Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Magnets

Episode Date: April 15, 2014

Welcome to Sawbones, where Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin McElroy take you on a whimsical tour of the dumb ways in which we've tried to fix people. This week: We put a magnet on it. Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers (http://thetaxpayers.net)

Saabones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, time is about to books! One, two, one, two, three, four! We came across a pharmacy with a toy and that's lost it out. We were shot through the broken glass and had ourselves a look around.

Some medicines, some medicines, the escalant macaque for the mouth! Hello, we're ready and welcome to Saul Bowling, it's a marital tour of Miss Guide Medicine. I am your co-host, Justin McRoy. And I'm Sydney McRoy. Sydney, I want to take the opportunity of this week's episode to congratulate you on finally getting your driver's license. Well, thank you, Justin. It's not, I mean, it's not finally like the first time, though. to be fair. It is such a proud moment for any husband. Well, no, it's why finally can take to the road. No, I experienced the freedom of the wind in your hair. I mean, I had a license.

I did. I got it when I was 16. I just, I just let it expire. A hard, You let it real, you didn't let it expire. You watched it die for a year. I didn't even know it had expired until it was like eight months over. America. Eight months around. Surrounding nation's earth. This is not a goof.

Sydney did really let her license expire. So hard that she had to return to the DMV for a frankly inspiring three hour. Uh, you know, we shouldn't have had like a meetup. Hey, want to meet your old pal, the Justin city, come to the 100,000,000 DMV all morning, Monday morning, this morning, because I had to take both the written examination as well as the practical test. And I studied for them.

You did, and you did a great job. That's kind of tricky. It is, they changed the laws every now and then. They do, you wanna know how far away from a stop sign you can park? You just asked me. I will. But you had to,

because I'm going to LA for E3 pretty soon, and you have to be able to get around. I know, I wasn't gonna walk everywhere. Yeah, come on. I'm gonna be so pregnant by then, you're gonna be able to get around. I know, I wasn't going to walk everywhere. Yeah. Come on. I'm going to be so pregnant by then, you're going to leave me to walk. So in his own defense to save him from the guilt, Justin forced me to go get my license renewed. Yeah.

While you're gone, you can't forget to bring me back a magnet. Yes. I will. We pretty much every place we've gone, unless there's like such a small population, they don't have magnet production abilities. We've retrieved a magnet and placed it upon our refrigerator. And not the most original, not really tourist treasures, but and you know, you say, they are ubiquitous. You said even places where they don't make magnets.

We do remember we did get one in Honduras and tried to make it into a magnet. Yes, we did try to find one. Well, we never made it into a magnet. Yes We did try to find I mean well We never made it into a magnet but that was the plan we said that we bought a little To do a magnet problem. We bought a little wooden thing and we're like yeah We'll just glue a magnet in the bag of it to get it to the fridge sounds like something we do We'll never do that now. We have a Fridge is just littered with magnets and we're gonna be it one put your driver's license up there Once once your official one arrives.

Thanks, and it went to my federal ID or I was up at the payway. I got a lot of pressure on our forthcoming child. It's like, well, got fridge full of magnets. How about it? Well, you got draw something. Draw something. Get an A on something.

Get an A on something. I need a smiley face. I need a gold star. I need something to put up there. Great job sticker or anything. Come on, kid. Because otherwise they are utterly purposeless. Well, I mean, not completely.

Well, what, like how so? Well, there are other things you can do with magnets. Do me a neighborhood thing. Well, okay, maybe that you can't do with magnets, but maybe that people thought you could do with magnets. Okay, I'm into it. Like cure disease, maybe. Oh boy, you're gonna turn this into an episode.

I thought we were just having a pleasant conversation about magnets. Because that's what people love to hear on the internet. They like to listen. They talk about bureaucracy. Travel plans. It's got everything. And the magnets on our fridge.

Do you want me to just go downstairs and start describing them one by one? It's, let me suggest this. I feel like someone suggested this. Somebody did Ross suggested this. Thank you, Ross. Thanks, Ross. You're a great person.

