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J Appl Physiol (December 28, 2006). doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00734.2006
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Submitted on June 30, 2006
Accepted on December 26, 2006

Influence of Static Magnetic Fields on Pain Perception and Sympathetic Nerve Activity in Humans

Nathan T Kuipers1, Charity L. Sauder1, and Chester A. Ray1*

1 Heart & Vascular Institute, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: caray{at}psu.edu.

Static and pulsed magnetic fields have been reported to have a variety of physiological effects. However, the effect of static magnetic fields on pain perception and sympathetic function is equivocal. To address this question we measured pain perception during reproducible noxious stimuli during acute exposure to static magnets. Pain perception, muscle sympathetic nerve activity, mean arterial pressure, heart rate, and forearm blood velocity were measured during rest, isometric handgrip, postexercise muscle ischemia and cold pressor test during magnet and placebo exposure in fifteen subjects (25±1 years; 8 men and 7 women) following 1 hour of exposure. During magnet exposure subjects were placed on a mattress with ninety-five evenly spaced 0.06 T magnets imbedded in it. During placebo exposure, subjects were placed on an identical mattress without magnets. The order of the two exposure conditions was randomized. At rest, no significant differences were noted in muscle sympathetic nerve activity (8±1 and 7±1 bursts/min for magnet and placebo, respectively), mean arterial pressure (91±3 and 93±3 mmHg), heart rate (63±2 and 62±2 beats/min), and forearm blood velocity (3.0±0.3 and 2.6±0.3 cm/s). Magnets did not alter pain perception during the three stimuli. During all interventions, no significant differences between exposure conditions were found in muscle sympathetic nerve activity and hemodynamic measurements. These results indicate that acute exposure to static magnetic fields does not alter pain perception, sympathetic function, and hemodynamics at rest nor during noxious stimuli.







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