronger I use applied kinesiology, or muscle testing.  Basically, I have them stand in front of me with one arm stretched out to the side at shoulder height and their hand balled into a fist.  I push down on their wrist with two fingers and have them resist.  Without the insoles under their feet most people are usually pretty weak.  Then I have them stand on the insoles and repeat the procedure.  Most people are amazed at how much stronger they are with the insoles.

The second demonstration is probably even more amazing.  I have the person sit on the front edge of a chair with their feet flat on the floor and their arms together stretched out in front of them.  This time I push up while they resist.  In most cases their feet come up off the floor as they tip back in the chair.  Then I put the insoles under their feet and repeat the process.  This time their feet stay on the ground. To further prove that the insoles are the cause, I take one away and repeat it again.  This time the foot with the insole stays on the ground and the foot without the insole comes up.

It is my belief, based on my experience, that the nikken magnetic insoles improve energy flow through the feet to keep you better energized and better grounded.  Most people’s feet hurt at the end of the day if they have been on their feet all day.  The magnetic insoles help that condition.  I have heard from people who travel by plane that magnetic insoles, and other magnetic devices, help to prevent or ease the effects of jet lag.  I have even heard from some diabetic people that the insoles, and other Nikken magnetic products, have allowed them to keep their toes when they have been faced with amputation.  For their small cost they are at least worth trying.

Wayne Woodworth
Nikken Independent Wellness Consultant
Nikken Magnetic Insole User

Disclaimer: I am an Independent Nikken Wellness Consultant and massage therapist.  I use the Nikken magnetic insoles myself and I don’t leave home without them.  None of my statements have been approved by either Nikken or the FDA.  I cannot diagnose conditions and I do not prescribe magnetic insoles or any other Nikken product to treat a particular condition.  As I said before, these are only my opinions based on my experience and the experience of those I have talked to, who are in most cases other Nikken consultants whose lives have been significantly improved through the use of these products.