So I want to tell you about magnets, but I want to start with, as I was reading about magnets as medicine, I came across a couple places where they listed like the legends of where did magnets come from. I don't really think these are, I don't know, maybe these are considered legends. So one is that there was a Greek shepherd named Magnus. And that he noticed that there's a certain stone that has magnetic properties called a load stone.

This is actually a load stone or a guiding stone. It's what was in a compass originally used by a sailor to navigate. So he noticed that his iron staff was attracted. It was like pulled towards the load stone. Or perhaps the iron nails and his sandals were. Seems like a big difference for the myth. Yeah. One of the two though made him come up with magnetism. The alternative theory that I found is that there's an area in Greece called Magnesia where there are a lot of volcanic rocks that have magnetic properties. Is there a milk of Magnesia? Yes, that's magnesium though. Okay, I know I don't know. So, but you're right.

Yeah. I wonder if they come from a similar. What's wrong with their cows? I think is the big question. This seems pretty rough there for the cow population. That's a whole other issue. That's not really milk. If you are you ever drinking that as milk?

No. Hold on. No. Don't drink that as milk. Are you putting that on your cereal? Never. Don't dunk your Oreos as milk? No. Hold on. No. Don't drink that as milk. Are you putting that on your cereal? Never. Don't dunk your Oreos in milk of magnesium. Never again.

That's a whole issue. So either way, somehow we came up with the word magnet. Maybe it was a Greek in a sandals. Maybe it was either way it's Greek. So we'll leave it there. But as long as we've understood that there were magnets, we've tried to use them to help us because they seemed magical, I guess. I guess it was just the idea. Magnets had this kind of weird magical ability to pull things towards them. It is the close, I mean, like, if you don't

know, if you were to ask yourself magnets, how do they work? And you don't know the answer to that question. It would seem I grant you magical because it's one of the few things where like, you know, I mean, gravity, okay, I guess that draws one thing towards another thing, but like coming the most boring way possible. If you didn't know anything about magic, I think that does seem like the closest we have to like observably magical forces.

It's not what, and St. Clampossi was fascinated by. Yeah, that's what I was saying earlier. Everyone I said magnetically worked. I thought that was an inadvertent. No, it was vertent. It was vertent, just perhaps not vertent enough for my beloved wife and ghost. But next time I'll put some makeup on before to just really nail it

down. There's been a rough day, a bit of the day of the day. This, this fascination has grown, has been cross cultural. The Greeks, the Chinese Egyptians, all tried to use magnets. Usually the same naturally occurring loadstone form of magnet for something Aristotle tried it for pain, just kind of put these magnets on you. Maybe your disease is metal. A Chinese mentioned it in their pharmacopias for many different ailments. A lot of this was based on the idea that if magnets pull on metal, maybe they pull on

disease. Yes, also we don't know what germs. We don't know what germs are. We don't know what disease really is. For all their new diseases were made of metal. Well, maybe they're predicting nanobots someday when all diseases caused by nanobots that are wiping out the planet, you will be happy for magnetized medicine because that is the only thing that will be able to stop them

because it'll rip them from your body forcefully through every poor of your skin. That's probably not a good way to do it. poor of your skin. That's probably not a good way to do it. You mentioned the Chinese, it's funny you should say that because I, this is one of my very few additions. We talked in the eternal life episode about Alex Chiu, the guy who made the eternal life rings. Yes. And those were based on, those have, those were neodymium magnets in rings. Yes. And those were based on those have those were neodymium magnets in rings. That's what he was using. So he said he was basing it off of Chinese medicine. So it was off of these practices that he created his eternal life rings and foot braces. So really sound medical

basis. Old at least. Really old medical grounding. Now I refuse to respect your elders in the same way that Alex Tudas. Well, I mentioning them. That's true. You're giving them a passing. Giving them credit for this bad idea.

Passing nod in our podcast. So they tried to attract disease out of the body and they thought it probably had something to do with fluids in the body and forces in the body and why not respond to magnets? We don't know what else they would respond to. Cleopatra was into this. Oh yeah.

