Though using magnets to heal the human body is a practice dating back several thousand years, only now has medical science gotten around to documenting its medicinal potential in laboratory tests.

The following positive study results prompted the British National Health Service in 2006 to include magnet therapy devices in its health care policy coverage:

--The Journal Of Wound Care published a study in February 2005 that followed 289 patients with leg ulcers who used a magnetic device instead of drugs; 211 of them reported their ulcers had disappeared, and after a year there had been no recurrence. Apparently the magnets stimulate blood circulation.

--A study conducted at the Institute of Neurology in London discovered that magnets may be useful in the rehabilitation of stroke victims. Once again, there was some indication that magnets can stimulate the brain's blood circulation in ways that drugs cannot, with another advantage being that, unlike pharmaceuticals, magnets have no discernible side effects.