I haven’t talked in a while about Nikken’s magnetic insoles, the Magsteps and Magstrides. Magnetic insoles are an important item for Nikken because that is where it all started for them 36 years ago in Japan. That’s right, Nikken has been making magnets in the form of magnetic insoles for 36 years. That’s a long time and is a good testament to their effectiveness. Products that don’t work don’t last 36 years on the market.

What Do Magnetic Insoles Do?

People often ask me what magnetic insoles do. The short answer is that they sit in the bottom of your shoes and create a magnetic field above the surface of the insoles. The real question is what kind of benefits can your body create while the bottom of your foot is bathed in a magnetic field. I believe that the magnetic field helps to relax your feet and to improve energy flow. There is a double-blind study demonstrating that magnetic insoles can help diabetics with peripheral neuropathy and you can see more about the study here. While studies are nice,they don’t really tell you if magnetic insoles are going to work for you. I think that actual personal experience is much more telling.

I like my Nikken Magsteps and I feel that they work very well for me and I don’t have any serious issues with my feet that I need them to “fix”. What they do for me is keep my feet feeling good when I have to spend time on my feet. I can spend 2 long days on my feet at an event and only at the end of the second day will they start to get tired. Imagine what that could mean for someone whose job requires them to be on their feet, like a server at a restaurant, an employee at a store, or someone who works at a spa or beauty shop.

Magsteps are a great introduction to Nikken’s magnetic products. They are fairly inexpensive and should last you for several years. And like I already said, they have been around for 36 years. I don’t generally recommend the Magstrides only because most people don’t have enough room in their shoes for the extra thickness of the Magstrides. Click here to learn more about Nikken’s Magsteps and Magstrides magnetic insoles.

Wayne Woodworth

Someone told me recently that they believed that another company’s magnets must be superior to Nikken’s magnets because they are stronger.

There are companies out there who sell extremely high-powered magnets and that claim that exposure to just the negative pole is beneficial and exposure to only the positive pole is harmful. They also claim that these high-powered magnets help with cancer and the like.

Nikken’s magnets, by comparison, are much weaker. Nikken’s magnetic products also provide a balanced magnetic field created with both positive and negative poles with the intent of balancing the body’s energy field. Nikken also doesn’t claim that their magnets will cure cancer or any other condition. It’s actually illegal for anyone who isn’t a medical doctor to make those kinds of claims. By balancing the body’s magnetic field, Nikken’s magnets allow the body to do what it does best, heal itself.

The inventor behind Nikken’s magnets believes that it is irresponsible for companies to sell such high-strength magnets. The body’s energy system is very subtle. It has very weak magnetic and electrical fields. Magnets are used to create energy because they influence moving charged particles. High-powered magnets will create a lot of energy which will very easily over-stimulate the body’s energy systems.

While possibly beneficial for extreme cases like cancer, I believe that people who are generally healthy need to be cautious of using high-strength magnets. With all that said, Nikken has been making magnets for wellness purposes for 35 years with excellent results. They wouldn’t still be around otherwise.

Wayne Woodworth
Magnetic Massage Therapist

Have you heard of Magnetic Field Deficiency Syndrome? It is the name given to a host of symptoms that arise when a person has limited exposure to the Earth’s natural magnetic field.

How is that possible? Other than astronauts, we can’t leave the Earth, right?

Physiologists have determined that we receive about a third of our energy from external sources, like the Earth’s magnetic field. Dr. Kyoichi Nakagawa, M.D. believes that our exposure to the Earth’s magnetic field is reduced by the amount of time we spend in buildings and cars, and that this may interfere with our health. The effects of Magnetic Field Deficiency Syndrome can include headaches, stiffness in the muscles, insomnia, constipation, and fatigue. Long term deficiency can result in disease, reduce our ability to heal, and leave us more susceptible to microorganisms (bacteria and viruses) and toxins in our environment.

I found this information in a section on Magnetic Field Therapy in the book, Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition by Trivieri & Anderson. Scary stuff, huh?

Nikken shuns the term, magnetic therapy as it relates to their products because they don’t want them to be labeled as medical devices.  All the same, they do have a natural magnetic field and are applied to the body with the intent to generate a positive effect. You know that you can take vitamins and other supplements to improve our nutrition. Nikken’s magnetic products are magnetic supplements to improve our exposure to natural magnetic fields, basically bringing them inside the buildings and cars that are otherwise blocking us from it.

If you are feeling any of the possible symptoms of Magnetic Field Deficiency Syndrome and have tried other remedies without much success, then give magnets a try. It can’t hurt.

Wayne Woodworth
Magnetic Massage Therapist

PS. If you have an implanted device, such as a pacemaker, then check with your doctor before using magnets. Pacemakers generate their own electromagnetic fields and external magnets may interfere with them.

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

Do you have trouble with places that are sore or tight in your shoulders and/or upper back?  In massage we call them knots or trigger points.  If you go to see a massage therapist about this it will probably hurt because we are taught to press on them and hold until the intensity decreases.  It is also hard on the therapist’s thumbs.  It is no fun for either the client or the therapist.

There is a better way. Magnets do wonders for releasing trigger points and there are two magnetic tools that I use when dealing with them.

First are MagBoys. These are small magnetic balls in a holder that I use to roll rapidly over the trigger point for a few minutes. Unlike Trigger Point Therapy, it doesn’t hurt. Actually, it feels really good and the trigger point melts away.

Second are Power Patches.  PowerPatches are small magnetic buttons stuck to a self-adhesive disk that can be placed directly over the trigger point.  It takes longer to relieve the trigger point, but if you put the patch on before going to bed then the discomfort will probably be gone by morning.

I love using magnets when doing massage and taking care of aches and pains.  I find that clients tense up if they feel pain, like in the usual way of dealing with muscle knots, so magnets work much better because there is no additional pain and they promote relaxation.

Wayne Woodworth
Magnetic Massage Therapist

Do you spend a lot of time in a car or travel long distances by car? I do and after a while my back would get sweaty and I would have to move around a lot to find a comfortable way to sit. Have you experienced that?

Well, I found a solution.  I have a chair pad that I take with me just about everywhere I go.  It stays in my chair while I’m at work then goes with me when I leave so that I can use it in the car.  I will never travel out of town with it.  I regularly travel 5 or 6 hours in the car to visit my in-laws and I feel just as good when I get out of the car as I did when I started the trip.

The chair pad is a soft foam with magnets spaced throughout it and far-infrared fibers in the covering and it just works.  It is amazing.

It is called a KenkoSeat.

Wayne Woodworth
Driving in comfort

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.