She wore a magnet on her forehead, some say to bed, others say just all the time. One way or another, she wore it on her forehead to maintain her beauty and her skin. What's it thought? I bet she made that look work though. I bet by the end of the year everybody was wearing magnets. Couldn't even find one. Which I wonder what the magnets really looked like at the time because we're talking about pieces of rock. Just think they found right? They probably did not make magnets. No, I mean, it's not like something that says like,

everything's great and Oklahoma or whatever. I'm fairly sure. I'm fairly sure. Moreover, how did she get a district to her head? Did they, what they have glue to? Man, this is a great country. I'm surprised they didn't even have more. Some sort of band. Perhaps.

They were all so, everything's great, Oklahoma, sweatpants. I'm surprised it didn't even work sort of banned perhaps Everything's great no go home sweat pants And sorry is it everything's great in Oklahoma They did not go with okay Everything's great in Oklahoma's what the magnet said if you were to read the magnet that you came up with Outlaw was this day? Were you with the Disney for longer than me like before I got there? Look, I don't design magnets. I never claimed to be a magnet expert. I don't know. Oklahoma, are you looking for a state motto? Maybe try it out. Maybe try everything's great. Some people. Do you know what's better than okay, great.

Great is, yeah, finally, they're going for the gusto. No crap. Some people said she wore it to help her sleep. And then there's this great theory that I read based on that, that, oh, perhaps it stimulated the pineyoglan to release one of Justin's favorite substances, melatonin. Yeah, I take that every night. I do not know of any research that says magnets will force you to release more melatonin,

or that melatonin is magnetic in any way, but that was one theory. It was also in the same time period, the Romans were advising it for gout magnets. For eye diseases, the French were using it for gout, magnets, for eye diseases. The French were using it for headaches soon thereafter. But one of our favorite medical figures throughout history. My boy, Plenty. Plenty. He had something to say about it. Plenty said, you know what? Plenty the elder. Plenty the elder. Yeah, not the younger. Don't get it. He's John. I don't know what Plenty the younger did, Plenty of the elder. Yeah, not the younger. Don't get it twisted. He's John. I don't know what Plenty of the younger did, but it wasn't as impressive.

You can read about that. I'm sure it's on the internet. Yeah. So, Plenty of the elder said, you know, maybe we could actually instead of just holding magnets against our bodies and hoping that they're doing something internally, what if we pulverize some of these magnets And again, we're just kind of talking about stone and then put it all over any burns we have I don't I mean

Sure, you could try it plenty. I don't know what you're going for. I don't know. There's no evidence that pulverized magnets are good Treatment for burn burns. Don't do that. Yeah. Don't use that on burns, but that was plenty's idea. It was at least original. Yeah. But when we're talking about the history of magnets in the 16th century, it was a Swiss physician Paracelsus who really kind of made magnets popular and with in a lasting sense that keeps it around today. Okay.

So he brought it back into style using it for, I mean, all kinds of different diseases. Everything that had been used for before mainly pain complaints. Again, just by putting, you know, pieces of loadstone up against your body in different places that hurt. Also, you could crush it up and put it in some water and then drink it. Oh, that seems like that could be really unhealthy. That does seem like a really bad idea and that was the treatment for poisoning. Which seems like it would poison you.

More, yeah, what with the magnet dust and everything. Right, you'd get more poison from it. You could also use that to cure baldness. Like a woolly willy. Just dragging up there. That's what I thought maybe you could hold a magnet every ahead and wait for the hair to come up. Sure, yeah. Or muscle spasms. That would hopefully be a topical application and not something you would drink. Yeah. I think the less magnets we can drink, the better.

He threw in there too, ulcerations, diseases of the bowel and uterus in internal as well as external disease, which pretty much covers all disease, I think. Diseases either internal or external. I don't know if a third option. No. Spiritual. Spiritual disease.

In between disease, the middle, middle, I don't know. That's it. So, the way he thought that they worked is that they were kind of moving into like the humerus now. Sure. Well, I mean, we've been in the he, I should say this. By this point, we are well into humor theory. But instead of the idea that it just pulled disease out of the body, we thought magnets

could kind of push fluids around to balance out the humors. So one popular use that Paraselsus advised was for hysteria. Which we've established in previous episodes is not necessarily a thing that existed in Israel. No, it wasn't a thing. It was a name used. And there's a whole episode we did on this, but just to remind you, hysteria was a term we use for women behaving in any way that men didn't think they should behave. It was to keep your rumor in line, basically. Yeah. When your room room got out of line. When you're what now? When your room room, your room room, women got out of line.

