Practitioner Education for Q magnet Application
Message from Dianne Hermans B.Phty
Principal Clinical Educator. March 2010.
As a treatment modality, Q magnets are used as an effective adjunct in treating both acute and chronic pain, chronic dysfunction and fracture healing.
Image below: A Q magnet as seen through a green magnet viewer:
The single magnetic body has been magnetised with four alternating quadrants. While the precise mechanism of action is unknown, studies have shown that the most biologically effective region is located at the boundary between adjacent poles (Engstrom et al., 2002; McLean et al., 2002), where the field gradient is steepest.
Looking through the magnet viewer, the boundary between the poles is clearly visible from 6-12 and 3-9. The greatest physiologic effect is achieved when the nerve travels under the length of the boundary, this is why placement and neural anatomy is critical for reliable outcomes.
In vitro studies suggest that the spatial variation of the inhomogeneous magnetic field (i.e. the field gradient) is the principal cause of action potential blockade in dorsal root ganglia (Cavopol et al., 1995; McLean et al., 1995). See here for more research articles on magnetic therapy.
Common bipolar magnets have a uniform magnetic field and negligible field gradient and hence do not share the same therapeutic effect as quadrapolar. To produce a significant physiological and neurological effect with static magnets it requires both a strong magnetic flux density to penetrate into the tissue and for the field to envelope the target structures and a quadrapolar array. Q magnets have achieved both these features while maintaining a small device with our innovative design that is extremely powerful and comfortable to wear.
ACUTE PAIN:
Place the devices directly over the injured area. This might include haematomas, sprains, strains and any type of pain. 
The image to the left shows a corked thigh the day after two Q magnets were applied over night. A number of professional sports teams such as Super14's Western Force have reported improved healing times of haematomas of a day or two since using Q magnet therapy.
General outpatients may not see the cost benefit of investing in their own Q magnet devices for an acute injury. However for the professional athlete, one or two days can make or break a performance. With proper care, Q magnets will last for decades, so used over the life of the device, they are very cost effective.
Another common application for Q magnets is placing them over the wisdom teeth nerve root immediately after extraction. In every case we have seen, there has been no pain or swelling post surgery. This observation and the effect on haematomas supports the premise that the therapeutic effect of Q magnets involves much more than placebo.
An athlete knows their body better than anyone and champions like the Brisbane Lion's Simon Black, who is currently the most decorated player playing AFL today has been using Q magnets to self treat for at least two years. Here is a one minute excerpt of an interview with Simon discussing how he uses and finds Q magnet therapy.
CHRONIC PAIN:
For chronic pain it's important to treat the original injury and follow the dermatomes back to the nerve root. Due to communication through propriospinal intersegmental neurons, often devices will need to be placed on multiple levels. The image below shows a common LBP placement centrally on L2/3, L4/5 and S2.
"Central sensitisation corresponds to an enhancement in the functional status of neurons and circuits in nocioceptive pathways throughout the neuraxis caused by increases in membrane excitability, synaptic efficacy, or a reduced inhibition. The target of treatment for central sensitisation must be the CNS and not the periphery" (Latremoliere & Woolf., 2009).
The functional state of neurons is defined by the electrical potential across the cell membrane. Ion channels are responsible for maintaining the resting membrane potential and for eliciting action potentials.
The research suggests that the most likely mechanism of action is that the steep field gradients generated by the Quadrapolar magnetic field is altering nerve excitability as a result of changes in membrane permeability to sodium and calcium ions (McLean et al., 1995; Cavopol et al., 1995). The quadrapolar array only works on abnormally firing action potentials so it is important to find the correct placement where these faulty action potentials are generated.
Clinicians experienced with using Q magnets as an adjunct with therapy report achieving significant clinical outcomes in around 80% of the cases treated.
CHRONIC DYSFUNCTION:
Different disciplines advance through gifted practitioners. One such therapist is Sports Physiotherapist Peter Stanton who was the team physio for the AFL's Brisbane Lions while they dominated the national competition from 2001-03. Peter has taken a new technology in Q magnets and developed innovative methods to apply them that dramatically enhance the treatment outcomes for athletes.
Below is a short excerpt of an hour in-service DVD of Peter's assessment and application of Q magnet therapy in treating somatic dysfunction. Using Q magnets as an adjunct in therapy reduces pelvic instability treatment times by at least two weeks and during treatment the athlete is able to maintain much greater levels of activity. By placing the neuromagnetic devices over the correct spinal segments, the athlete is able to perform after treatment without reverting back to their dysfunctional movement patterns.
This hour in-service is available as a training DVD with your Level C order. Contact us for practitioner pricing.
FRACTURE HEALING:
Q magnets can be simply applied over the fracture site, they can be inserted into the plaster cast or taped to the outside. This Italian study Treatment of wrist and hand fractures with natural
magnets, reported up to a 47% reduction in relative healing times of carpal scaphoid fracture. This case study of a tibia stress fracture from a competitive marathon runner who also happened to be a plastic surgeon is also very compelling.
There are important principles to follow for Q magnet application:
1. Apply the devices using our double sided adhesive (QFixPro), sports tape such as Fixomull™ (Cover-Roll™ in US) or place them under or sew them into braces or wraps.
2. When using two or more devices keep them separated by at least the width of the device, which is 28mm for the ProQ. In addition, ensure that the orientation arrows are always aligned and pointing up toward the head of the patient. If the devices get too close or are not aligned, their fields will interfere with each other and flatten out the gradient so that they will lose their therapeutic effect.
3. For acute injuries, they should be worn constantly until recovered. For chronic conditions, generally the longer the pain, the longer they will need to be worn. In some cases they might need to be worn for many months or years, they may be able to be weaned off over time and in other cases they may be worn only at night with a carry over effect during the day. As with most chronic pain cases, the pathophysiology is complex and often varied.
4. If they are going to work on a patient with a particular condition and they have been placed over the correct nerves, you should see a decrease in pain and increase in ROM in a matter of minutes and in some cases immediately. Some therapists use Q magnets diagnostically, if they don't work as expected there may be mechanical compression or pathology that requires further investigation.
5. For difficult cases, Q magnet therapy may be combined with different electrotherapy such as TENS. Simply apply the Q magnet device over the TENS pad and secure with tape or a wrap. The static magnetic field combines with the TENS electromagnetic field and since TENS works most effectively on myelinated nerves and Q magnets on nonmyelinated, a synergistic effect is sometimes achieved.
The neurologist who pioneered the early work with Quadrapolar magnets, Dr Robert Holcomb used almost exclusively these devices at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre to successfully treat the most complex pain patients from right across the USA. Dr Holcomb was featured on a number of TV programs which can be seen here. A number of these cases were published, such as these in Pediatric Neurology. The fact that Dr Holcomb was able to achieve these sorts of outcomes provides a sound background. What then are the possibilities for experienced clinicians who are experts in movement dysfunction and who use Q magnets as adjunctive therapy in their treatment programs?
A well respected Sports Doctor put it this way. "In my opinion the role of most medical interventions, be they medication, bracing, cortisone or even surgery is to combine with appropriate rest to relieve pain so that functional movement may begin. Surgery may remove a pain source but functional movement and rehabilitation in a pain free environment is what leads to true long term recovery from dysfunction and prevention of recurrence."
Based on clinical experience I propose that Q magnets devices are one of the most dramatic electrotherapeutic modalities currently available to a clinician for pain relief. Only time, clinical trials and just as importantly, experienced clinical reasoning will validate this claim.
Thank you,
Dianne Hermans
