One of these methods is magnet therapy. Magnet therapy is actually not something new. As early as 2000 BC, magnet healing was already used in Chinese, and other early civilizations. There are historical records showing the use magnetic therapy in Egyptian, Indian and Greek civilizations. With magnet therapy, the body is thought to be controlled by magnetic fields. There are different forms of magnetic healing products to suit the different parts of the body which suffer from arthritis. There are bracelets, rings and wraps and foot insoles that can be used daily. There are also magnetic mattresses and head pads which can be used while at home. If you are still figuring out if magnetic therapy is something you would like to try, I suggest you start with a basic product like a magnetic bracelet or wrap. Magnet polarity One of the most obvious characteristics of a magnet is its polarity, the south (positive) and the north (negative) poles. The Chinese also associate the poles with their traditional yin and yang, where the north pole is the yin and the south pole is the yang. Accordingly, the north pole (negative yin) is traditionally attributed as cooling and sedating and is associated to heal low back pain, arthritis, inflammation, headaches, and sharp pains. Household magnets, like those in fridge, only have 10 gauss (used in measuring magnet power). What we use in magnet healing is magnets with 400 to 1000 gauss. We need to use stronger magnets since it is important to reach organs and different elements like boron, cobalt and samarium. With magnetic healing, the magnets are in close contact with the problem area. Magnetic therapy today In Japan and other Asian countries, therapeutic magnets are licensed as medical devices. There is growing popularity in the use of magnet therapy in such countries as Australia, Russia, Germany and many other European countries. Lately, western medicine had used magnetic energy for diagnosis with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and as an alternative method of accelerating the healing of bone fractures. Suspending the magnet on a thread and waiting for its ends to point somewhere is the easiest way to identify the poles. (The north-pointing end is the North Pole and the opposite should be the South Pole.) Characteristics of magnets Flat ceramic or neodymium magnets are the best therapeutic magnets. (U-shaped magnets are not very good for therapy.