Are you okay over there? You're a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a in behind hysteria was that your uterus is moving all over the place and just driving you crazy. Get back here, uterus. So you could use a magnet both above and below the uterus, like one up around your head and one kind of between your legs and use them to position the uterus back, back where it needed to be. Like many popular fair games. This is what I thought. I see like that or maybe like a challenge on double dare, like a physical challenge. Like, I have a giant body and there's a uterus floating around and one kid's on the top of the magnet and the other kid's on the bottom

and they're trying to pull the uterus into place. Mark kids that can get the uterus back into place are gonna go home with a Sony Walkman. I was up in the Casio keyboard. And a Casio keyboard also. All right, I get BK Nights. And BK Nights, and a trip to space camp. This is the best episode ever.

They're never gonna make it though. They won't, they're gonna get stuck on that, just trying to find the uterus in that giant waffle. They're never gonna make it up that fly. That's the problem. So you could use it for hysteria. You could also use it. Let's say somebody has epilepsy. They thought it had to do with too much fluid of some sort in the brain.

So you could use it to kind of push fluid out of the brain. Again, I guess this isn't a particularly dangerous treatment. If you consider some of the other stuff that was going on at the time. We could do worse and we have. We could do worse and we have. We could much worse. Because you're just holding magnets above the head, like get out of there, fluid, fix the seizures. The court physicians for Elizabeth I and later on Charles II both used magnets on their

royal clients as well as wrote texts recommending them for the general public. Super fashionable. So they use them for pain and for sleep, for inflammation, also for bleeding. Again, I'm not sure that that would work. I wonder at the time though, if you pulverize something and kind of make it into a powder, if it's some kind of stone, and then you've got it open wound that's bleeding and you just put it in there, you're going to absorb some of that. I mean, maybe they were stopping bleeding. I mean, but part of it could have just been pressure. Yeah.

Put all this stone here and then wrap this bandage around it, hold it in place. Yeah. If your control group is just a guy bleeding, like it's certainly going to be better than that, dude. Anybody who didn't die from any kind of wound was pretty much a success story back then. It's like, you lived, we went, magnets. Magnets, that was it.

The whole time we figured it out. Close the books on medicine. There was a German physician later who advised that you mix it with milk, any kind of magnetic like dust that you can make into a fluid, put it in some water, dissolve it or just dilute it, mix it with milk and drink it for a demon. So swelling, which I think I'd rather just be swollen personally. It seems like we don't get particularly creative with magnets.

It's sort of like crushing up, eat it, rub it on you. We think they're magic. Maybe they are. Or we don't just like, do something with magnets. We really had no idea other than that they seemed really cool. And so we really wanted them to have something to do with medicine. Right. That makes perfect sense.

There were two physicians, Stokes and Bell, who were pretty famous for a variety of bells palsy For instance, Cheyenne stokes respirations. You don't know these references. There are people out there who get them though. Yeah Anyway, they've got congrats you too. They've got stuff named after them. They're famous. Got it So they treated I like this because they treated one patient shoulder pain This is in their literature with a 20 pound magnet and they thought that that cured it. I just love the idea of two really famous, brilliant physicians standing there with a 20 pound magnet on some guy's shoulder just like, hold still. It will work.

It will work. It will work. It will work. You're going to feel so much better. I do feel better now that you've taken the magnet off because it weighed 20 pounds. Hold still. Around the same time, we've already done an entire episode on him. So I'll just throw in there.

One of the most popular proponents of magnetism was Mesmer. Oh, Mesmer. Creators, the thinnest excuse for a dirty, dirty orgy who had ever lived. A lot of his theories with, I mean, he tried magnets, just using them on people. And then he also put people in magnetized baths. And we talked about that, but this made it a lot more popular.

