Magnetic therapy is becoming a popular cure-all for a range of ailments from stress to backache. Martin Whittaker wonders what's the attraction?

Head teacher Colin Culley used to suffer from a nagging pain in his wrist. Now he says the pain has gone. And the stress of running a big primary school no longer keeps him awake at night. He attributes his new-found sense of wellbeing to a small but powerful magnet which keeps strapped to his wrist. It looks just like a watch, but it's worn the other way around so the magnet lies against the pulse. He is one of the growing number of people practising magnotherapy - a controversial alternative therapy which claims to use magnetic fields to aid healing. Those who espouse it - and they include GPs - believe it can alleviate pain and stress in a range of ailments. But others in the medical profession dismiss magnotherapy and put its apparent successes down to the placebo effect. Mr Culley, head of Malton school in North Yorkshire, is an enthusiastic convert. His wife Sandra - a former...

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