Emerson was lucky to have come across a doctor who knows about tools like Magnatherm and the BIO-1000. Unlike their counterparts in Europe, most physicians in the United States either aren’t aware of electromagnetic therapies or tend to view them as moneymaking schemes hawked on late-night TV. But research suggests it’s time to start paying attention. Some of the newer technologies are performing well in double-blind placebo-controlled trials. And patients around the globe, particularly in Europe, are successfully being treated not just for pain, but for arthritis, multiple sclerosis, insomnia, depression, and migraines.

What makes these devices so remarkable is that they may eventually constitute a whole new type of medicine, according to the handful of U.S. experts who have embraced their use. “In the next decade, certain bioelectromagnetic therapies will likely replace drugs once they’re found to be safer and more effective for various conditions,�?says Paul J. Rosch, a clinical professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College and senior editor of the book Bioelectromagnetic Medicine.

Admittedly, it’s a hard field to get a handle on, partly because there are so many devices out there—from the unit you buy on your own and strap around your wrist to the one as big as a washing machine you have to visit your doctor to use. Some of the devices send out pulsed fields; others, constant ones. Some emit electromagnetic fields strong enough to power a light bulb, whereas others are very mild.

And it’s true that scientists don’t fully understand how electromagnetic devices affect the diseases they’re designed to treat. Theories vary from device to device and condition to condition, but Abraham R. Liboff, a researcher in the field and a physics professor at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, says it all boils down to good communication—among cells, that is. “Communication is one of cells�?key functions, and the way they talk to each other can be chemical or electrical,�?he says. “Electromagnetic fields affect the nature of the way cells signal each other.�?

Yet it’s still not clear exactly how helping cells communicate would trigger the many effects reportedly seen when bodies are exposed to electromagnetic fields, including increased blood flow, spikes in the levels of brain chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin, and ramped-up production of the energy molecule ATP. One theory is that the energy creates heat deep in the muscles, which gooses blood flow into the joint, improving oxygen delivery and carting off toxins that have built up in the inflamed areas.

Another reason the devices have been slow to win acceptance is the field’s unsavory reputation. Although electricity and magnets have a long history in medicine (one of the earliest references is from 46 A.D., when a Roman physician described treating headache patients by having them stand in shallow water alongside electric rays), much of it hasn’t exactly been grounded in hard science.

In one of the most infamous cases, a group of eminent 18th-century thinkers that included Benjamin Franklin exposed the popular Austrian doctor Franz Mesmer as a fraud. Well-to-do Parisians had been flocking to Mesmer’s “magnetic healing salon,�?but the group’s experiments found that the doctor’s results, which he attributed to his own “animal magnetism,�?were in fact due to the placebo effect.

Even today, some manufacturers of electromagnetic devices say their product can cure anything that ails you—without offering any credible support for their claims. Marko Markov, a physicist and coeditor of Bioelectromagnetic Medicine, puts it bluntly: “If you go to Google and type in ‘magnetic field therapy,�?you’ll get hundreds, if not thousands, of websites, of which 99.99 percent offer information that is misleading or wrong,�?he says. “If I had the power, I’d put all these people in jail.�?

But while even Bonakdar acknowledges there are some bad apples out there, he says research supporting the good ones is starting to pile up. In studies published in reputable journals, like Sleep and Bioelectromagnetics, electromagnetic devices helped chronic insomniacs fall asleep faster and sleep longer and more deeply than those given fake treatments. A technique known as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is showing promise in treating people with severe depression that doesn’t respond to medication. In some studies, patients receiving rTMS have fared just as well as those getting shock therapy, a last-ditch treatment.

Multiple studies have shown that a technology known as Pulsed Signal Therapy can decrease the pain of arthritis, perhaps by rebuilding cartilage. And another device, known as the EnerMed, has eased symptoms of migraine and multiple sclerosis in five studies involving a total of more than 700 people.

Unfortunately, what sets these devices apart from the ones that make quack watchers�?lists isn’t easy to determine. The only way to evaluate safety and efficacy, says Rosch, is to study a particular device for a particular condition. So acceptance of this approach to healing will likely happen on a case-by-case basis.

One researcher who’s studied the EnerMed extensively, radiology professor Todd Richards of the University of Washington in Seattle, says he’s been impressed with study findings, but was even more convinced by his own experience with the device. Ten years ago, Richards began getting migraines, particularly after eating certain foods, or when he sat under various types of lights (especially fluorescent ones), or worked near particular pieces of computer equipment.

The migraines announced themselves with flashing, swirling lights in one corner of his field of vision, or sometimes with a sudden darkening of half his range of vision. “I would be looking at somebody and all of a sudden I could only see half the person’s face—the rest was black,�?he says. “I knew what was coming. I would excuse myself and go take massive doses of medication.�?/FONT>