And in the US in the 1880s and 1890s, of course, this was the patent medicine era. So we're talking about all kinds of product opportunities with magnets. So as magnets spread across to the US, we were basically putting them into any kinds of jewelry or clothing, anything you could wear, hat, shirts, pants, dressers. And where we could fit a magnet. Underwear, anywhere you could put a magnet,

put it in there, sell it to people. There was one magnetic outfit that was sold at the time and colliers that had 700 magnets sewn into it in various places. I saw Lady Gaga wearing that at the VMAs. Lady Gaga would totally wear that. We totally wear that. Alfa made a magnet. There was also in 1890, Daniel David Palmer, open Palmer School of Magnetic Therapy in Iowa. It's a short program where he walks to the front of the class and says,

I'll put a magnet on it. Everybody goes, oh, okay, that'll be $300. Here's your diploma. If you've ever heard the name Daniel David Palmer, it's because he later went on to invent chiropractic medicine. Abandoned the magnets. He started with a magnetic school and then he built a chiropractic school onto it And then eventually said, you know, I don't know that this magnet thing is working so well

Maybe I should stick with the thing that I'm gonna do the magnet game. I'm gonna stick with chiropractic medicine So that that's the inventor of chiropractic medicine, which is kind of neat In the 1940s, so we're moving way into the future Magnet therapy became very popular in Japan and And that is really where a lot of the research that was done and a lot of what is popular today kind of started. They started using it in conjunction with acupuncture and then on its own putting magnets in knee pads, shoulder pads for various pain complaints. That's where we started to see all the magnetic bracelets and necklaces that you've probably

you can find online. I found ads for them the entire time I was trying to research this topic. Every page had an ad for a magnetic bracelet. I'm going to be getting those for every now or not. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of emails. I should have researched it on your computer. So how did we use them, Sid?

Well, I'd love to tell you about that Justin, but unfortunately, you're going to have to visit our billing department again first because you OS a pretty hefty sum. Wow. That education really adds up. All right, let's head over to the billing department real quick. All right, that's it. I've paid my dues. Sydney. How how do magnets work? I guess how do we use magnets? Margarly. Yeah, let's try that. So you want to know how we use magnets? Well, there's nobody actually knows how magnets work. PS we can all have a hearty chuckle at our friends in the insane clown posse. If I were to sit you down and say, hey, how do magnets work actually spell it out for me? 95% of you would say, well, you know,

metal and the North Pole. And I have things that circle around other things. A imaginary picture of a lightning bolt. I've seen in diagrams. I think there are people with degrees in physics. You know how I'm saying there are people. I'm saying that by and large we don't we we're too hard on them. I explained that when I was in college and undergraduate studies and I took those classes, I understood how magnets work, but I'm a biology major and I'm a doctor and so I've conveniently forgotten. Okay. Swarny Pants. Tell me. So I'll tell you about fake magnet medicine. Tell me.

So, there are static magnets, and that is what you're largely seeing. If somebody's trying to sell you like a magnet bracelet or a mattress lined with magnets, that's out there. You can buy those. Sure. A mattress lined with magnets. What they're talking about are static magnets. So basically what they're saying is, you're going gonna put this magnet on a part of your body,

or they're gonna embed it in like a band or something like a little encapsulated magnet that you'll wear or that you'll lay on, or that you'll lay on you. And it's going to apply some sort of force to your body to improve what they usually say is blood flow and circulation. That's usually what you'll read

is they're trying to improve blood flow to that part of the body. Now, to give you an idea of how strong these magnets are, they were trying, these are the things that are commercially sold. So the strength of a magnet can range anywhere from 200 to 10,000 gauze is the unit that you measure the magnets in,

and 10,000 gauze equals a Tesla. The point is for a good reference. All those magnets on our fridge, so your usual fridge magnet is about 200 gouse. That's about how strong that magnet is. So now you have a gauge. The magnets that you use in all these commercial products in medicine are somewhere between 408 hundred gouse usually. So like four fridge magnets?

Yes. Two to four fridge magnets. So like four fridge magnets. Yes. Two to four fridge magnets. Two to four fridge magnets of string. All right. As you can imagine, that doesn't. That's what it does. It's used that as a measurement instead of all this gauze nonsense but the hand.

Fridge magnets. How many, everything's great in Oklahoma magnets. When do you have to use the cureoretic? So some of the magnets are unipolar, which can be confusing. I don't actually mean they only have one pole. I mean, they have one pole at one end and one pole at the other.

So a North and a South end. Okay. Which seems like it should be bipolar to me, but it's not. Bipolar magnets are like a sheet of magnet that have alternating North and South poles all across them. So the current is weaker because they're next to each other.

Okay, you get that. Got it. These are done at home. These are commercially sold. And again, the theory is that they're gonna attract the blood flow based on the iron and your hemoglobin and your blood and you're gonna poll blood towards things. But as-

Okay, so does it, I mean does it? Well, when you stand close to the fridge, I feel- Do you feel the pull of your blood? I mean, I feel better, but you need to be in that direction. I'm moving in that direction. I'm moving in that direction.

I'm moving in that direction. I'm moving in that direction. I'm moving in that direction. I'm moving in that direction. I'm moving in that direction. I'm moving in that direction. I'm moving in that direction. I'm moving in that direction.

I'm moving in that direction. I'm moving in that direction. I'm moving in that direction. I'm moving in that direction. I'm moving in that direction. I'm moving in that direction. I'm moving in that direction. this made sense, it should like suck the blood to like the front of your body. Like to your hand as you reach for the fridge, your hand should be come engorged with blood. I do get excited right before I open the fridge, but I think it's just fact-kid jitters. What am I gonna get? I don't know.

I have three kinds of cheesecakes in here. We do. We do have three cakes. We gotta hurry, I gotta get to that cheesecake. Pregnancy has its benefits. There's also, there's also more complicated magnets that they use, moving magnetic fields and something called pulsed electromagnetic therapy, which is sort of related to this, but actually kind of real in some settings.

So I'm not going to get into that. But there's related therapies such as that, that and transcranial magnetic stimulation that use magnets similarly, but not exactly the same. So, most of what you're buying over the counter or online are the static magnets, and there is, so the evidence for this is that they do not work in any way. The evidence is that there is not evidence. The evidence is that there is not evidence.

They're not strong enough to attract iron in your blood. There's no effect on blood flow and circulation whatsoever. There's been subjective evidence of pain relief. So people have they've done small studies and said, yeah, I think I might feel better with this magnum on. But the problem is a lot of the studies are very small. They're not well randomized. So there are differences between the study groups that could account for their differences and results. They're also not well-blinded, which means that, so, you know, if you give somebody a placebo pill and you give the other group the real pill, most of the time they can't tell which one they're taking, right?

Right, because it's just a pill. Yeah, it's just a pill. Well, most people can figure out if a magnet's real or not. Oh, that's true. If you send them home with a magnetic bracelet, they could probably piece together if it's really a magnetic bracelet. Yeah, that's a very good point. Which really throws off the results,

or are any of these really blinded studies? That's a good point. Yeah, magnets are to fake. So there's not really good evidence. Like I mentioned, there are these things, pulse-electromagnetic fields that can help in the healing of fractures. Transcranial magnetic stimulation is now approved

by the FDA for depression and migraines, although that's still controversial. The important thing you need to know about this stuff is that if there is somebody online who's trying to sell you something to create an electromagnetic field, don't buy it. None of this stuff is for home use. It's not strong enough. It's fake. All the things.

It's me on Shark Tank trying to get a deal. Yes. Exactly. Like we're going on Shark Tank trying to get a deal. Yes. Exactly. Like we're going on Shark Tank. That stuff's not real. I'm not saying that there aren't uses for this in the medical field and I'm not saying that there isn't research that's ongoing that shows some possibilities, but the stuff you're buying on the internet is not real.

Don't do that. I mean, it's real and then it's physical and tangible, but like it's not going to help. Now, if you're buying something that says Paul's electro-magnetic field something and that they have evidence that it works to heal fractures, yes, but not what they're selling you online. I mean, it's not gonna hurt you, right? No, that's the thing about magnets is that, do they hurt you?

I probably know. I mean, how do they hurt you? You waste your money. If you're using them in place of other treatments, they do hurt you and that's one thing the American Cancer Society would like to remind you There are people out there who will tell you that it cures cancer Bad bad people and it does not it does not cure cancer. There's no proven benefit

They're probably harmless unless you're using them in place of real cancer treatment, right? There is a one funny thing I found a Magnetic water wand How does that work? So it's a stainless steel wand with a ball on one end. And then you just kind of stir it around in your cold water for 10 minutes, and then you drink the water.

Okay. It faces your allergies. Does it? No. No, it does, okay, it doesn't. I mean, obviously it doesn't, but. But people who are fans of it like to point out that it is stainless steel, which is gorgeous.

It's fully stainless steel, which also accounts for the fact it was like 14 pounds or so. Oh my gosh. Which is a UK product, so not in weight and price. Listen, we don't. The monetary unit. We tried to not like, we tried to not harp too hard on modern,

like things that people are still doing because we don't want this to be a controversial show. It should be fun for everybody to listen to. But like, you have to take a moment when you're using magnets the exact same way that people use them 3000 years ago. Like, I don't know, put a magnet on it. You have to take stock.

You have to just take out like a second to say, like, wait a minute. It seems like we're just kind of guessing like those all that dooted. And this is usually it. If people are trying to sell you something before there's evidence for it, that's not how medicine works. We prove that something works first. And then we start actually, you know, prescribing it and charging money for it, that's not how medicine works. We prove that something works first, and then we start actually prescribing it and charging money for it.

We don't sell it on the internet in mattresses and bracelets and 700 magnet suits, and then figure out if it works or not. That's not how science works. The stuff online is largely fake. There are some studies that show maybe there's more to magnets than we knew, but it's not as simple as taking a fridge magnet and putting it on your tennis elbow. It's obviously much more complicated than then. Hopefully, we all know that the human body is a little more complex than being affected by a refrigerator magnet.

We would hope. Now, we certainly do use MRI machines today, which do use magnetic fields to take very detailed pictures of the body. That's different. Well, it's a diagnostic technique. And maybe someday I'll be saying, you know what, we found that there are electromagnetic fields that really cure this, that, or whatever. But right now, we don't have that evidence. And again, the stuff you're buying online is not going to help. Well folks, that's going to do it for us. Thank you so much for listening. As always, it's been such a treat. Wanna take a quick second to tell you folks,

if you're a fan of Max Fun at all and the stuff we're doing, Max Fun is putting on a cruise for the second time, it's their Atlantic Ocean Comedy and Music Festival. This is the second one. They had a great time last year. They're gonna set self-import Canaveral for three nights in the Bahamas.

I don't know, I don't know, July 25th to the 28th. They've got a ton of great people that are going, Greg Bernhardt, W. Camel Bell, Chris Fairbanks, Moche Cacher, Karing Kilgarov, sorry, my screens a little tilted here. Let me tell you what it's about. They are Kyle Kanane, Natasha Legare, Morganoshcatcher, Karen Kilgarif, sorry, my screens a little tilted here. Let me tell you what I'm talking about. They're Kyle Kanane, Natasha Legara, Morgan Murphy, John Roderick, like a ton of people. And there's like, Pupquiz, there's Shuffleboard, and there's a ton of fun.

I mean, we won't be there because... Stupid baby. We will be expecting the imminent birth of our child. Are you these baby Cat ruin? Go over to head over to BoatBarty.biz and get your tickets now because it's gonna be a blast and you'll have a lot of fun. Trust us. Don't miss out. I think it's gonna do for us. Go to iTunes. Go to iTunes if you wanna review our show.

Thank you everybody who's been tweeting about us on Twitter. Yes, you're great. And everywhere else were you tweets. Yeah, every, wherever you're putting your tweets. That you're tweeting. If it's not on Twitter, you're probably doing it wrong. Yeah, that's a common, common, little tech advice. Grandma, if it's not on Twitter, never mind.

We'll talk about it at the end. If they are on Twitter, it ain't a tweet. That's why I used to like them for Twitter. We're really, we're crashing at it. Yeah, this is a little day. Everything's great in Oklahoma. Seriously, empty bites, all bones. Thank you so, so much for listening.

You're the best. And make sure you join us again next Tuesday for another episode of Zalbons, until then, I'm just a Macaroid. I'm Sydney Macaroid. And as always, don't go holy your head. Alright! Maximumfund.org Comedy and Culture, Artistone, Listener Supported

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